Page 45 of Unveil
There’s a bang behind us, and a shower of sparks. If I wasn’t shrieking air from my lungs already, I’d be holding it now.
Light is a pinprick ahead of us as Orion slows. A car rumbles past, scraping us, and popping something off the SUV. He curses, and his arm lashes out behind him to cover my face with one hand, while his other smacks the window button, rolling it up and protecting me from debris before it hits.
When he removes his hand, the light in front of us has brightened, so I can see the other car as Orion whips the SUV to the right, slamming into the back with a god-awful screech. It spins out and he easily skirts around it, tearing ahead as the other twirls in place. This close, I glimpse my dad bracing himself against the door while Nox wrestles with the steering wheel. Behind us, Benoit and Jaime veer into the tunnel walls to avoid hitting Dad and Nox, but in their effort, they ram into each other.
I peer past Nox as he rights his car, holding my breath as Uncle Jaime and Benoit climb out, guns raised. But Orion was right. They won’t shoot, and their faces twist with something like rage and defeat when they realize it too.
We burst into the sunlight just as Nox regains ground. My seatbelt bites deeper into my chest with every tight switchback, until my breath runs out and I gasp clean air.
A teary choke rips from my lungs. “I didnotgive you that idea!”
“You’re right. It was the ‘right off the mountain’ part that inspired me.”
“What doesthatmean?”
He rounds the next curve, every tread of the Headhunter’s four-wheel drive hugging the guardrail on the drop-off side ofthe road, the forest plunging below. My calves press into the seat’s edge, bracing for the next turn around the mountain.
But instead of bearing left, he keeps going—aiming straight for the woods.
He’s going to turn.
He has to.
Right?
Right?
“Orion!”
The guardrail ends and we blast past two narrow trees onto a long-forgotten dirt road overgrown with thin brush. Branches snap against the frame, tires spraying gravel, until the SUV’s brush guard splinters through an old gate. Orion fights the wheel as we careen over the bumpy path before finally, mercifully, straightening out and decelerating.
“You almost killed us!”
The grin Orion flashes me in the rearview is all dangerous confidence and adrenaline. “Nah, we were fine. I know what I’m doing, baby.”
But the smile vanishes. He glares past me. “Buttheydon’t. Goddamn, Nox. Stop already, man.”
The sports car skids down the dirt road, no match for the rocks and roots pitting the ground. Horror chokes me as my brother loses control, clipping a massive oak before the bumper anticlimactically crunches into a boulder. The car zigzags, finally ending up wedged between two trees, smoke pouring from the hood and tire wells.
After a beat, my dad and Nox climb out. My dad roars, but this far away, I can’t hear with the windows up. Nox slams a fist on the smoking hood. A shuddering breath leaves my chest as relief drains my adrenaline.
“They’re okay, Luna.”
I suck in a breath, remembering my captor, then my head swivels to find Orion looking at me, concerned eyes watching me, his lips a hard, unforgiving line. He shifts back to take the SUV out of park and my eyes flick to the barren, rocky road in front of us. I hadn’t realized he’d stopped.
In a daze, I turn around as the SUV kicks up gravel and drives away. Tears sting my eyes as the tunnel of trees close in behind us, swallowing my family until they disappear.
“You know,” he begins casually, “I never thought about it, but running away on ‘crush and run’ gravel is perfectly poetic.”
The woods blur, a watercolor of greens and browns, reds and yellows.
After a moment he tries again.
“So… what’d you wish for?”
I whip around. My shock and anger glare into the rearview mirror, where Orion’s mismatched eyes are overly bright with mirth.
But there’s a tremor in his hand as he rakes it through his hair, and his voice is pitched a little too high.
