Into Their Woods (The Eerie, #1)(72)
Inch by lifted inch, I prove to myself that I’m more than I ever thought possible. That I’m stronger and more fierce than I ever expected, which causes jubilation to march through me, from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet—this giddy, elated pride overtaking my bloodstream, erasing my thoughts. Making me fucking glow.
There’s no time for awe, only enough space in my head for short quick breaths. My fingers spread wide and my feet dig into the ground as my spine tries to lengthen. I push. And push. Push without thought.
We gain another four inches. Then five. The smell of pine sap is strong in the air, and the crinkle of dead leaves being battered by the wind combines with the puffs of air coming from between my lips. My entire body becomes a tool. A vessel. A lever to move a van. I stop thinking about impossibilities because…apparently, in the eerie world, that word doesn’t mean the same thing.
Six inches.
Ten.
Gravity suddenly takes over and the van rocks violently to its side. It wobbles and then settles exactly where we need it to with a thunk that feels as loud as the sigh of relief gushing from my lips.
Ellery immediately climbs up the side, and the driver’s side window is broken from the inside. He reaches through it, and a man with pointed ears emerges from the battered opening. Metal and glass scrape against his large frame, but the man ignores the new injuries in his bid for freedom from the car. He’s bloody, clearly hurt, but it doesn’t stop him from scrambling to the rear window to help free his family as Ellery reaches back through the front.
Ellery pulls a woman out next. Then the man plucks out a girl and then a little boy quickly after. He hands the crying boy to Ellery, and I reach up to help the woman slide off the overturned van to the ground.
My blood is flowing fast and hot in my veins as the woman’s feet touch down, and she reaches to pull her son from Ellery’s arms. My neck feels like it’s on fire. My chest is spewing lava as first Ellery and then the man and his daughter climb down from the destroyed van.
The second they’re all free, I’m suddenly drained, wiped, void of all energy. I stay planted where I am, unable to do more than blink through the downpour. Ellery instructs the family to climb to safety, and they all start to move, but I can’t lift my feet to follow. I just gave everything I had to give, and now it feels like there’s nothing left for me.
Rain drips from my eyelashes into my eyes, and I hardly have the strength left to swipe at them as the family disappears, moving away from the mudflow’s path and up the mountain. By the time I manage to lift a palm to try and clear my vision, Ellery is suddenly there, his handsome face looming over me, his blue eyes bright with concern.
“Are you alright?” he asks, his steady stare searching my face for an answer.
“That seems to be the question of the day,” I murmur, finding a tiny bit of sarcasm left in my reserves and scooping it out just for him.
“You might be feeling a crash right now,” he explains as he studies my eyes. “It’ll happen until you get used to shifting and balancing the magic and effort it requires.”
I nod, or at least I try to. Moving my head suddenly feels like it requires entirely too much effort.
“You’re incredible, Noah,” Ellery declares almost reverently.
A soft sort of delight expands inside of me, followed quickly by an intense longing that manifests as a strange sort of prickling in my neck, right at the spot where my throat meets my shoulder. My shaky arms reach up and rub at the spot, and Ellery’s eyes drop to it.
He bites his lip. Then, for a split second, my heart jumps because I think his eyes flicker into a wolf’s, but it must be a trick of the light, an illusion of shadows created by the rain, because a second later, he’s gazing back at me normally.
His hand reaches for my cheek, and my head tilts automatically to lean into his palm. “You did it.”
“I’m a badass,” I tell him shakily as I nod in shock.
“Shifter strength isn’t so bad, huh?” he asks, a knowing grin erupting.
“That was…holy shit, that was crazy.”
“It’s like base jumping inside your head,” he comments.
“Perfect fucking description. Except now, I don’t think I can walk. Pretty sure my leg bones were replaced with marshmallows.”
“Well, then…” The sheriff’s eyes sparkle with delight as his hand moves from my cheek to my shoulder. “I might be able to help with that.” And then, he lifts me up into his arms bridal style, and I suck in a startled gasp.
He turns, ready to carry me up the mountain, but a roar rends the sky apart. I look up the ridge only to see the tumultuous clouds blotted out by tumbling shadows. Terror seizes my entire body as a second wave of the landslide bursts over the cliff above us.
Ellery’s arms wrap tighter around me in an instant, and he’s running, dodging around the van, heading down the hill at an angle as a new stream of mud begins to crash down the mountain in the same path the prior slide took. I’m pressed hard against his shoulder, his body and mine slapping together with every step he takes.
Behind his shoulder, I can see huge rocks raining down like stone hail. Inhumanly fast, Ellery veers farther away, getting us clear of their falling path—or we would be clear…
A large boulder splits in two with a loud crack.
One half goes careening down the mountain with the other stones. But the second half shoots straight for us.