CHAPTER 1
KIRA
The sky is heavy with storm clouds. Night is approaching, and what little light remains is fading fast.
I need to get where I’m going, but I don’t know where that is.
Away. Far, far away.
Thank god for Brianna’s full tank of gas.
It was already raining when I bolted to her car, and now that I’m climbing elevation, the rain is turning to snow.
It’s the first snow I’ve seen this year. It’s usually a magical moment, but today it’s another element of the nightmare I’m suddenly living in. A twisted sort of snowglobe someone is shaking with a violent hand, turning everything upside down.
You have two choices, Kira.
A car comes up behind me too fast, and my pulse spikes. My hands shake, even as I clutch the wheel like a lifeline. Whenthe vehicle swerves into the left lane without using a signal, I hold my breath and don’t exhale until it passes and speeds ahead.
I exit at my next opportunity. Something tells me it will be safer to travel on back roads.
At the stop sign, I flip an imaginary coin. Should I go left or right? Which direction might lead me to safety?
I can’t imagine a best-case scenario, unless you count boarding a plane for the other side of the world, which would be difficult without money. No wallet, no credit cards. Not even my phone, and being without it would usually feel like I’m missing a limb, but even if I’d had time to grab it, I couldn’t risk it being used to track me.
I need somewhere to hide.
I turn left, where I pass a gas station, a fast food restaurant, and a few houses. After that, there's not much besides trees and open spaces, and I'm glad for the emptiness.
The route leads me higher into the mountains. Snow is sticking to the windshield. The temperature must be dropping because the inside of the window is fogging up.
My wedding dress, still damp from the sprint across the mansion’s parking lot, is like ice against my skin, no matter how much heat blasts from the vents.
My hands are numb, and I don’t know if that’s from the cold, my death grip on the steering wheel, or shock.
I’m shivering, bone deep.
I make another turn, and the road narrows. Guardrails appear through a curtain of white, then disappear intodarkness. Trees are crowded close. No more streetlights, no houses, no other cars. Only the occasional reflection from a marker post caught in my headlights.
Up here in the mountains, this clearly isn’t the first time they’ve seen flurries this season. Plow-packed snowbanks, solid with ice and gravel, line the road. At first, they help me follow the route, but the snow keeps coming down thicker with each mile that passes. It clings to the road in slick patches, making every curve a gamble.
Wind pushes against me in violent gusts. I ease my foot off the gas, but I’m too panicked to slow down as much as I should in this weather.
“We’re okay. We’re okay. We’re going to be okay.”
The snowstorm doesn’t listen.
I’m facing a white wall. Zero visibility. Every muscle in my body is tight and aching. My heart is hammering so loudly the sound seems to fill the car.
As I’m navigating the next curve, the front tire slips down onto the shoulder.I panic, cut the wheel too sharply to get back on the road, and the car fishtails. I turn the wheel again, and suddenly, I’m spinning sideways, out of control.
The car skids off the road. For one sickening moment, I’m airborne, and a scream rips out of my throat.
I hit the ground with athud. Metal crunches and glass shatters. Everything jolts forward.
My vision blurs as my hands slip from the wheel.
A sharp pain hits below my chest. Thena deeper pain, lower.
