things to use it.”
So did he.
He put the SUV in reverse. “Ready?”
“No,” she answered. “But I don’t suppose I have a choice.
“It’ll be all right.”
Her smile was faint, but at least it was there. “You keep saying that, but you never were a good liar.”
And yet, when it had really counted, she hadn’t been able to believe him.
He brushed the hair from her cheeks and pressed his mouth to her forehead. It was all the comfort he could offer right now. As he pulled onto the road, he slipped one hand over hers and gave a light squeeze, watching as she set the knuckle rings in her lap, closed her eyes, and pressed her head into her seat.
Occasionally, he found his gaze wandering back to her, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest as she fell asleep, and his desire to keep her safe only intensified. He’d allowed whiskey to fill the void she’d left inside him six months ago, but sober now, having her so close to him, he was remembering every perfect inch of her, every flaw that he’d adored.
If anything happened to her, he was a goner.
They’d only been on the road for about twenty minutes when she woke with a start, gasping for air as though she’d been held under water, and scaring the shit out of Zach. He swung the SUV off the main road and let it idle at a stop sign so he could reach for her.
“You all right?”
She nodded. “Nightmare. I was hoping all of this was.”
This was the reason the Order worked in secret. Humans weren’t meant to know that the creatures living in their fiction were real. Hell, he’d grown up with the knowledge and it was difficult for him to accept sometimes.
“We’re definitely going to have to stick to back roads now,” he said, turning down the volume on the radio that had been keeping him company and up-to-date on what was happening outside their little bubble. “Road blocks are popping up all over the interstate, redirecting evacuees around hazards. Could get a little rough.”
“Okay.” She pulled her hair back into a sloppy ponytail and he couldn’t help but notice how badly her fingers trembled as she tried to work the elastic around her hair.
Twenty minutes later, when they should have arrived in St. Augustine, they’d only traveled another ten miles. Lines of traffic forced Zach off the road they’d been traveling and onto a route he wasn’t too sure about. It was far more secluded, but looked to be pretty deserted, so he stuck with it. He had less than three hours to get Shanna to St. Augustine before Hell opened up and swallowed half the world whole. The fewer road blocks he encountered, the better.
As they merged onto a vacant two-lane road lined with forest on one side and cow pastures on the other, the debris of broken concrete hung in the air so thick, he had to strain to see. It was like driving through thick, choking fog.
From somewhere within the trees, an eerie howl shook the leaves. It might have been a wolf, but just as likely, it was a Lychen. He glanced at the scarred arm that had reduced him to an “in case of emergency only” member of the Order. Never in his life had he endured such pain—the paralyzing agony of the saliva in his blood, slowly stilling every organ he had until help had arrived. The thought of encountering that again would have sobered even the meanest drunk.
He turned the radio up to help drown out his thoughts and ease the uncomfortable silence. Shanna didn’t feel like talking, and until they were off these damned dark, unlit roads, neither did Zach. He glanced at her, quietly staring out her window and into the trees, and when he next looked back at the road, he saw tail lights flashing in the distance. He slowed, suspicious of what might be causing the other driver to stop on an empty road. He eyed the van as they slowly passed, noted the dented hood pressed against the guardrail.
“Zach, look out!”
He turned his gaze back to the windshield to find three large, winged creatures blocking the road. He smashed the brake, throwing the SUV into a skid around the Hatchlings and into the ditch behind them. He hit the lever to lock the vehicle into four-wheel drive, but the back wheels spun out, stuck in Florida mud.
“Fuck.”
The Hatchlings were approaching, slowly, knowing their prey