Barabon’s residents had an alarming tendency to fling themselves into the roadway with little regard for oncoming traffic. I cursed as another one attempted vehicular suicide.
“Can we sharding well get out of this city?” I protested.
“Working on it. Think this is where I turn.”
“But don’t you have to be in the other la—” my sentence got cut off as Haki spun the wheel. Tires screeched on pavement as we cut in front of a substantially larger hunk of rolling metal.
“Maybe it’s time these residents were introduced to Dragons,” I hissed as my wings threatened to break free beneath my cloak.
“Don’t be such a youngling. We had loads of room.”
Considering I’d seen the other driver’s eyes widen in fear, I had my doubts. But Haki seemed to be getting the knack of negotiating the lanes. We actually managed a straight line for a full block.
Haki peered around us. “Check the map—I think this takes us out of the city.”
I was reluctant to take my eyes off the road, but I obediently spread the map across the dash. I’d just got my eyes on our approximate location when my driving friend slammed on the brakes. I face-planted against the front glass as an animal the size of Anna’s dog scampered across the road. I might have been catapulted right through the windshield, except the seat was such a tight squeeze that I was essentially pinned in place from the stomach down.
Then Haki pushed the pedal to the floor, and my upper body slammed back.
I glared at him. “Ouch.”
“Stop being a baby,” he repeated. “Are we on the correct route?”
I was beginning to recall that working with Haki had its drawbacks. “It appears so. I am not going to double-check it, though. I am keeping my eyes on the road, lest I become a hood ornament.” I gestured to the graceful bit of metal—some kind of flying creature—that adorned ours.
When Haki ignored me, I folded the map up, returning it to its former state before tucking it into the drawer on the dash.
The road finally released us from the city’s confines. I stared out at farmer’s fields and bits of scraggly bush. We wound along a river that flowed sluggishly around debris, with mats of brown sludge floating on top.
“Think I saw a body in that,” Haki said, peering past me.
“Keep your eyes on the sharding road,” I complained. “And yes, you did. It had four legs and hooves.”
Haki fell silent. We passed an industrial area. Several massive buildings had chimneys that belched black smoke into the sky. I looked out past the chimneys to the sky beyond. It had a brown cast to it that disturbed me. Even if all these people vanished overnight, could their realm recover? I didn’t know. But it didn’t change the fact that what Galeran was doing was wrong.
“Kala says he has to be stopped,” Haki stated. “People can be taught to be responsible. To value their resources.”
“Kala is right,” I agreed.
We fell silent as the view switched from fields to what had once been forest, but was now nothing but scraggly saplings and stumps. It lulled me into a state of welcome numbness, where Xumi and the faces couldn’t reach me. But I was aware of an emptiness inside me. A longing for something that I couldn’t yet be allowed to have.
It had names. More than one, in fact. But I didn’t allow myself to complete the thought. I embraced both the numbness and emptiness as part of the new me.
Unfortunately, those involved had other ideas. And goals, apparently. I was suddenly no longer alone in my mind.
I was flooded with an energy I recognized immediately, only this time, it grabbed hold of me and stiffened every fiber. I gasped, my pelvis involuntarily shoving my suddenly rigid self against the underside of the dash.
Haki shot me a shocked look. “Hey, you okay?”
No.No, I wasn’t. My mind filled with an image of Anna, the morning light cascading over her naked breasts as she straddled me. And I wanted her so desperately I had trouble breathing.
The car swerved across the road as my energy swamped Haki. “Talakai, what—”
“Pull over,” I gasped.
“But—”
“Dammit, Haki,pull over!”
