It’s not much more than a wide path, and it’s been badly neglected over the years. Parts of it look like they’ve been washed away, and it’s so uneven that the car rocks back and forth like a funhouse ride every few feet.
“Fine.” He rolls his head to the side to look at me. “Just…”
“Processing?”
He nods.
We fall silent, and I keep my attention on the path so I don’t drive us into a ditch. It feels like it takes forever to get to the road that will eventually take us to the highway because of how slow I have to go, but it’s really only about twenty minutes.
The road is paved and wide enough for two cars to pass each other, but it’s also been badly neglected, and the asphalt is full of cracks and potholes, so I have to watch my speed again as I navigate down it.
A soft sound, like a puff of air being blown out, catches my attention, and I glance at Damon.
He’s leaning back against the seat with his head hanging to the side and his eyes closed. His lips are parted, and he lets out another soft puff, like a mix between a sigh and a snore.
Fixing my gaze back on the road, I slow down so we don’t hit the bumps as hard and mull over our situation while he sleeps off whatever he needs to.
6
DAMON
The worldaround me dips as everything is thrown to the left, and the reflexive panic that tightens my chest yanks me out of sleep with a gasp.
My eyelids fly open, and I blink rapidly to clear my vision enough to see where I am and what the fuck is going on.
“Sorry,” a deep and familiar voice says beside me, and all the panic and disorientation melt out of me in a rush. “A damn deer was in the road,” Xave continues, his attention still fixed on the road ahead of us. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“It’s fine,” I tell him and look out the window.
It’s twilight now, and we’re on what looks like a two-lane highway with thick woods on either side of us. There are no streetlights that I can see, and no cars or anything around us except road and trees.
“Where are we?”
“About ten miles from the city.”
“How long was I asleep?”
“About an hour.”
I rake one hand through my hair and wince when my fingers get caught on the tangled strands. “Yeah, that tracks. I don’tknow what it is about cars, but they put me to sleep if I’m not driving.”
“My cousin is like that.”
“Which one?”
“Felix.” He flicks his gaze to mine. “He’s fine for the first twenty or so minutes, but anything after that and he’s down for the count unless you keep him talking and force him to stay awake.”
“Two of my sisters are like me,” I say, still a bit out of it from my nap. Unlike a lot of people, I hate napping. I always wake up feeling more tired and out of it than when I fell asleep, and it takes me a while to shake off the grogginess.
“Sisters?” Xave shoots me a curious look.
I nod and scrub one hand over my face. “I have three younger half-sisters on my dad’s side.” I glance over at him. “I was curious about something.”
“What’s that?” He flicks his gaze to mine.
“Which twin were you talking about when you said one of them made a rope out of willow branches and tied up the other with it?”
He grins. “That would be Jax. I think I still have a picture of Jace with the daisy crown on his head while he’s trying to get free somewhere. I really should dig it out and remind him of that moment.”
