I doubt that she would even be here if Shark hadn’t taken all those shots to get involved in her fight, to save her, to kick and strike away the fae with the twisted mouth.
Shark saved her.
Now, he’s back there on the road, neck twisted all the way around, and she’s here.
The rustle of paper comes as Arwyn drags a corner of the map closer to himself.
I forget all about Mika and watch as Arwyn’s finger traces a black line on the parchment, still planning our route back to the unit.
Guess we can’t go back the way we came, with the earthquake splitting apart the land and all that.
But I take the chance to burn as much of the map’s details into my mind as I can while it’s out.
I consider the lines, the red one, the dark-inked ones, as though that’ll help me find out which unit Bee is trapped in—but even if I knew, what could I do about it?
Nothing.
I’m useless, a human in a dark fae apocalypse.
And I’m even more useless alone.
I got a taste of that when Samick told me to run—and maybe it was an hour, maybe it was a few, but it was terrifying either way.
I’m not built to persevere.
I’m not built to overcome fear.
I’m just not.
Something I’ve learned about myself out here—before those hours, I’ve never really been alone in the world. I had my mum, then I had Bee. Now, separated from her, Samick looks after me.
It’s now I realise how heavily I rely on him.
And that should scare me.
But it doesn’t. I just stand close to him, closer than I should, closer than I need to.
My hip bone—too prominent, too protruding—digs into the weapons holstered to his thigh. My shoulder presses against the knives strapped to his arm.
But he doesn’t push me away.
Like I’m not here at all, he goes over the map, and I wonder if he realises how scared I was alone, how my mind started to turn on me, and just how fucking unlikely it is that I’ll run away from him and go out into the blackout, alone.
Could be why he doesn’t bother hiding the map from me.
Not that it’s overwhelmingly helpful or anything.
I definitely don’t know enough about Canadian geography to figure out where I am exactly. I only know that we’re passed the mountains and close to the coast.
A thud shudders the car—and silences the conversation between Samick and Arwyn.
We all look over at Mika.
She’s slumped over the windshield on the other side of the car, her arms limp on her lap… then there’s the creaking sound of leather screeching over metal as she slides off the bonnet.
She goes tumbling—
And the moment she does, Arwyn snaps out of his surprise and lunges for her.
