Page 53 of Magic's Rise

Tris stares out the back window, his voice tight with fear. “Where did it go?”

My heart races as my eyes stick to the side mirror, searching for the other car.

“Incoming!” Levi shouts.

Our van lurches to the right as we’re hit on the driver’s side bumper.

Once more, we fishtail, the front tires skidding in the gravel.

Light floods from behind, blinding us again, and the other vehicle slams into us again. My body snaps forward, and our headlights reveal a downward slope a moment before we tip over it.

I scream as trees whip by on either side, the wheels eating up the ground, and then a broad trunk looms up ahead of us.

Shouts fill the air as Haut reaches for me, and then we slam to a stop with a shriek of metal, pain, and darkness.

DARK IN THE LIGHT

Iblink my eyes open, and the world swims back into focus.

“Rowe!” My whole body rocks as Haut shakes me. “Wake up!”

“You shouldn’t shake her.” Fear tightens Tris’s voice. “She might have sustained an injury when she hit the dashboard.”

Pain throbs through my head, and I lift my hand to press at a tender bump. “Ugh, what happened?”

“Tree stopped us,” Tris says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

Which it is, because the front of the van now folds around the immovable trunk, with smoke rising from the engine. A spiderweb of cracks covers the windshield, though it somehow stayed intact.

“We need to get out of here.” Aspen attempts to open the side door, but it sticks.

“Here, allow me.” Levi wedges into the narrow gap between seats, grasps the door, and wrenches it out of the frame.

I cradle my throbbing head. “Barron is so going to kill us.”

“Barron’s not the person we should worry about right now.” Haut tries to unbuckle my seatbelt, but it doesn’t unlatch.

With a growl, he shreds the polyester strap in an impressive show of superhuman strength that I would applaud if my head didn’t hurt so bad.

He kicks his door open and wraps an arm around me, pulling me out of the wreckage. The acrid scent of smoke makes me dizzy and disoriented, threatening to topple me over.

I sway on my feet, before leaning against Haut. “Is everyone okay?”

“We’re all upright.” Levi’s tall form comes around the side of the van with Aspen and Tris stumbling behind him. “But we’ve got company coming down the slope.”

“Because driving us off the road wasn’t enough.” Tris walks over to run his hands over me, checking for damage.

“Gotta finish the job.” As he prods the bump on my head, I wince. “Stop that. You can do your doctor thing once we’re away from the van that may or may not explode.”

Levi’s head turns toward the road several hundred feet uphill. “Silver Hollow is within running distance. We need to move.”

“Shouldn’t we stay and fight?” I fumble for my wand, but my fingers don’t want to work. “There’s only one of them and five of us.”

“We don’t know that there’s only one of them. We also don’t know what they are, you’re injured, and three of you can’t see in the dark.” Levi faces Haut. “If it comes to a fight, protecting Rowe and Tris will be a distraction. With a wolf, we might have a chance. But a witch or a vampire could incapacitate us from a distance.”

Haut gives a terse nod and kneels in front of me. “Climb on my back. We’ll move faster if I’m carrying you.”

Knees shaky, I drape myself over him. “That better have not been a poke at my short legs.”

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