Fate Mate

Chapter 58

I cursed beneath my breath, tugging at the roots of my hair as I stared at the blur of cedar trees racing past my passenger window. My teeth ground against each other, and I tried to concentrate on steadying my breaths.

Tapping my foot against the car's carpeted floor, I risked a glance at my companion. "Angelina– you have to go faster."

The witch didn't take her eyes off of the road as she hissed her reply. "I can't go any fucking faster, Charlie!"

On any other day, her words might have stung. But, at that moment, I felt numb.

We'd been driving for over hours already, and it felt like we weren't any closer to stopping the spell that would take the lives of three beings. As soon as Angelina agreed to take me to the faultline, we raced to the packhouse garage and selected the fastest vehicle we could get our hands on. But even in the fastest car at our disposal, this was not a race that we could win easily...

The red LED clock on the car's dashboard read 11:46 PM, and Angelina estimated that we still had another 10 minutes until we reached the faultline.

I cradled my head in my hands, praying that Nolan could not feel my distress through our mindlink. If he received any indication that I knew about the cost of the spell's sacrifice, he might tell Zephora to begin the magic before midnight. That was a risk I couldn't take.

It was the only reason I hadn't dared to call him yet. It was the only reason I hadn't reached out via our mindlink to beg him to save himself.

Angelina's fingers shook on the steering wheel as she forced the car into a harsh turn, narrowly missing a tree that had fallen on the side of the road. We'd traveled to the middle of nowhere, it seemed.

"Angelina, if we don't make it in time..." Nausea threatened to creep up my throat at the thought of arriving at the faultline too late– of bursting through the clearing to find my mate dead. Drained of his blood...

"Don't talk like that," Angelina whispered, but her voice cracked, revealing her own skepticism.

Suddenly, our headlights reflected against something remarkably shiny in the distance. My breath caught in my throat as the glossy black paint of Nolan's SUV shone brighter in our headlights as we approached.

"Thank the Moon Goddess!" I gasped. "It's the car. We made it!"

I nearly sobbed in relief, but upon glancing at Angelina again, my heart fell into the pit of my stomach. Her lips were parted, and something like despair was written across her features. "Angelina?"

She remained silent for several, painfully long moments, bringing our car to a slow stop mere paces away from the rear of the SUV. I realized, too late, that fresh tears were rolling down Angelina's cheeks.

"A-Angelina?" I tried again, although her name sounded hollow on my tongue.

She started to shake her head, her knuckles turning white as she clutched the steering wheel. "This isn't right... The faultline is still a few miles away. I d-didn't r-realize..."

My stomach felt like it had bottomed out, and I struggled to pull breath into my lungs as I waited for Angelina to continue. "What?" I demanded, more forcefully than I'd intended. "What didn't you realize?"

"The faultline is in the middle of the f-forest!" Angelina finally managed to sputter. "T-the road w-won't take us there. We have to get there on f-foot, okay?"

Her words washed over me like the shadow of death itself, and the void reopened in my chest. My head snapped to the passenger side window, and I squinted into the darkness. It was a desperate, foolish attempt in hopes of seeing a distant light through the foliage, marking the location of the ritual, but there was only shadow.