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“You mean the one you scuffed up with your shoe?”

She answered his faint smile with a grin. “Yeah, that one.”

“Wrecked, probably.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “That’s the one we took to Silverway.” Damn. She liked that car.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I don’t get too attached to specific cars. They’re replaceable. It’s people that aren’t.” His attention flicked to the rear-view, his hand reaching up to adjust the mirror.

Paxton was fast asleep in the back seat, exhausted after spending hours playing the new action-adventure video game he’d picked out at the drugstore. Chance lay sprawled beside him, his smoky back paw twitching as he dreamed.

“I had him take double while you were asleep,” Roman said quietly.

“How’d he feel about that?”

“It was his idea. I didn’t want to push him, so I thought I’d give him one and see what happened. But he asked for a second one right away, and I wasn’t about to say no.”

“It must’ve really scared him, what happened with your dad’s men.”

“Yeah.” He exhaled heavily. “I’ve been thinking it’s too bad my dad wasn’t there. Maybe he’d be blown to bits right now, too.” He pondered his own words before shaking his head. “Then again, maybe not,” he muttered. “Who knows.”

“Did you recognize many of those men?”

“Some. He has a lot of people doing his dirty work—I don’t know all their names. Adham was there, though—I think he was the one who hit you.” His hand tightened on the wheel, the barbed wire inked on his skin pulling taut across white knuckles. “It’s about time he’s gone.”

“What about Trey?”

“I didn’t see him.”

“I wish I had killed him at the warehouse.” She had been too focused on finding Pax to waste another second on that asshole. She’d thought the effects of her lightning might last longer, but…well, it was good to know it wore off fairly quickly, in case anything like that happened again.

They lapsed into silence. The navigational screen was a bit glitchy now, after the attack that had launched the car down the street, but it looked like they were nearing the state-line. They should arrive in Angelthene late tonight, as long as they didn’t encounter any delays.

As the minutes ticked by, Shay got to thinking about other things, most involving Roman and the short time they had spent together. The secrets, buried deep in their souls, that they’d taken a chance on trusting each other with.

The car was so quiet you could cut the silence with a knife when she said abruptly, “It was my dad.”

Roman glanced at her, his forehead creasing. “What?”

She drew a deep breath. “You once asked who hurt me,” she said on the exhale. “Well, that’s the answer. My dad’s the reason I have…‘trust issues’.”She curled two fingers in the air. “Why I tend to assume everyone I’m with is going to ditch me. He was the first to do it, and I’ve never…never really gotten over it, I guess.”

It took him a moment to speak. “I thought you said your dad?—”

“Died? He did.” Her heart twinged. “But he left when I was ten. He said he was going on an important business trip and he’d be back in two weeks. We—Anna and I—kept waiting and waiting and waiting for him to come home…” She swallowed the lump in her throat.

There was empathy in Roman’s gaze. “You spoke so fondly of him, I had no idea…”

“My dad was a good man, in a lot of ways. He was a great dad, when he was around. He loved us. But he hated our mother more.” She picked at the stitching on her pants. “Can’t say I blame him for leaving.”

“Did you see him at all after that?”

She shook her head. “Never. I followed his achievements in the paper—he was a scientist for Lucent Enterprises in Laurel. Anna and I found out he was dead when we saw his picture in the obituary. It was the Tricking that got him. Finding a cure was his calling, and he preferred to use himself as a test subject instead of others. He was a little too selfless, always sacrificing himself for the greater good.”Kind of like you,she thought. “He developed the disease when we were young, and he died before he hit fifty.” Most hellsehers met the same end. While they had the ability to live forever, the Tricking was an epidemic that ended many lives far before their time. The longest lifespan recorded in hellseher history was only about a hundred and sixty years.

“Did he ever come close?” Roman asked. “To finding a cure?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think anyone has.” Lucent Enterprises had boasted for many years that they would be the first to develop a cure for the Tricking. But many generations had passed since then, and they were still no closer to success than they were on day one.

A sign was approaching up ahead, marking the border between Ker and Witheredge soil.