Chapter Seventeen
Mia
It happened in slow motion. Someone screamed the entire time, the high-pitched shriek filling my ears as it mixed with the screech of metal bending and warping from the impact. The concrete barrier groaned, providing a bass undertone to it all.
Tor grunted and slammed forward. The seatbelt snapped tight against my chest. My head whipped forward, practically rebounding off my chest and back up, just in time to see Tor’s head make contact with the windshield, his airbags deploying with a wimpy floof instead of a bang.
It came as no surprise that his hard head won that contest, aided by the bulk of his body as it continued to propel him forward. The windshield gave way, popping out in a single piece, flying off toward the driver’s side. Bits and pieces of metal and plastic filled the air as everything shattered.
In my periphery, I saw the steering wheel warp under Ty’s impact. His airbags didn’t deploy either, but he was wearing his seatbelt. Between that and the steering column, he stayed mostly in his seat.
Tor finished exiting the vehicle, sliding along the crumpled hood, the angular ruins turning his body to the side as he flew, starting him spinning.
He continued past the concrete barrier and slammed into a tree trunk with a bone-chilling thud before falling limply to the ground, out of sight in front of the ruined front end.
My lungs gave out, and the screaming stopped abruptly. I hit the back of the seat with a bruise-inducing thump, then rattled around briefly as the truck settled to a stop, creaking, groaning, and emitting steam from under the hood.
I hung there against the seatbelt for several seconds, trying to come to my senses. Ty recovered swifter, spinning around.
“Mia!” he barked, grabbing my chin and lifting my head. “Mia, are you okay?”
“Tor,” I whispered, staring past his square jaw. “He … he’s dead. He’s dead. Oh, my god, he’s dead. He hit the tree.”
My stomach started to churn as the sound of Tor hitting the trunk replayed over and over again. It was the sound of someone dying. Shivers racked my body. I should have been crying, but the tears refused to come.
“Mia! Snap out of it! Are you okay?”
“He’s gone,” I whispered. “I lost him. I lost him. I lost him.”
I steeled myself against the pain I knew would come, both physical and mental. I had to be hard. Harder than I was the last time someone died in front of me. There was nothing between Tor and me. Just some physical interactions. Nothing. Nothing.
But he was still gone, and I was there. Why was it that everyone had to die around me? What kind of sick joke was the universe playing on me? Who would be next? My father? Ally? Maybe I should move to the hills and live the life of a hermit to ensure nobody else would die by being around me.
“Mia!”
I knew Ty was trying to tell me something, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore. Nothing.
A hand grabbed my jaw, pulling my head around to stare out the passenger side back seat window. The door was open. How had that happened? And who was standing in the opening? There hadn’t been anybody else in the truck with us.
“Snap out of it,” Tor growled, sticking his head in through the door, his silver eyes ablaze with unnatural light. “Get a grip, Mia.”
I stared.
“Great,” I heard myself say. “I’m such a fuckup that not only did I get Tor killed, but now he’s come back to haunt me.”
The light in his eyes faded, and his face split into a wide grin. “I’m a ghost, am I?”
“I saw you die,” I whispered.
“No,” he corrected, coming closer, wincing as he bent to get into the back seat. “You saw me go through the windshield.”
“You hit the tree,” I said. “Your body … you’re dead. I’m talking to a ghost. I can see dead people.”
“And quote cheesy movie lines, too,” he said dryly. “Tell me, if I was a ghost, could I do this?”
He leaned in and kissed me. Despite everything I’d tried to do that morning to stop any further physical interaction between us before it could develop, my body betrayed me.
It longed for more of his touch, and I whimpered in pain through the kiss as I strained toward him, the seatbelt pushing down against skin that was probably already bruised. I didn’t give a shit. Tor wasn’t dead.
Tor. Wasn’t. Dead.
“H-how?” I gasped, finally breaking away for air. In the front seat, Ty just sighed and muttered something about “him being fine, too.”
“Luck, I assume,” Tor said.
After his kiss reset my brain and pulled me from the shock, I saw how gingerly he moved and the tightness of the muscles in his neck. He was in some serious pain. But alive.
“No broken bones?” I asked, inspecting him.
“I don’t think so.”
“I saw you hit the tree,” I said. “I saw it. I heard it. Oh, god, that noise was so sickening. I never want to hear anything like it again.”
