Page 3 of Heirs of Havoc

Snap!

Thwack!

Branches slap at the metal as the car squeezes between trees. My lungs threaten to collapse, but I keep going.

Don’t stop! Don’t you dare!

“Oof!” Something stops me instead.

A wooden wall. It’s some sort of shed. A cabin? It’s big for an abandoned home, but my roadblock might be the end of me.

The headlights shine against the wood, growing closer behind me. When I turn around, the hood of the car inches near my body.

It’s going to crush me.

My fate’s sealed. Turns out, I'm not fast enough. But if I'm going out, I'm going out with a bang.

My shaky middle finger to the car, my eyes squeeze shut.

Chapter Two

Screech!

Sinatra gets louder, his words in my head, but there’s no force. No slam. No body-crunching pain.

I’m still alive.

Popping an eye open confirms the car stopped. Right against my body.

Letting out a breath, my skin touches the hot metal. The car rumbles against me, my eyes squinting through the tinted windshield. “Will? Is this your desperate attempt at…” My voice trails when both doors open.

Two pairs of boots appear under the wide car doors. One brown. One black.

Slam!

Squinting beyond the lights, my body stiffens.

That’s not Will.

This is so much worse.

Frozen, there's a small hope that if I don’t move, they won’t see me. But let's be real. I’m right where they want me.

Trapped.

“Mia Merlo,” one voice says, deep and rolling. The sound of my last name, my real name, makes my muscles tense.

“Funny seeing a fellow heathen here,” the other voice finishes. A similar voice, but there’s a lightness to it. He's not as serious as the other and that’s not an assumption. “You hear about the new gods in town?”

They walk beyond the headlights, their tall frames coming into view like menacing monsters. They stride toward me with as much power as I remember. One wears a black sweater on his broad shoulders, the other red. It’s the only colours they know. Like their clothes, these two ooze darkness and blood.

Lev smiles, that dimple in his left cheek giving him away. “Don’t look so scared, M&M. You look like you’ve seen God. Or gods in this scenario.”

Clementine isn’t safe anymore.

Go!

Squeezing around the hood, the car pinned against my body stops me from getting away quick enough. By the time I round the front of the car, a hand comes to my throat.

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