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I opened my eyes, confused and in pain. My head was forced into the headrest of the driver’s seat in front of me, but my back felt pressed against it too. Something cut into my arm. My legs were heavy and uncomfortable. I peered around the headrest to see a tree far too close to us.
We had crashed. The car following us ran us off the road.
"Isaac? Arabella? Alcor?" I asked. Everyone in the car looked crumbled together, at angles that couldn’t possibly be comfortable. Fear rose in my chest with the knowledge of how fragile humans were, even ones with powers.
Pain ripped through me making me breathless, but it wasn't my pain I felt.
Clawdia. I need to get to her.
Breathing through gritted teeth, I focused my mind, blocked out the pain as I used to many years ago, and forced myself to move. I grabbed the handle of the door and pulled it, then pushed lightly, then with more force as the door stayed closed. It rattled glass free from the window, which cut my arms and legs as it fell, but I ignored it.
I need to get out.
I managed to free my legs and use them to force the door open. Stumbling out of the car, I fought with the long grass as dizziness overtook me, and I fell to the ground on my hands and knees. I blinked and looked back at the crash. Smoke and metal. Blood and glass. My eyes blurred.
I bowed my head to the ground, hard soil against my forehead, as I closed my eyes and focused on breathing. Voices called from a distance, and I willed myself to move, believing they could have been the cause of the crash. But willpower had no effect on my trembling limbs.
Through the panic, I heard a distressed voice call, "Zaide?"
Charlie?
CHAPTER29
CHARLIE
Bloody hell.I let out a hiss of air as another blast of pain whooshed through me and my hands clenched around the steering wheel.The fucker hurting my girl is going to die. And I’m going to piss on his corpse. Whoever he is.
After waking to an empty apartment, I picked up the car keys and immediately got on the road, following my instincts to lead me to Clawdia. Her pain throbbed through our bond, and her fear made it hard to think. I didn’t know what happened or where Alcor or Zaide had gone. I just had to get to her as fast as I could.
Speeding down a long stretch of road, I slammed the brake as the car in front of me slowed down, flashing hazard lights.
“Wanker!” I yelled.I don’t have time for slowpokes.
But in the distance, I spotted the wreckage of an accident. The bumper was smashed into a tree trunk that sat in the thick grasses on the side of the road. Smoke rose up to touch the leaves on the tree. Debris covered the area; metal, glass and dirt scattered into the road.
Jesus, that looks bad.
The door on the scrunched-up car shot off as a giant survivor stumbled out. A flash of gold made me slow down. Something about the figure seemed familiar. It wasn’t until I was passing that I saw the white braid and realized it was Zaide.
What the fuck?I pulled over, almost crashing myself, before I jumped out of the car and ran over. “Zaide?” I called. He was on his knees, cut to ribbons and bleeding. "Christ, I almost drove past you," I muttered and rested my hand on his shoulders.
I looked up at the car and saw three other people trapped, unconscious, and covered in glass from the smashed windows. Another car pulled up on the side of the road as I was thinking about what to do next. The doors flung open and four people got out and jogged over.
“Isaac? Arabella?” a man called as he pulled at the door handle on the other side of the car.
“Who are you?” a woman asked.
“I’m his friend. But we’ve got to go. Are you okay to deal with this?” I asked.
She stared at me with hard eyes before nodding and turning to help the people trapped in the car.
Who are these people? Why was Zaide in the car with them? What happened while I was asleep?
I bent down to lift Zaide’s head off the ground. "Listen, I know you're probably feeling beyond shit, but we need to go. Clawdia needs us."
He blinked slowly at me. “Charlie. You should be asleep.”
“Mate, I wish I was.”