“I’m fine,” he said, taking my hand and holding it in his. “Mia, how are you?”
“I’m alive,” I said. “Seatbelt bruises. Hurt. But alive.”
Tor growled. “I am sorry you got hurt.”
“I’ll be fine,” I said, a warm fog descending over me. “I saw you die, though.”
“Mia, you’re going into shock again,” Tor said. “I don’t think I can prevent it this time. You’ve been through too much. But we need to get going. I’m going to have to move you, okay?”
“You look pretty alive for a dead man,” I said. “But I can see it in your eyes.”
“See what in my eyes?” Tor asked, ripping my seatbelt off.
“The light. They’re so bright. Only a ghost would have eyes like that.”
Tor hissed at something Ty muttered under his breath. “Just get the truck back on the road.”
I didn’t hear Ty’s reply.
“It had better run,” Tor growled. “Or we’re in an even bigger world of trouble.”
Tor hauled me out of the truck, holding me to his chest. I stroked his face, numb to everything that was going on and barely able to focus.
“Don’t faint on me,” Tor repeated several times.
The truck started to move. Except there was nobody in the driver’s seat.
“A ghost car!” I yelped, trying to get away. Tor just held a little tighter, and I settled down.
Ty came out from around the front of the truck, looking skeptically at the ruined front end. “I don’t know, Tor,” he said, hopping into the driver’s seat.
The engine coughed several times, whined … then rumbled to life.
“Everybody in,” Ty said, getting out.
I heard metal screech and saw the hood tear away, soaring off to the side out of my view. Then Ty got into the driver’s seat, and we started to move. The wheels groaned, the engine sounded ready to die, and the entire truck shook and rattled and rolled.
But we were moving. Ty struggled mightily with the deformed wheel. He tried to put it back into place, bending it toward him, but it only partially fixed the issue.
I stared straight ahead the entire time, Tor at my side. He kept looking at me, giving me nervous glances, but I ignored him. I had to.
That had been too close, far too close. The fear I’d felt when he’d gone through the windshield, the sheer, gut-wrenching horror and pain that had swallowed me up.
I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t ready. I might never be ready to face the possibility of something like that. Blackness had risen in my mind and nearly broken me. Only the fact that Tor hadn’t died saved me.
I knew what had to be done once we reached his house. It wouldn’t be easy. He would protest. My body would also be unhappy. But there was no way I could risk letting something like that happen to me again. I would not lose myself for someone else.
I had to be strong. Tough.
Alone.
When we finally pulled to the mansion’s entrance, I swallowed my nerves and vowed to tell him as soon as Ty gave us the space. I would spare Tor that embarrassment, at least.
“Come on, let’s get you inside,” Tor said, guiding me up the steps while Ty took the truck and went to park it underground.
“Tor,” I whispered, stopping him as he closed the front door behind us. “Tor, wait.”
He turned to look at me, a frown on his face. “What is it? Are you okay?”
“I …” I shook my head. Then words just sort of tumbled out of me. “No, I’m not. I will be, though, but, Tor, I can’t do this.”
“Can’t do what?” he asked, blinking.
I couldn’t find the words, so I just pointed back and forth between him and me. The light dawned in his eyes, and I knew he understood. That he got what I was trying to say.
I couldn’t do us.
“Mia …”
“It was just hormones,” I said, practically shaking. “But, Tor, I can’t do this. It’s not fair to you. I—”
Tor’s eyes, which had been entirely focused on me until that second, darted past me to the front door. I frowned, wondering what was so much more important than what I was saying.
“Mia,” he said, stopping me from saying anything more. “I need you to do something for me without questioning it.”
I started to shake my head, wanting to say no, that I was done, but he moved suddenly to put himself between the door and me.
“Now,” he said, his voice a command rather than a request.
“What?” I asked, responding without thinking.
“Go to the private area. Find Ty. He’ll be in there by now. Find him, and tell him to keep you safe.”
I stared.
“Go! Run!” he barked, raising his voice and jolting me into action.
I ran. My feet pounded on the floor as I raced for the first intersection, narrowly avoiding the long shelf unit full of little statues and figurines. As I made it around the corner, I heard someone knock on the front door.
Who the hell is he so worried about?