Her eyes found his, glassy but aware. “Alaric.” The word trembled out of her, thin and fragile. “It hit us.”
“I know.” His voice stayed calm because it had to, because she needed itsteady. “You’re okay. You’re breathing. You’re talking. I’ve got you.”
He scanned her fast and thorough, forcing himself to be methodical. Neck. Shoulders. Arms. No obvious deformities. Bruising already bloomed along her collarbone where the seatbelt had caught her, vivid and angry. Rage burned hot and vicious in his chest at the sight.
“Does anything hurt badly?” he asked.
“My ribs.” She swallowed. “And my head.”
“Okay. That’s okay.” He kept his tone steady, grounding. “Don’t move yet. I’m going to get you out, but I need you to tell me if anything seems wrong. Dizziness. Numbness. Anything.”
She nodded faintly. “Okay.”
Sirens wailed somewhere in the distance. Too close. Too slow.Alaric didn’t like the way the road was suddenly exposed. Open. Watched. As if this wasn’t finished.
He unfastened Sera’s seatbelt carefully, bracing her as it released so she didn’t jolt. She hissed softly but didn’t cry out. That restraint nearly brokehim.
He lifted her out of the car and held her against his chest, her weight solid and real and terrifyingly fragile all at once.She clutched at his jacket, fingers curling tight like she was afraid he might vanish if she letgo.
“I’m here,” he murmured, bending his head close. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He carried her a short distance off the road, positioning them behind the wrecked car for cover. He kept one arm locked around her, the other already pulling out his phone.
Magnus answered on the firstring.
“Al,” his brother said, sharp. “What’s wrong?”
“We were hit,” Alaric said flatly. “Deliberate. Truck. Driver swapped cars and vanished. I’ve pulled us out. Ineed you now.”
No questions. Just a clipped, furious, “Where?”
Alaric sent the location. “Bring the SUV. No ambulances. No police. I’ll explain later.”
“I’m already moving.”
Alaric ended the call and shifted his attention back to Sera. She was shaking now, the adrenaline finally cracking, tremors rippling through her despite the way she tried to hold herself still.
“You’re going to be okay,” he said, brushing his thumb gently over her face, careful to avoid the cut. “Magnus is coming. We’re leaving before anyoneelse gets here.”
Her eyes searched his face. “We’re not staying?”
“No,” he said abruptly. “Not here.”
She nodded again, trusting him without hesitation. The strength of that trust settled heavy and fierce in his chest.
Minutes felt like hours before headlights appeared at the edge of the road. Magnus’s SUV pulled in smoothly, stopping at an angle that shielded them from view. Magnus was out of the vehicle in seconds, gun in hand, eyes scanning the scene with lethal focus.
He took one look at Sera in Alaric’s arms and swore.”Get in,” Magnus said. “I’ve got you.”
They moved fast. Alaric slid into the back seat with Sera, keeping her close as Magnus pulled away just as sirens grew louder behindthem.
They were gone before anyone arrived.
The SUV ate up the road, Magnus driving like every second mattered and none of them could afford a mistake. The city slid past in fractured streaks of light, red and white blurring together. Alaric kept his body angled protectively around Sera, one arm locked behind her shoulders, the other braced against the seat as if he could physically hold the worldsteady forher.
Magnus checked the mirrors constantly, eyes narrowed, one hand on the wheel, the other already tapping out messages Alaric didn’t need to see. Containment. Cleanup. Quiet questions asked in the right ears. Alaric trusted him with all of it without discussion.
Sera shifted, asmall movement that sent a spike of fear through Alaric’s chest. He leaned down immediately, pressing his forehead to her hair, breathing her in. Exhaust and blood and her. Alive.
