Page 10 of Anathema Codex

With an eye roll, he shakes loose of Willa’s hands and shoves his into his jacket pockets as he begins to walk back toward the truck.

I drop back so quickly that I hit my head on the side console and almost black out from the pain, but not before I manage to cover myself up for the most part.

I hear the car doors open then close again respectively along with Aftyn muttering his trademark,whatever,to Willa when she asks if he accepts her apology.

I close my eyes tightly and do my best not to vocalize the pain I’m feeling, but I fuck up. I shift again not paying attention to my surroundings and as the vehicle starts to creep up slowly, I accidentally hit one of the bags too hard and it makes athumpsound against the back seat.

“What the fuck was that?” Aftyn asks curiously.

“You heard it too?” Willa asks in an uncertain tone.

“Pull off when you get a chance. I’ll give it a once over to make sure that nothing is fucked up,” he tells her with another sigh.

Great,I think miserably as the darkness begins to descend over me.Once he finds me, I bet they’re going to leave me on the side of the road.

SEVEN

Three To Win

AFTYN

“Alright, let’s take a look,” I say to myself as I hop out of the truck and begin to glance at the tires.Once I’m satisfied that those are still in top shape, I tell Willa to cut the engine. I know it’s not above her to try and run me over, and I’m not taking any goddamn chances.

She hops out of the vehicle, then walks over to where I’m on my back. I glance at her for a moment, tilt my head to the side and grin.

“You know, if you weren’t so high and mighty, I’d tell you to hop on right now.”

“Get over yourself, Meyer,” she replies with a laugh. I shrug as I shimmy under the truck. “Can you hand me my phone? I can’t see a goddamn thing.”

The door opens and closes again, “Here.”

I reach a hand out blindly and grab it. “Thanks.”

Tapping on the screen, I swipe the bottom menu down and hit the flashlight button. Everything underneath looks brand fucking new as far as I can tell.

I hold my phone out to her and after she takes it, I shimmy out from underneath and get to my feet, slapping the dust off the palms of my hands.

“Maybe you ran over something,” I tell her with a shrug as she hands me my phone back.

“No way. I’m pretty sure that would have left a mark with as loud as it sounded.”

I take a deep breath and remind myself to be patient. If she decides I’m being too much of a ‘precious bitch’ she’ll go into Mommy-mode and turn the truck around, dropping me off at my front door, and I lose the dare by default.

“Okay, maybe you’re right,” I say as calmly as I can. “Pop the hatch and let’s see what shook loose then.”

With a nod, she leads the way toward the back of the truck and while I wait for her to open the door, my phone vibrates in my pocket.

Don’t look. Not until you’ve had a chance to honestly calm down.

Once Willa opens the hatch door, I give her a gentle shove to the side and lean in. Nothing looks out of place, though and I can’t quite put my finger on what the fucking noise was, but I know it happened because we both heard it.

I turn around and sit down, confused, a little pissed off, and ignoring the new round of buzzing coming from my pocket again.

Until…

“Get off!”

My face screws up in confusion as I look at Willa. She reaches for my jacket and pulls me out of the truck. I watch in confusion as she begins to toss our bags into the back seat, then whips back the heavy blanket she likes to have handy for whatever fucking reason, then I let out a loud sigh and turn my face up toward the night sky.

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