Page 33 of Tangled Hearts

“Ryder, let me drive,” I said, patting his shoulder.

“I’m fine,” he snapped.

“If you're hurt, I can heal you,” Oria said, leaning forward to inspect Ryder.

“Not here,” he said, looking around. “We don’t need the car to glow, giving us away.”

“Pull over, and I can do it,” Oria said, leaning over the middle console.

“Ryder,” Max’s voice was stern.

“No,” Ryder snapped.

The car was quiet as we all looked at Ryder.

“I’m fine,” he said again.

He’s not fine. Oria said. His blood pressure is decreasing, he's losing too much blood.

Since I was behind him, I looked around him to see if I could see where he was bleeding from. It was subtle but I saw a trickle of blood on his right side.

Do we have anything we can staunch the bleeding with? I asked.

Yes, me. Oria snapped. Sorry, that was uncalled for. He needs to pull over.

Max looked back at us with worry. He shook his head, but I didn’t know what that meant.

“Ryder, please pull over,” Oria begged.

“We can’t afford to pull—” he hunched forward.

“Ryder?” Max pushed Ryder up. “He’s out!”

“Shit,” I said, going in between the seats when we started to veer off the road and I had to jerk the wheel back before we ended up in a ditch. “Soren, you and Oria scoot over. Max push your seat back and lay it flat, there should be a handle underneath your chair, pull up and push back or there is a button on the side.”

Everyone listened to me, and Soren helped Max put the seat back.

“Max, pull Ryder to you and?—”

The car swerved to the side, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get into the driver's seat. I lowered my window and the driver's window as we slowed.

“Soren, hold the wheel,” I snapped, looking around making sure we weren't being followed or looked suspicious. I climbed out of my window sliding in the driver seat just as Max pulled Ryder completely out.

I hit the gas, checking my mirrors again, thankfully we hadn’t caught anyone's attention. Max and Ryder looked so crammed together in the front seat, I almost laughed. Ryder was on top of Max as he laid down on the seat.

“Can we move him back here?” Oria said, leaning over the middle console to check on Ryder. “We need to get his bleeding under control.”

“Sunshine, I don’t think we can maneuver him back there, I’m surprised Max even got him over there,” I said, still checking our surroundings and trying to decide where we were going to go.

“Fine,” Oria huffed as she leaned over the middle console.

I couldn’t see what she was doing, but I heard her gasp. Then she muttered, under her breath, about how much he was a pain in the ass and how she could have healed him and then finally called him a big idiot.

“I have to heal him or he’s gonna die,” she said, in her professional tone, but she wasn’t fooling anyone, I could hear the fear in her voice. “So, we need to either stop now or figure something else out to keep me hidden.”

“You don’t have a charm?” Soren asked, as he looked around in the back seat.

“My charm won’t be able to keep my magic invisible,” she said.

---