Page 69 of Rite of Unity

I glanced over at him.His bright blue eyes met mine and held them.

“You said that already.”

His gaze never wavered.“I meant it.”

“You really won’t tell me where you’re taking me?”

Elias reached for my hand, tugging it from my lap and lifted my fingers to his mouth.“It will be more fun this way.”

A thump sounded, and we jolted to a stop.

I yanked my hand from his grasp, heart in my throat as I searched the road in front of us illuminated only by the low yellow beams of his car.“What was that?”

Faster than I could think, his car door was open and he was out.Quickly, I came around to his side.

I froze.

“Mother above.Shit.”Elias’s hands were on his head as he paced.

He looked up.“Stop.”

But it was too late.Pale skin, exposed beneath rapidly darkening fabric, was bent at a strange angle.

My stomach lurched.

I moved, crouching beside the woman still half-obscured by his car.Something raw scraped against my insides.A woman, cut down in the street by a man.

I stretched my fingers toward her.

“Don’t!”

I jumped, my pulse thrumming.

“Don’t touch her.”

I looked up into his wild eyes, hair stuck out at odd angles from running his hands through it.

Elias crouched beside me, looking between the woman he had run over and me.

“I… We can’t…”

I glanced around the darkened street, then at Elias’s trembling fingers tugging at his collar.

I touched his arm.He stilled, eyes meeting mine.

“We can’t leave her like this.”

A look of blind terror washed over him.Then he swallowed.Nodded.

“Can I have your tablet?”

He stared down at the woman’s exposed leg, slowly fading to a mottled shade of gray.“I don’t…”

My back stiffened, my grip tightening on his arm.“Elias, give me your tablet.”

He nodded, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out the sleek black device.

“Touch the screen.”