Chapter 147

The world comes back in pieces. My head throbs like someone is hammering nails into my skull from the inside. Metal groans around me and the sharp smell of burnt rubber and gasoline fills my nose. I blink hard, trying to make sense of the upside-down angle of the streetlights filtering through the cracked windshield. The car is on its side but I am still strapped in, my body hanging awkwardly against the seatbelt with one leg pinned beneath something heavy.

Eli’s voice cuts through the haze. “Lucia. Lucia, stay with me. Open your eyes.”

I turn my head toward the sound and find him half inside the driver’s side, which is now above us, his face tight with focus as he works at the crumpled metal near my legs. Blood trickles from a cut on his forehead, but he doesn’t seem to notice or care. His hands move fast, prying at the dashboard that has shifted inward and trapped my left leg.

“Eli,” I manage in a dry voice. “What happened?”

“Another car slammed into us.