Michael’s hand shot out and grabbed my arm. His fingers dug in hard enough to bruise.
“SHELLY—”
I turned.
Headlights. Massive. Blinding. On our side of the road, coming straight at us.
A semi truck, crossing the center line. So close I could see the grill.
Michael yanked the wheel. The car lurched, loss of control, tires screaming on asphalt.
Not enough.
The truck filled the windshield.
I reached back. Reached for Rose, for Fury, for Blaze.
Not my babies. Please, God, not my?—
Impact. Metal on metal, the loudest sound I’d ever heard, and then my body wasn’t mine anymore. I was thrown sideways. Something broke inside me. Michael’s hand was ripped from my arm.
Then silence. The wrong kind.
Pain, everywhere, so much of it that my brain just... stopped trying to catalog it.
Michael wasn’t moving. I could see his face in the orange glow of the dashboard, and I knew. Before the thought formed. Before I could make myself understand what I was looking at.
He was gone.
I tried to turn. Tried to see my children.
My body wouldn’t do it.
The kids. Are the kids?—
Crying. Fury’s voice, high and broken: “Mom? MOM?”
Alive. He’s alive. Thank?—
The dark was pulling at me. Heavy. Patient.
Someone has to help them. Someone has to?—
Rose—
The last thing I heard was Fury screaming for help.
The last thing I thought was the only prayer I had left:
Let them live. Please. Whatever happens to me, let my babies live.
CHAPTER ONE
ROSE
Colorado,October 2023
At five in the morning, the world belonged to the horses.
