like that could save her. Something wasn’t right. The wetness
was dripping down her face. The band of pain slammed across
her ribs was the seatbelt. She fumbled for it, but it wouldn’t
give. It was wrenching her so tight to her seat, but her head
hung limply. It was so heavy she almost couldn’t pick it up.
But then she did.
The car was on its side. She was suspended in midair, but
still attached. Everything hurt. The pain was blinding. It made
her want to pass out. Blood dripped from her hairline into her
eyes, ran down her temples and pooled in little red lakes below
her. On the twisted, mangled crush of metal and the body
caught there.
“Fuck!” Giana slammed upright, the covers flying away
from her. Her heart was a tortured, racing beast. Her cheeks
were wet. She raised fearful, shaking hands, scared that they’d
come away bloody, but it wasn’t blood she found. Just tears.
“Just a dream,” she hissed. “Just a dream.”
It wasn’t just a dream. A nightmare, maybe, but it felt more
like a memory. Something she’d lost. Something she’d
forgotten. Banished and didn’t want to remember.
Her eyes searched the dark, orienting herself. Her heart gave
a small hiccup of surprise when they caught on the figure
curled up in bed next to her. No, not next to her. Coralyn was
hovering near the edge, and in a king-size bed, that left lots of
distance between them.
When they’d arrived home, Giana had insisted on helping
Coralyn shower. She was doing better than she’d expected, but
she hadn’t cried. Maybe she’d already spent all her tears at the
hospital. She couldn’t ask and Coralyn wasn’t volunteering to
tell her. Giana didn’t know how it happened. She couldn’t