Fire And Ice

Chapter 31 - Start Talking

Natalia's P. O. V

After Kaesha quite literally set Hailey on a safer path, the drive went a lot smoother.

Hailey still sang at the top of her lungs, swerving slightly once in a while, and Kaesha still looked supremely uncomfortable, fidgeting and tinkering with a sculpture she'd conjured from her dorm room. I kept myself busy with doing my best to complete the summary on the Packs, Alliances and Rogues book I'd read the previous night, but was having a little trouble due to the sudden jerks the car made under Hailey's increasingly restless command.

Then she opened her mouth, but not to sing again, "I'm bored..."

Kaesha and I raised our heads to look at her. "I can see that." We replied simultaneously.

She was silent again for a while the spoke up again, "I wanna do something!"

"You mean something other than murdering our ears?" Kaesha quipped, looking back down at her sculpture.

"Hey! I'll have you know that I won a sparkly pink ribbon for my singing in the third grade."

Kaesha snickered while I raised a brow.

"Okay, fine! So my singing isn't the best... but you should be grateful it's me and not Keily."

We shared a look and shuddered.

"Who's Keily?"

We looked back at her for a few seconds, only to whip back around when the heavy horn of a lorry blared straight at us. And it was right in our path... or we were in its.

We screamed.

Kaesha and I grabbed onto the nearest stable object as Hailey tried to wrestle the wheel under control. A horn blared. We managed to get out of its way but the world still spun.

Nauseous.

A railing zoomed towards Hailey's side and rammed the car. The universe rocked. White exploded. I was shoved backwards, pressed violently into my seat. The car somersaulted, flipping and flipping and flipping and... I lost count.

Dizzy.

I heard Kaesha chant as Hailey continued screaming with her apparently bottomless lungs. I struggled to breathe, white taking the place air should have been. We sailed through the sky, a blur of blue, green and grey visible outside my window.

It stopped.

Disorientation gripped me as I tried to rationalise which way was up. Chilling silence reigned. Then Kaesha groaned behind me.

"Ava?! Hailey?! Are you guys okay?! Answer me!"

"Alive..." Hailey croaked, voice hoarse and gravelly, "Ari?"

I wrestled enough air down to wheeze a weak, "Kay..."

Kaesha muttered a word and the white faded, the air bag deflating. Beside me, Hailey's did the same. I slumped forward as far as the seat belt welded against my chest would allow, trying to make up for my oxygen depravity. My vision still swam.

Kaesha said another word and the seatbelt ripped down the middle, allowing me to properly breathe.

"I thought... you don't chant..." I said once my vision cleared.

"My mind is a mess," Kaesha said after a while, "if I don't use the stupid words right now, my magic won't focus."

"Cool." Hailey commented, lacking her usual enthusiasm.