by Sierra Dean
He wrapped his arms around me, cupping my now-aching skull in one big hand.
We were both breathing raggedly and waiting.
“Rockslide?” I asked finally.
There was no way this was coincidence, not a chance it was merely nature rearing her ugly head at us. When the gods themselves had decided they were out for your blood, nothing that happened after was unplanned.
“We should be so lucky.” Then he realized what he’d said and let out a humorless laugh. “You should be so lucky.”
I rubbed the spot on my head where I’d hit the window, and while it stung to the touch, my fingers didn’t come away covered in blood. Things were looking up. For now.
“Think it’ll still drive?” Without getting out there was no way to tell how much damage the car had taken, and neither of us was going to climb out to have a look. The next rock that fell might make a pancake of us. At least the cage of the car offered a little protection.
I was suddenly happy I’d left my Mustang in Montana.
“I think we’re going to find out.” He undid his buckle and dropped me into the passenger seat, climbing into the driver’s spot. I didn’t argue. It was his car, and he knew how it worked a lot better than I did.
With the darkness of night thick around us it was impossible to see anything beyond the confines of the road itself. If something came at us, we would be well hidden beneath the shroud of darkness.
My heart was in my throat, pounding at a mile-a-minute pace while Cade shifted the car into drive and dropped the stick down to first gear. Please, may the gods protect us, I thought, before realizing how stupid it was.
The gods wouldn’t protect us. This was the gods coming for us.
I let out a shaky breath, and before buckling myself in I reached into the back once more and got Fen out of his carrier. He’d be safer in my arms than rolling around inside a plastic box. As soon as I was belted in, the little fennec burrowed into the crook of my arm, his entire body shaking with fear. So much for the big, tough-guy act he usually put on.
“It’s okay, buddy,” I whispered.
Cade hammered his foot down on the gas, and we shot forward, the body of the car shimmying slightly to let us know structural integrity was not at one hundred percent. But it was still moving, and for the time being that was all anyone in this car cared about.
Two more rocks, at least three feet wide through the middle, crashed down in front of us, blocking each lane of the road.
“Fuck.” Cade reacted with hair-trigger speed, yanking the wheel left and sending us onto the gravel edge once again. Beyond the guardrail was a sharp drop down into pure blackness. It might have been five feet or five hundred, but I didn’t want to find out.
He got past the rocks, only scraping my car door against one, and then steered us back into the center of the highway.
The Ourea have a taste for blood.
Badb had said that before giving me the bracelet, and now her words of warning were coming to fruition, because who else could be raining down rocks on us from the mountains?
“It’s the Ourea,” I said.
“No shit.”
He had evidently given up any hope of thinking this was all coincidence. His body was tense, muscles rigid as he fixed his eyes on the road. I was afraid to say anything else out of fear it might distract him and we’d end up super dead as a result. Bracelet or not, I wasn’t counting on getting out of this situation in one piece.
We were being attacked by the nine mountain goddesses—well, probably just one of them because if it was all nine we’d already be red smears on the asphalt—and we were on one of the longest stretches of mountainous road in the United States.
No problem.
There was no easy way out of this unless we learned to fly.
A mammoth boulder crashed down in front of us, and I screamed, grabbing hold of the wheel and jerking it right just as Cade did the same. We careened at breakneck speed towards the mountain wall, smaller stones and debris crunching under our tires as more bits of rock pelted down on the roof of the car like hail.
Hail.
My brain started churning in high gear. What could I do to stop this? Rain couldn’t wash away boulders, and it couldn’t build a wall between us and the Ourea who was assaulting us.
But it could make us harder to see.
I didn’t know much about the mountain goddesses, but they were primordial deities, not like those who took mortal form. There was a chance they might not be able to see us through a good downpour.
I let go of the steering wheel, relinquishing control of the car to Cade, who was swearing a blue streak under his breath. He was going slow now to avoid driving us full speed into a falling rock. There was no logical answer, because either slow or fast we’d probably end up as pulp.
Snuggling Fen closer to me, I shut my eyes and tried to steady my breathing. Calling the rain wasn’t as hard as channeling lightning, but it still took focus, and this was hardly what I would qualify as a meditative environment. That’s where Fen came in. As much of a pain in the ass as he could be, he was still my familiar. Which meant he was a direct source of power straight from Seth, and I could use him to amplify my own strength.
It was only on rare occasions I took advantage of this ability, because it was unnerving to leach power out of another living creature. I felt extra guilty doing it after experiencing how it felt when Seth did it to me. Was that all I was to him, a familiar?
I’d never taken time to consider it before, but that’s exactly what we were. We went by different names—clerics, priests, disciples, earthly hands—but it all meant the same thing in the end. We were their pawns and nothing more. Pets.
I gritted my teeth and pushed the thought away. Spite was the least helpful thing to be feeling right then, especially when I needed to tap into my god-given gifts.
When my mind was blank, I imagined the rain, picturing sheets of relentless, driving water pouring across the highway, blotting out visibility. I thought of the sound rain made pattering against a sidewalk and the way it felt beading against my exposed skin.
