Page 48 of Cry for Help

My hands were pinned. I couldn’t sign. I needed to dosomething. My scream had already done enough damage; myvoice couldn’t do much more. Could it?

“Help!” I shouted, my throat raw and my voice scraping on its way out. “Help me! Please!” I sobbed.

Malphas stirred. Opening an eye, his head on my chest. “Don’t count me out just yet.”

“Malphas?”

“You’re speaking?” He groaned as he shifted, releasing some of the weight from my chest. “You ruptured my ear drums, Sweetheart.”

Still crying, a watery chuckle burst from my lips. Now that my hands were free, I could sign, but I didn’t want to.

Malphas knew my secret.

He had heard the scream, and he had lived. Maybe because he was a demon, but I wouldn’t take any chances. From my experience, luck didn’t happen twice.

“Caim?” Malphas called out from the back seat. “You awake?”

Caim groaned in response. “My head is killing me.”

“You’re telling me.” Malphas squinted. “Maddie has some pipes on her.”

“I’ll say.” Caim rolled his head, glancing at us in the back seat. “Have you considered opera?”

“It’s not a joke.” I reached up, brushing my hand over my bloody face. Regular blood was quite dark when it dried, but mine had always had a strange neutral tinge—more blue than regular humans. My mother used to say it was because Fae had copper in their blood instead of iron.

“I could have killed you both.” I chided, unsure if I was scolding them or myself. “What the fuck happened?”

“Someone fell fifty stories.Splat.” Caim said in a dull voice.

“Splat.” Malphas echoed sardonically. “They didn’t survive.”

My voice was hollow. “I only scream when they die.”

Malphas slanted a gaze my way. “Let’s table that for now.”

“No,” Caim rubbed his shoulder, where his seatbelt had drawn blood. “I very much want to know what kind of creature screams in the presence of death.”

“Most people scream when someone dies.” Malphas pointed out, rubbing the blood from his cheek.

“Not likethat.” Caim retorted.

“We’re sitting in a car wreck!” I reminded them, my voice growing shrill.

Giving up on unclipping his seatbelt, Caim tore free with a single tug. With little effort, he swung his legs over and kicked out the door. The crumbled metal flew clear across the road.

The door closest to my head was pinned against the ground, and the door by Malphas’s feet was dented, too much to even bother with.

Malphas slid off me and helped me through the gap in the front seat and the open passenger door. A dozen small fires from the spilled gasoline had erupted in the street.

I didn’t need to be told to hurry up, as whatever was going on under the hood of the SUV grew in temperature.

Caim, Malphas, and I managed to get far away enough before the car exploded, but the heat wave against my face was unpleasant.

The adrenaline of the crash left my body like my soul departing. I sagged, feeling the energy I had clung to drip away, and my teeth began to chatter as it hit me that I had almost died.

I could have killed Caim and Malphas.

I could havedied.

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