Kai's Point of View
The road winds beneath the tires in long, slow curves, dirt giving way to asphalt as Lunaris fades behind us. The late afternoon sun cuts through the trees, throwing broken bands of light across the windshield. I keep my hands steady on the wheel, eyes on the road, but my thoughts drift back more than once to the sound of sirens, the smell of blood, and the look on Octavia’s face when she helped carry her mother away.
Luke is sitting beside me, his elbow propped against the window, his fingers drumming absently against the door. The low hum of the engine fills the silence, broken now and then by the crackle of the asphalt under the tires or the rustle of wind sneaking in through the cracked window.
Behind us, Clary and Octavia talk quietly, their voices barely audibl