I immersed myself mentally in every aspect of rain—the smell, the taste, the way it looked.
Soon the sound was real, a light patter of droplets against the windshield. Fen had gone still in my arms, no longer trembling, just taking soft, gentle breaths like I’d put him to sleep. I opened my eyes and saw huge spots of water dotting the windows. Soon there were too many to see the individual drops, and the water was pouring down on us ceaselessly.
Cade activated the wipers and leaned over the wheel. Interspersed with the sound of the storm were hard tings of rocks hitting the roof.
“Turn off the headlights,” I instructed.
“Are you out of your mind?”
“I’m trying to keep us hidden.”
“You think she can’t see us?” he snapped.
“I think she is elemental and made of the mountain, and if you turn off the goddamn lights, we might get out of here in one piece.” I pulled Fen tighter to my chest, trying to ignore the throbbing headache pulsing behind my eyes. “That’s what I think.”
He glanced at me for a fraction of a second, not wanting to look away from the road any longer. Whatever he saw on my face, either the fear or the stubborn need to survive, it apparently moved him. The car slowed more, and he turned off the headlights, dropping the entire road into darkness.
The rain blotted out the moon, and Cade scooted farther forward in his seat, leaning close enough to the windshield his breath fogged the glass. His whole body was so stiff I thought he’d fracture like glass if we took one hard jolt. The ground vibrated, an intensely loud thump shaking the windows and setting my teeth on edge.
But the rock didn’t hit us, nor had it fallen in our path.
He cut another quick glance at me, like he was expecting me to say I told you so.
I wouldn’t dare. I was just thinking it really hard.
To be honest, I’d
need to have the ability to breathe if I was going to say anything to him right then, and my breath was caught somewhere in my chest. More small rocks bounced off the top of the car, but they were barely audible under the sound of the driving rain. Another huge boulder sent tremors through the asphalt beneath us, but it felt farther away than the last one.
We drove another hour in complete silence with the lights off, not seeing another soul, only the rain and the darkness. When we finally saw an exit with symbols for gas, food, and lodging, we abandoned the highway and made our way back into civilization.
Cade and I both knew we’d dodged a bullet.
What we didn’t know yet was how many more were heading our way.
Chapter Twelve
Another night, another shitty motel.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept in my own bed. My apartment in Seattle wasn’t much to brag about, but the mattress was soft and the water was warm. Sometimes that was all it took to make a place feel like home.
We parked in front of our room at the Sleepy Dayz Motor Inn in Loveland, Colorado, and I let out my first breath since leaving the mountains.
Fen was still curled in my arms, seemingly unbothered by the fact I was holding him tight enough to crush him. Cade got out of the car first, and when I was reasonably convinced I could stand without falling over, I opened my own door.
Or, more accurately, I tried.
I jiggled the handle and threw my weight into the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Cade, realizing I couldn’t get out, rounded to the passenger side, and his eyes went huge. He motioned for me to roll down the window.
“You’ll want to climb out my door.” He held out his hands, and for a minute I thought he was offering to help me out through the window, but then it clicked that he was waiting for me to give him Fen. I passed the fennec to him, and Fen immediately started wriggling in Cade’s hands, trying to get free.
“Don’t think I won’t toss you on the freeway, pipsqueak,” Cade grumbled.
Fen growled, none too menacingly given his tiny stature, but went still. He’d lodged his complaint with the situation, now he could relax.
I got out through the driver’s side and skirted the car to meet Cade. The back end had a smashed taillight and dented fender, but the reality of how close we’d come to death didn’t sink in until I saw my door.
The whole passenger side of the car had been pushed in a good six inches, with huge gashes torn into the metal of the door where one of the rocks had hit us. The rear tire wasn’t punctured, but the wheel frame had been warped, explaining the wobbly drag the car had experienced the whole way here. My door was so crushed I was surprised I hadn’t felt it from the inside.
“Whoa.” I touched the ragged metal, feeling the sharp points of the edges dig into my skin. I pulled my hand back and fidgeted nervously with the bracelet Badb had given me. Would it really have kept me safe if things had gotten worse? Would it have helped Cade, given his proximity to me, or would I have been burying him in a shallow mountain grave?
What had begun as a simple collection mission was becoming anything but simple.
I figured if I was going to die working for Seth, it would be doing something epic. Something worthwhile. Now both me and some kid of his were marked for death, and there was nothing we could do to stop it.
I just hoped I could find Leo before Manea did. At least with me by his side he stood half a chance.
That was if I didn’t make the target on his back bigger.
“We can’t keep driving this.” Cade’s voice hitched with the slightest bit of emotion. Anyone else might have made fun of him for getting teary about a car, but I knew exactly what he was feeling. Once a kid try to key my Mustang, and I’d almost lightning’d him on the spot. This was damage beyond repair. The Dodge was destined for the big junkyard in the sky.
“I’m sorry.” I looked at him, wondering what else I could say that would help and drawing a complete blank. This was one more thing to add to the list of stuff that was my fault. I had a gut feeling that list was going to get a lot longer before I could ever hope to make reparations.
