Chapter 179 Still Breathing

Chapter 179 Still Breathing
FREYA -

Casey didn’t ask her to explain.
The second Sandy’s name left Freya’s mouth, he was already moving. He pulled on his jeans, while Freya shoved her arms into the first sweatshirt she touched. Her skin still carried the warmth of him, but the cold pull dragged beneath it.
The guard in the hall straightened when Casey opened the door.
“Tell my father we’re leaving,” Casey said, guiding Freya past him. “There's trouble that we might need him for.”
The guard’s eyes widened. “Trouble?”
Freya stopped on the stairs as another flash cut across her mind. Gravel, yellow road paint, and dark trees leaning close on one side.
“It's near a thick bank of trees near the... east road, I think,” she said.
They were in Casey’s truck less than a minute later. The engine turned over hard, and Casey had his phone to his ear before they reached the gate. Freya sat beside him with one hand pressed to her stomach, trying to follow a pull that she didn't quite understand.
Broken glass and blood on a sleeve flashed through her mind again, but every time she tried to push for more, the place inside her shuddered.
Casey spoke low and fast into the phone. “Old East Road near the trees." There was a pause, and then, "I don’t know how she knows. Just send help.”
He ended the call and looked at Freya. “Tell me where.”
Freya closed her eyes, and the darkness behind them filled with headlights sliding across pavement, then a hard turn, and a burst of fear that wasn’t hers.
“Left,” she said.
Casey took the turn fast, tires biting at the shoulder before the truck steadied again.
The cold turned icy, and Freya’s wolf pushed close beneath her skin, restless but supportive. The cold wasn't her wolf, it came from the hollow place that had opened at the Stones, the place Lance had passed through when she let him go. Only this time, the soul pressing near it wasn't ready.
Sandy was still alive, and Freya could feel her thin, struggling thread.
“Slow down,” she whispered.
Casey eased off the gas, and when they rounded a bend, the truck’s headlights caught a broken strip of metal near the ditch.
Casey pulled over hard, and Freya was out before he could come around to her side.
“Sandy!” Her voice tore through the cold air, but nothing answered at first.
Casey reached the ditch beside her and went still. Sandy’s car had gone down into the trees, the front end crushed around a trunk, the back half tilted into the slope. Glass glittered through the dirt, and one door hung open a few inches, blocked by bent metal and branches.
Freya scrambled down the incline, and Casey stayed close enough to catch her when her foot slid.
Sandy was folded against the steering wheel, one arm trapped at an angle that made Freya’s stomach twist. Blood ran from her hairline and down the side of her face. Her eyes were closed, and for one terrible second, Freya thought they'd arrived too late.
Then Sandy’s chest moved, and Freya reached through the broken window. “Sandy.”
Casey moved around the car, his eyes taking in the tire marks cut deep into the muddy edge of the road and the streak of darker paint along the back panel.
“This wasn’t an accident,” he said, but Freya barely heard him.
The cold inside her pulled again, harder this time, and Sandy’s breath caught as if something had wrapped around it. The doorway inside Freya trembled, and she felt the edge of it open enough for shadows to gather on the other side, waiting.
“No,” Freya's voice turned hard.
Casey’s hand pressed warm against her back. “Freya?”
“She’s not going through. I won't let her.”
The words came out before Freya knew how strongly she meant them.
Sandy had lied and hurt her. She'd let her grow up believing she was unwanted and weak, and alone.
Freya wasn't sure if she could ever forgive her, but Jared did not get to take another one of her family.
Freya pressed her fingers against Sandy’s wrist, searching for the faint beat beneath the blood and cold skin. It was there, weak enough that she had to hold still to feel it.
“Stay,” Freya whispered. “You don’t get to run from this.”
The air behind her changed, and Casey lowered beside her, one knee in the dirt and one hand still firm at her back. His heat pushed into the cold gathering around the car, while she held onto the thin thread of Sandy’s breath.
Voices finally sounded from the road above them.
“Down here!” Casey shouted.
Feet slid on gravel, and a healer dropped into the ditch first, followed by two Stiller wolves and Eric, whose face went hard the moment he saw the car.
The healer reached Sandy and began giving orders. Freya tried to move back, but the cold pulled sharply, and Sandy’s fingers jerked against the trapped wheel.
“She’s slipping,” Freya said, her voice more frantic than she'd expected.
The healer looked at her, then at Casey.
“Do what you’re doing. Don't stop,” Casey said.
No one argued after that.
They worked around Freya. Metal groaned as one of the wolves forced the door wider, and the healer pressed cloth to Sandy’s head and checked her pulse, his mouth flattening as he moved faster.
“Another few minutes,” he said, “and she wouldn’t have made it.”
Freya’s fingers shook against Sandy’s wrist.
Sandy’s lashes fluttered but didn't fully open as she murmured something in a whisper.
Freya leaned closer. “Sandy?”
A breath dragged through Sandy’s throat, and blood darkened the corner of her mouth as her face twisted with something too weak to be fear.
“Jared...” she whispered.
The name went through Freya like a blade.
Casey’s hand closed around her shoulder, and Eric looked from Sandy to the road above them.
The healer swore and pushed Freya back so they could lift Sandy free. This time, the doorway inside Freya didn't pull as hard.
Sandy was still close to it, but not as close as before.
Freya let Casey help her up the ditch. Her knees felt unsteady when they reached the road, and Casey kept an arm around her.
She watched as Sandy was carried past them on a stretcher, blood still dark in her hair.
She watched until the vehicle doors closed.
Freya turned toward Casey. “He tried to kill the only family I have left.”
Casey’s face changed.
Memories tried to push in of every cruel thing Freya had swallowed in that house, but Freya forced them back, and her fingers still curled at her sides.
Sandy was Lena’s sister. Freya didn’t forgive her. She couldn't even say what she felt when she looked at her anymore, but she would not let Jared take the last living piece of her mother before Sandy could stand in front of the Council and say what she knew.
Freya looked back toward the ditch where Sandy’s car sat broken beneath the trees.
Jared had done this because he was afraid Sandy would betray him. Now Freya would make sure she did.