to land with a splash in the nearby creek.
She barely had time to find her breath again when Zach grabbed her by the arm.
“What the fuck were you thinking!” he screamed, yanking her to her feet so violently she thought her arm might pop out of its socket.
“The silver . . . I wanted to weaken him—”
“My sword is silver! Didn’t you see the other two die? Damn it, Shanna, you could have been killed!”
She jerked free of his clutches, rubbing her arm and sinking back to the ground where the world was more stable. Her leg hurt like hell, but she was pretty sure nothing was broken. Just bruised like a bitch.
“You said silver would make them vulnerable to death. I was tr-trying to help!”
And she had! She’d saved his sorry ass and he was yelling at her?
Shanna tried to muster the energy to feel real anger, but it wouldn’t come. He was right. She hadn’t truly thought through her actions. She’d seen him in trouble and had acted as her instincts had bidden her to do. But her instincts knew nothing of this world in which Zach lived.
They could have died today. There was a very real possibility that they still might. If so, it would be nice to have someone who belonged to her when it happened. She had no family anymore. No friends close by. Zach didn’t belong to her anymore, either. She’d ruined that thoroughly when she’d called him insane and walked out.
Even if they couldn’t be together again, she’d get him to finally forgive her for not believing him . . . and maybe then she’d be able to forgive herself.
“I don’t think I can do this anymore,” she whispered. “The world’s gone crazy, Zach.”
He knelt beside her, giving her a clear view of the blood splatter sprinkled across his neck and face. She prayed it didn’t belong to him.
“Yeah, it has, Princess. So we’ve got to stay sane for each other. We have to stay alive for each other. You can’t do stupid shit like that anymore.”
The anger in his eyes stilled her frustrations. He’d been worried about her. He’d chosen to get her out of the Keys. No one else. Six months hadn’t completely destroyed what they’d had. If it had, he wouldn’t be yelling at her now.
She felt a faint smile coming on but kept it hidden.
“Thank you, Zach,” she whispered. And as he stared at her in question, she quietly made her way back to the road without further explanation.
Between struggling to get the SUV out of the mud and a quick stop for showers and food at a truck stop, getting to St. Augustine took another hour. By the time they finally rolled into the city limits, it was almost ten thirty and Zach’s eyes were burning. His instincts were beginning to dull, as was evident when he nearly ran right over an old woman darting across the street.
He let out a yawn, envious of Shanna, who’d been sleeping for the past forty-five minutes. He took in the sights of the city that was meant to be their salvation. Most of the places seemed to be without electricity, and where some still existed, the sizzle of broken and frayed live wires danced in the air.
Traffic lights swung in the wind, no power reaching them. A few stray horses had abandoned their carriages and masters, and roamed the walk around Matanzas Bay, neighing in the night as though calling out to one another. Streets that should have been teeming with tourists were quiet and empty, though he’d expected the exact opposite. Wasn’t this where the evacuees were being sent? Or had the Order purposely directed them elsewhere to avoid chaos at their headquarters?
He swerved the SUV around an abandoned trolley, his muscles screaming in protest as the sudden movement made his body sway. But it was almost over. All he had to do now was get Shanna inside the Castillo de San Marcos and he’d finally be able to breathe again.
“It’s too quiet,” Shanna muttered, startling him. He hadn’t realized she’d woken up.
He watched her rub at the smear of blood on her jeans as she had been before she’d fallen asleep. Zach had hoped letting her take a quick shower at a rest stop might make her feel a little better—clean the blood off and maybe wash away some of her panic. But it hadn’t seemed to do much good. Her clothes were still stained and so, apparently, were