He let out a shaky sigh, not lifting his gaze from the Dodge. “It’s just a car.” His tone gave away his true feelings. It wasn’t just a car. For people like us, possessions mattered because we had so few. And the one that mattered most to him had been taken away.
“I’ll buy you a new one.”
This made him snort. “Don’t.”
“No, I swear to Seth I’ll buy you a new one.” The temple was going to love me making promises like that, but I’d given them twenty years of my life, so they could spot me the funds to replace Cade’s car.
The sound he made was enough to break my heart: a low, sad wheeze from the back of his throat, like he was standing next to the body of his fallen horse at the end of an epic battle.
“It’s just a car,” he repeated. This time I didn’t offer any words of comfort. I knew he needed to believe it was just a car. If only for now.
I imagined that the next morning, in the light of day, things would look much, much worse. While Cade stared mournfully over the corpse of his noble steed, I pulled my phone out of my bag and sent a text to Sido. Looks like I’d need my Mustang sooner than anticipated. She replied immediately, and without asking any probing questions said it would be dropped off by the next morning.
How they would manage to get my Mustang from Seattle to Colorado in less than eight hours was one of those things I wasn’t sure I needed to know. If Sido said the car was coming, I knew it would be here. Whatever weird magic it took for it to happen didn’t matter.
Although if that selfsame magic could have gotten me to New Orleans in the same amount of time, that would have been nice.
Cade took one last look at the ruined Dodge before guiding us to our room.
Inside it was a carbon copy of the last room I’d stayed in, and the one before that. Only instead of one queen, there were two doubles. For some reason the sight of two beds felt strange and vaguely inappropriate, though it would have been much more scandalous for us to share one.
I set Fen on the floor, and he proceeded to go about his usual new-room investigation. Seemingly satisfied nothing was out of order, he bounded up onto the bed nearest the bathroom and nestled himself between the pillows.
“Guess that one’s mine.” I tossed my purse onto it, and Fen didn’t even look up.
“Maybe you should be more careful, considering there’s an idol in there apparently worth killing both of us over.”
“Skulls are hard. It’ll be fine.”
Cade stared at me, either in disbelief or annoyance, I couldn’t quite tell which. Suddenly it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. I started to laugh, and this only made his scowl deepen, which in turn made me laugh harder.
I laughed until tears were streaming down my cheeks and it was difficult to breathe. I laughed so much my chest hurt and I began to hiccup.
And then I started to cry.
I sat down on the floor between our two beds and put my face in my cupped palms, sobbing until my throat was raw and my eyes burned.
I was the kind of person who knew exactly what I was going to do in any situation, because in my line of work you were either prepared or you were done for.
But how in the name of the gods was I supposed to prepare myself for this?
I was going to die, and I really, really didn’t want to.
“Tallulah.” Cade’s voice cut through my sobs, but I couldn’t stop. I was so wound up the only thing my body was capable of doing was crying. “Stop it.”
“I-I-I c-can’t,” I sputtered.
He crouched in front of me and put his hands on my shoulders. When I lifted my head to look at him, he blanched. “Your eyes.”
The sizzle of energy I’d barely noticed since we left the mountain road sparked back to life, and my hands tingled with it. My eyes must have been blazing with lightning to make him look as unnerved as he did.
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“I-I c-can’t stop it.” My hands were shaking, and tiny sparks of electricity danced off my skin.
His fingers dug into my arms, and he hoisted me to my feet, where I barely got balanced before he dragged me into the bathroom. I tried to speak, to ask him what the hell he was doing, but he jerked back the shower curtain and lifted me over the side of the tub like I weighed nothing.
“W-wh—?”
My question was cut abruptly short when he turned the shower handle and a spray of frigid water hit me.
I yelped, blinking hard at the sudden burst of ice coating my skin under my jacket. I stripped the coat off like it was a living creature clinging to me, and scrambled to get to the tap. He held me firm around the waist, locking me just out of reach.
The wave of hysteria that had gripped me was long gone, replaced with a burning rage that could see only one outlet. I grabbed ahold of his shirt and used all of my not-inconsiderable strength to pull him towards the shower.
He’d been braced for me to push him, so the tug threw him entirely off balance and he pitched forward, falling against me.
My boots skidded on the wet surface of the tub, and I landed flat on my ass, the full weight of his body crashing down on top of me.
At least he was shielding me from the shower.
“You asshole,” I snarled, trying to wriggle myself out from under him.
He had regained his senses after my surprise assault and now easily held my arms pinned above my head while I squirmed, sliding uselessly on the slick porcelain. Without being able to find purchase on anything, it was impossible to get any traction. His knees slipped as he lifted his weight and straddled my waist, still holding me down.
“You’re losing your damn mind.”
“You think that was crazy, I’ll show you crazy, you fuck.” I jerked my hips up and flipped over, soaking my whole front in icy-cold water. Twisting my body, I was able to wrench my hands free of his grip, and this time he let me go. I climbed over the side of the tub, flopping onto the floor as a puddle started to pool around me.