Page 119
Into Aecora’s possession. I unwittingly managed to screw over the very person I owed my life to.
I decided then that silence was probably the best.
Next to me Asher seethed. I could sense his fury, feel it building up beneath his skin. Like an Infernarus who’s taken in too much magic, he needed to release it.
He wasn’t releasing it. And I was trapped in the car with him.
I waited for it. For him to curse, to yell, to rage.
Instead, Asher began to laugh.
Laugh.
Definitely moon-touched.
“Wh—why are you laughing?” I was almost afraid to ask.
He shook his head. “Now that Aecora has my blood, you might just get the opportunity to repay your debt after all.”
The next severalhours were tense. The thing about misfortunate magic is that you can’t always tell when it is responsible for bad luck. Sometimes unfortunate events happen without the aid of curses. And then sometimes you endure the aftereffects of dark magic and never fully realize that the skirmish you lost or the food poisoning you acquired were not chance events at all.
But if Aecora did indeed have Asher’s blood, she would use it, and the curse would be strong enough for us to know.
“I’m really sorry,” I said quietly, staring out the window.
“Stop apologizing,” Asher said, aggravated.
“You don’t want me to apologize, you don’t want me to save your life—whatdoyou want from me?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Asher said. “I want nothing from you.”
I flashed him a strange look.
He tore his gaze away from the road to search my face. “Has anyone evernotwanted anything from you?”
“All Infernari are indebted to one another from birth. We owe each other allegiance. The only ones not indebted to each other are mates—”
Before I could finish the thought, a dark creature flashed in my peripheries, darting across the road. I swiveled my head in time to see a furry animal cross in front of the car.
“Asher!” I cried, my eyes widening.
His head snapped back to the road.
He didn’t even have time to curse before he jerked the wheel. The car swerved violently off the highway. It bounced as it left the paved road, driving over rock and underbrush.
My eyes were peeled to the sight in front of us. We careened toward a small guardrail mere feet away. Beyond it... the land dropped off, and I couldn’t tell how deep the gully beyond it was.
We were far too close to stop our momentum.
Asher laid on the brakes, our tires squealing. It wasn’t enough. Not nearly. Our vehicle smashed into the guardrail, which groaned and bent, and then we were moving over it. I didn’t have time to scream before the vehicle careened over the edge. There was nothing beneath us but empty air.
I gripped the door handle and the center console as I stared at the ground far below. Far, far below.
The edge of the car connected with the walls of the gully. Metal groaned as it met resistance, and then the world was flipping.
Mother above, save us.
Asher’s side of the car slammed into the sloping side of the gully again, the frame of the car making a shrieking noise as it crunched together. My body whipped about at the impact, my hair scattering. Next to me, I heard Asher grunt, and then the vehicle was rolling again, the metal banging into the sides of the mountain, and all that wondrous human technology we sat inside was now nothing more than a cheap parlor trick to the force of nature.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119 (Reading here)
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156