“Get into the van,” he said.
“Can I actually sit in the front this time or are you going to toss me in the back?”
He didn’t answer, only shaking his head before he crossed to it and opened the driver door. Ava stalked behind him and climbed into the passenger seat.
Raven fired the engine and pulled from the space, aiming for some destination she didn’t know.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll know it when you see it,” he answered cryptically.
Ava let her head sink into her hand. “Wow. We’re still doing the whole vague hint thing, huh? I guess I should be grateful your warning note on the plane was clear.”
He continued down the road leading from the airstrip without a word.
She glanced over, finding the plane she was meant to be on rising in the air alongside them. Her nostrils flared as she realized she could have been on it, ending this nightmare instead of riding alongside it with a maniac who wouldn’t even show her his face.
“You know, I’m really having second thoughts here. I think I should have stayed on that–”
She never finished the word as the plane outside her window burst into a ball of flames, explode mid-air with a deafening boom.
Ava’s heart stopped for a second as she stared out the window at the flaming pieces of plane falling from the sky. Raven brought the car to a stop and, without a sound, she opened her door and slid out, her wobbly knees barely holding her. “Oh my goodness,” she whispered, her hands digging into her hair.
Raven skirted around the van, silent as usual.
Ava stared into the night sky where the fireball had been only moments ago before her gaze fell to the horizon where an orange glow lit it.
Her chest constricted as she tried to make sense of what had just happened. She swallowed hard, twisting to stare at Raven with wide eyes.
“What just happened?”
“I thought that was rather obvious,” he answered.
She curled her hands into fists. “You know what I’m talking about.”
She poked a finger at him. “That plane exploded. You warned me to get off of it. How did you know?”
He didn’t answer, and her stomach clenched as she raised her eyebrows, a shocking thought rattling through her mind. “Did you…did you set the bomb?”
“No,” he answered. “The explosion was courtesy of The Board.”
“There were other people on that plane! Why didn’t you warn everyone?”
“Not everyone matters to me, Ava. You do.”
She paced in a tight circle, her features pinching as the gravity of the situation set in around her. She could have died. Had she not listened to his warning, she would have been on that plane.
She pressed her hands against her head again as she continued her pacing. “I need to go home. Take me back to the airstrip.”
“Can’t do it, Ava.”
Her heart sped at the words. “What?”
“I can’t take you back.”
Her eyes widened at the words before she shook her head. “Fine. I’ll walk.”
His boots crunched the gravel on the side of the road as he stormed behind her.
