Okay, so…if I was be
ing totally honest, I had slept with Prescott. Once. One time. And not for the sake of collecting the idol. But Cade didn’t need to know this. No one living or dead needed to know. Whether or not I’d used our past to help me get the skull didn’t matter.
“So you duped Living Dead Boy into giving you something precious to his goddess, and when he asked for it back, you…” He left the end of the sentence hanging for me to finish.
“Oh, I ran away, and he tried to murder me.”
“I feel like that’s a response you evoke in a lot of people.”
“Evidently folks feel very strongly about me.” I gave him a beaming smile.
“At least about killing you.”
I was about to reply when the first rock hit the highway. We were driving through the Rockies, and landslide warnings were posted every few miles, but I still wasn’t expecting a giant boulder to crash into the asphalt in front of us.
I hit the brakes and yanked the steering wheel, sending the Charger into a spin, the tail end of the car coming to a stop mere inches from the enormous rock. Panting, I kept my hands locked on the wheel, afraid if I moved them, they’d be shaking too hard for me to do anything.
Cade had reached his arm across me when we’d braked, and his hand was now protectively covering my left boob. I cleared my throat, and he immediately jerked away like I’d burned him.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Fine. Fine.” I repeated the word, trying to convince myself I meant it. “Fen.” We’d braked so suddenly I wasn’t sure he would have had time to prepare. The carrier itself was buckled in, but that didn’t help his tiny body inside.
I shifted the car into park and unbuckled my belt, bracing one hand on Cade’s shoulder as I climbed halfway into the backseat to check the carrier. Inside he had curled into a little ball, but his trembling was a good sign he was okay.
“Fen?” He lifted his head, giant ears perking up at my voice. “Are you okay?”
He pipped a reply.
And then the next rock hit us.
Chapter Eleven
This boulder smashed into the side of the car, sending us spinning across the highway until we came to a stop on the gravel shoulder of the road. I fell backwards, landing in Cade’s lap, my head smacking hard against the passenger window.
He wrapped his arms around me, cupping my now-aching skull in one big hand.
We were both breathing raggedly and waiting.
“Rockslide?” I asked finally.
There was no way this was coincidence, not a chance it was merely nature rearing her ugly head at us. When the gods themselves had decided they were out for your blood, nothing that happened after was unplanned.
“We should be so lucky.” Then he realized what he’d said and let out a humorless laugh. “You should be so lucky.”
I rubbed the spot on my head where I’d hit the window, and while it stung to the touch, my fingers didn’t come away covered in blood. Things were looking up. For now.
“Think it’ll still drive?” Without getting out there was no way to tell how much damage the car had taken, and neither of us was going to climb out to have a look. The next rock that fell might make a pancake of us. At least the cage of the car offered a little protection.
I was suddenly happy I’d left my Mustang in Montana.
“I think we’re going to find out.” He undid his buckle and dropped me into the passenger seat, climbing into the driver’s spot. I didn’t argue. It was his car, and he knew how it worked a lot better than I did.
With the darkness of night thick around us it was impossible to see anything beyond the confines of the road itself. If something came at us, we would be well hidden beneath the shroud of darkness.
My heart was in my throat, pounding at a mile-a-minute pace while Cade shifted the car into drive and dropped the stick down to first gear. Please, may the gods protect us, I thought, before realizing how stupid it was.
The gods wouldn’t protect us. This was the gods coming for us.