Page 173 of Veil of Blood and Bone

My lungs shrink.

Shadows collect over the car, the creature on one side and a mountain of snow on the other.

I pound my fist against the glass. Any imprint of warmth around it disappears immediately.

“Why didn't we get one of those window breaking things? Those tools?” I grab the headrest and tug it free.

The metal prongs slide out of their sockets. But when I tap them on the window, nothing happens. They might as well be plastic.

My heart swells into the space left behind by my ribs, too large, too hot.

And the creature still smiles. Its head, his head, angles bizarrely to the side, like it’s hanging from a broken bone.

It knows we’re trapped in this metal beast like the remnants of a ribcage of some long-dead thing.

It knows we’re struggling.

I slam the headrest to the window and when it doesn’t crack, I move to the other side. There are too many things in the way, Audra included, to pull the seats down and escape out the trunk. What are the odds the trunk will open? It’s a finicky fuck on a good day, choosing to stay shut when I need it unlocked for groceries or book orders for the store.

“Helene, stop. Just stop.”

There’s no room for air inside my body. No room for anything except horror and fear and a dozen other emotions too powerful to name, only taste.

“We’re stuck,” Audra adds, her voice soft. “It’s okay.”

I swipe a frozen hand across my face and gasp, my tears solid drops of ice. “It’s not okay. I’m not ready.”

I’m not going to let my sister die in this fucking beater with the roll up windows. I’m not going to let her short and already grueling life, the bad hand she was dealt, be met with an end like this. It’s not fair.

A panic attack lands so sharp and potent it’s too late to do my box breathing or work on my five senses.

What would they be, anyway?

No matter where I look, I’m greeted with ice and death. Trees. Hungry, frosted looking monsters.

Audra shivers and hunches in on herself. “I love you. Helene, please, look at me. I love you so big. I'm sorry about what I said earlier.”

I glance over until our eyes hook, and she snags me.

“It was an honor living alongside you. Again, apparently.” Her smile clatters through me, broad and bright and final.

I shake my head. “No. No, I’m not saying goodbye, kid.”

“Sometimes you have to.”

Not this time, or anytime soon. I escaped to get her out of here and try to make the right choice. She deserves a chance to live her life.

Dammit, so do I. I fucking deserve it.

“I’m not accepting death. Never.”

Her eyes lure me in, those liquid pools of emotion.

“Yes, it’s been an honor. It really has. And I love you bigger.” I brush my hand over her cheek and grab the headrest again. “So let’s live the best fucking life we possibly can and kill this thing.”

Chapter 35

Forest