Chapter 49 Disruption

Chapter 49 Disruption
The sound of my own voice, twisted into Hera’s hateful purr, echoed in the cramped cabin of the Rover.

Julian jerked the steering wheel in panic. The heavy vehicle crunched violently on the slick gravel.

"Watch the road, you idiot!" Eetavq roared, grabbing the dashboard as the back tires sprayed rocks over the precipice.

In the back seat, Vesper had recoiled from me as if I’d burst into flames. He was pressed against the door, his face drained of blood, his eyes wide and haunted.

The pressure in my skull peaked, like a red-hot needle crunched driving into my brain. I gasped, choking on the blood running down the back of my throat. The intrusion receded as quickly as it had come, leaving me hollowed out and violatingly cold.

"Vesper," I gagged, spitting blood onto the rubber floor mat. "It wasn't me. I couldn't stop it."

He didn't move right away. He was breathing in shallow, ragged gasps, his hand pressed to his broken ribs. It took a visible effort of will for him to look at me and see Sylvania, not the ancient sorceress who had butchered him.

Slowly, painfully, he reached out. His hand was shaking uncontrollably, but he placed it over my heart, over the sling binding my arm.

"I know," he grated out, his voice sounding like broken glass. "I know it wasn't you. Stay with me. Don't let her back in."

"Drive faster," Estava commanded again, her voice grim. She was leaning forward, clutching her staff, muttering rapid words in the ancient tongue that made the air inside the car hum with static. "She’s pinpointed us. She can’t fully possess the girl from this distance, not yet, but she can send pain. She can distract us long enough for us to drive off this mountain."

Julian didn't need telling twice. He drove with the desperate and careless focus of someone who had just heard a ghost story come to life. The Rover groaned and lurched down the road, throwing me against Vesper with every turn.

I bit my lip to keep from crying out as my broken collarbone ground together. Vesper wrapped his arm around me, pulling me tight against his good side, absorbing the shocks with his own battered body. Every bump drew a sharp hiss of pain from him, but he never loosened his grip.

We descended into the fog silently. The physical distance from the village seemed to help; the crushing pressure in my head eased to a dull, throbbing ache, and the bleeding from my nose slowed.

By the time the gravel turned to cracked asphalt at the base of the mountain, the sun had fully risen, burning away the mist. The bright, flat light of a normal Tuesday morning felt surreal. We were bloodied, hunted, and carrying a new kind of trauma, driving past commuters sipping coffee in their sedans.

"Pull in there," Estava instructed, pointing a gnarled finger toward a rundown gas station and diner crouched by the side of the two-lane highway. It was a relic from the fifties, peeling paint and a flickering sign that buzzed even in daylight.

"Is it safe?" Julian asked, eyeing the two semi-trucks parked in the gravel lot.

"Safe is a forgotten concept, boy," Estava snapped. "We need fuel. And I need salt and iron to weave a cloaking spell over this metal beast before we hit the main highway. If Hera can sniff us out, others can too."

My eyes squinted slightly at her mentioning others. Who were the others? Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, they did.

Julian pulled up to the farthest pump, hidden from the road by the bulk of the diner. He got out to pump gas, his movements jerky and paranoid.

In the back seat, the silence stretched thin. Vesper hadn't let go of me, but he hadn't looked at me since we hit the paved road. He was staring out the window, his jaw locked tight.

"Vesper," I whispered, touching his arm. His muscles were rigid as stone. "Talk to me. Please."

He didn't turn his head. "The tent," he said softly. "When she spoke through you... for a second, I was back in the tent, watching the life bleed out of me while she smiled."

"I will never let her do that again," I vowed fiercely, ignoring the pain as I twisted to face him. "I will cut my own throat before I let her use my body to hurt you."

He finally looked at me. The devastation in his green eyes was nearly unbearable. "Don't you ever say that. The Covenant goes both ways, Sylvania. If you die, I am finished. We find another way. We have to."

Estava opened her door, breaking the moment. "Aleera, stay with them. Keep the doors locked. I’m going inside for supplies."

She marched toward the diner, looking like a furious, homeless woman with her shawls and staff.

Aleera turned in the front seat, her face tear-streaked. "Uhm... Sylvania... are you okay? Your nose is still bleeding a little."

She reached back with a handful of fast-food napkins from the glove box. I took them gratefully, dabbing at my face. The coppery smell was making me nauseous.

"I'm fine, Leera," I lied. "Just a headache."

We sat in tense silence for ten minutes. Julian finished pumping gas and leaned against the hood, arms crossed, his eyes scanning the treeline.

Suddenly, the diner door burst open. Estava didn't walk out; she ran, moving faster than I’d ever seen her move. She didn't have supplies. She had a look of absolute terror on her face.

She wrenched open the passenger door and practically dove inside.

"Go!" she yelled at Julian, slamming the door. "Drive! Now!"

Julian scrambled into the driver's seat, fumbling with the keys, nearly dropping them. "What happened? Did you see something?"

"Not something," Estava hissed, her eyes wide, staring at the diner window where a television mounted in the corner was flashing bright graphics. "Someone."

Julian started the engine and peeled out of the lot, gravel spraying.

Estava turned in her seat to face us, her wrinkled face pale.

"It wasn't just Hera tracking the magic," she said, her voice shaking. "It's everyone. The news is on in there."

She pointed a trembling finger at me, then at Vesper.

"They found the bodies from the chaos at the stadium. Seratti's men. And they found a woman named Martha's dead body dumped somewhere."

A stray thought asked how a woman living in a remote village in the middle of nowhere got to know all that, but I filtered it out as quickly as it come.

My breath caught when I fully comprehended all she said. "No..."

"It’s national news," Estava continued relentlessly. "They aren't looking for a runaway quarterback and a mafia princess anymore. They're looking for the prime suspects in a triple homicide. Your faces are on every screen in the country."