Page 39 of Prince of Storms
“Mia, you’re going into shock again,” Tor said. “I don’t think I can prevent it this time. You’ve been through too much. But we need to get going. I’m going to have to move you, okay?”
“You look pretty alive for a dead man,” I said. “But I can see it in your eyes.”
“See what in my eyes?” Tor asked, ripping my seatbelt off.
“The light. They’re so bright. Only a ghost would have eyes like that.”
Tor hissed at something Ty muttered under his breath. “Just get the truck back on the road.”
I didn’t hear Ty’s reply.
“It had better run,” Tor growled. “Or we’re in an even bigger world of trouble.”
Tor hauled me out of the truck, holding me to his chest. I stroked his face, numb to everything that was going on and barely able to focus.
“Don’t faint on me,” Tor repeated several times.
The truck started to move. Except there was nobody in the driver’s seat.
“A ghost car!” I yelped, trying to get away. Tor just held a little tighter, and I settled down.
Ty came out from around the front of the truck, looking skeptically at the ruined front end. “I don’t know, Tor,” he said, hopping into the driver’s seat.
The engine coughed several times, whined … then rumbled to life.
“Everybody in,” Ty said, getting out.
I heard metal screech and saw the hood tear away, soaring off to the side out of my view. Then Ty got into the driver’s seat, and we started to move. The wheels groaned, the engine sounded ready to die, and the entire truck shook and rattled and rolled.
But we were moving. Ty struggled mightily with the deformed wheel. He tried to put it back into place, bending it toward him, but it only partially fixed the issue.
I stared straight ahead the entire time, Tor at my side. He kept looking at me, giving me nervous glances, but I ignored him. I had to.
That had been too close, far too close. The fear I’d felt when he’d gone through the windshield, the sheer, gut-wrenching horror and pain that had swallowed me up.
I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t ready. I mightneverbe ready to face the possibility of something like that. Blackness had risen in my mind and nearly broken me. Only the fact that Torhadn’tdied saved me.
I knew what had to be done once we reached his house. It wouldn’t be easy. He would protest. My body would also be unhappy. But there was no way I could risk letting something like that happen to me again. I would not lose myself for someone else.
I had to be strong. Tough.
Alone.
When we finally pulled to the mansion’s entrance, I swallowed my nerves and vowed to tell him as soon as Ty gave us the space. I would spare Tor that embarrassment, at least.
“Come on, let’s get you inside,” Tor said, guiding me up the steps while Ty took the truck and went to park it underground.
“Tor,” I whispered, stopping him as he closed the front door behind us. “Tor, wait.”
He turned to look at me, a frown on his face. “What is it? Are you okay?”
“I …” I shook my head. Then words just sort of tumbled out of me. “No, I’m not. I will be, though, but, Tor, I can’t do this.”
“Can’t do what?” he asked, blinking.
I couldn’t find the words, so I just pointed back and forth between him and me. The light dawned in his eyes, and I knew he understood. That he got what I was trying to say.
I couldn’t dous.
