Little Spark

45 - Deal

For a moment, all I hear is the thump-thump of my heart in my ears. I peek out the window and see the tailgate of an old pickup truck at the street's dead-end. I can't see the front of the truck from this angle, but based on the sounds of screeching tires, twisting metal and breaking glass I heard a minute ago, it crashed into the guardrail at the end of the street.

I'm a little nervous about seeing the wreck—because it's a single-car accident, one of the oddities Mr. Casey told me to keep an eye out for, I'm sure the Shadows are involved. Which means the driver is probably dead.

I take a deep breath and head outside to meet Reign. I'm sure he saw the whole thing. As I walk down the path from the porch to the street, I see that the truck did in fact crash at the dead-end. I can only see the back end from here, but there is definitely steam rising into the cool air from the front.

When I get to the edge of the woods, Reign is nowhere to be found. "Reign?"

I call out to him, but he doesn't answer. He must have shifted already.

I brace myself and head over to the accident. When I reach the tailgate, I close my eyes and continue the journey to the driver's door by running my hand along the side of the truck until I reach the handle. The eerie silence makes it clear things are bad. After taking one last steadying breath, I open my eyes.

The driver's window is down, and his head rests against the back of the seat. His mouth hangs open and there's blood running down his face from a gash in his forehead. His hands are still on the steering wheel, and as my eyes travel over his body I see that he's still breathing.

"Sir?" I say, my heart working overtime. "Can you hear me?"

He groans, and then his hands suddenly drop into his lap. His body slumps forward, and the seatbelt locks, catching his weight and leaving him suspended in midair. I gasp and jump backward, and my vision goes fuzzy from the adrenaline spike.

As I regain my equilibrium, a dark shape on the hood with a golden crown of hair blurs into view from within the rising steam.

I'm pretty sure the earth has stopped spinning.

I stand with my mouth open, unable to breathe, looking at Reign there in the midst of the wreckage, but not really seeing anything at all. My now trembling legs carry me toward him without my being conscious of moving them, and his words in the woodshed seem to echo in the silence around me:

"There's a good chance something bad will happen."

Lying facedown with his hands against the hood, he would look like he was taking a nice nap if it weren't for the blood tricking down the metal from the corner of his mouth. I can't see anything below his waist because the truck has him pinned against the guardrail.

The severity of the scene hits me like a bolt of lightning. "Reign?" I cry out, shaking his shoulder. I put my fingers to his neck: his skin is clammy, and I can't find a pulse.

I lay both hands on his back and send a stream of light into him. I see the glow creep up his neck and into his face, but he doesn't budge. "Reign, please wake up..." I whisper, starting to panic as the scene sets in. "Please, please, please."

I squeeze my eyes shut and pull together every happy memory I have of him, and then I imagine a big ball of fire growing from inside me and enveloping us both in a giant light bubble. I end up forcing out so much energy, my vision begins to darken at the edges, and I almost pass out.

Nothing.

Kicking into overdrive, I run back to the driver's side and yank the door open. Heaving the driver's body back against the seat, I climb over him into the cab of the truck and begin searching for a cell phone; I can't reach Reign's pockets to get to his.