Page 39 of Dirty Little Saint

“Oh, shit. Okay, okay.” Maureen locks onto my wrist, and I feel her power surge instantly. It pumps into my veins and arteries like electric currents.

“Good girl,” Riot encourages.

Atlas howls like a wolf as the four of us grip each other. I keep my eyes closed while my vision stays connected to the ravens.

“Ready?” I call out.

Maureen’s scream gets lost in the wind as I punch it before anyone can respond.

My stomach flips as we fly off the ground. The car floats for a second before hurtling down faster than I anticipated.

The wind gets knocked out of me as we plummet.

“Focus, fuckers!” Atlas shouts.

A crackle of energy shifts through me, and we start floating again, cascading down at a slower pace.

“We’re fucking doing it,” Maureen breathes. “Holy shit, we’re fucking doing it.”

I release the ravens and open my eyes just as we pass the tops of the elm trees. My belly tingles as I take in the view. It’s breathtaking. “Hold on,” I whisper.

The ground is closer than it appears, and we hit it hard. “Fuck. Hold on,” I cry out, louder this time.

The tires spin as I fight to regain control of the wheel. Dust and dirt fly in every direction as we hydroplane. I can’t see if there’s a tree in front of me, or a building, or even another cliff.

Maureen grabs my arm. “Find the path, Val.”

I close my eyes and go back into the raven. There we go. I let off the gas and hold the wheel as steady as I can.

The dust starts to clear as I’m finally able to straighten the car.

I slam on the brakes and look around. We’re in the forest just outside of Tenebrose. “Holy fuck.”

Atlas sticks his hand out the window and pats the door. “Mary Shelley, you sly little minx.”

“You named your car?” Maureen asks.

The rest of us burst out laughing.

“Yup.” I slick my hair back with a sweaty palm.

“Why Mary Shelley and not Frankenstein?” Maureen arches an eyebrow, a smirk on her lips.

I catch my breath and finally turn to look at her fully. “Because it’s not the monsters I’m afraid of… it’s the ones who create them that terrify me the most. Those are the devils you don’t want to fuck with.”

Her cheeks flush. “What about when the monster finds its own power? When it stops being a slave?”

Fuck. My adrenaline is pumping, and all this talk of monsters makes me want to bend her over the hood of this car and fuck the breath out of her. “A monster with a mind of its own is no longer a beast but a king… or a queen in your case.” I reach over and pick a leaf from her hair. “And that, pretty girl, is when you get to make them all fall at your feet.”

“Anyone wanna talk about how we just fell from the sky?” Atlas hangs an arm around each of our seats. His blue-green eyes are ablaze with toxin and adrenaline.

Riot chuckles. “I gotta figure out how to do that on my bike.”

Maureen punches each of us in the arm. “You’re all fucking psycho, you know that right?”

We can’t wipe the shit eating grins off our faces.

She giggles and shakes her head. “That was pretty fucking amazing.”

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