The collision was violent enough to daze me. Moments after impact, I shook my head, blinking hard, trying to understand what had just happened.

A scream. Callie’s? Being knocked forward as we hit a tree head-on, then to my right as the SUV slid around and struck yet another tree on the passenger side.

There was a startling, chilling silence in the car. The only sound came from the ever-pounding rain and wind outside. I wasn’t even certain I heard breathing other than my own.

I turned to Isla, seated beside me, as she lifted her head. “Are you all right?” There were certain injuries a dragon could easily sustain, and there were those which required treatment. Not the sort of treatment humans required, but more than dragons normally needed. Our blood allowed us to heal with stunning speed.

Yet we weren’t impervious to everything, and the crash we’d sustained was violent enough to have dazed me.

“I’m all right, I think.” Isla rolled her head back on her shoulders, then around. “Everything’s moving. It’s sore, but it’s moving.”

“Owen?” I leaned forward to see him.

He shook his head as if to clear out the cobwebs, then fought off the airbag which had deployed in his face. “I’m fine. Maybe. Oh, gods, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“It isn’t your fault we traveled straight into a damn hurricane or whatever this happens to be.” I looked to my right, where Callie sat.

Where Callie wasn’t moving.

“Callie.” I touched her shoulder. She didn’t flinch.

“Oh, no.” Isla reached over me. “Callie? Callie, wake up. Speak to us, please.”

“Dallas…” Owen worked back the passenger side airbag, pushing it away from Callie, and Isla let out a low moan at the sight of blood smeared across the canvas.

“Damn it.” I forced open my door and jumped out into the driving rain. It was nearly enough to blind me, the way the wind sent it straight into my face. I held an arm in front of my eyes as I climbed up onto the crumpled hood. The cover provided by the tree we’d slammed into allowed me the chance to see a bit better.

What I found didn’t inspire relief. The front passenger side was completely crushed, the door useless. How were we supposed to get her out of the vehicle without dragging her over the front seats? I had no idea if we should move her or leave her in place.

“Can you move the seat back?” I shouted.

Isla tried to slide her arm between the seat and the door, but shook her head. “I can’t reach the lever!”

“Pull it back, damn it!” She had the strength, we all knew she did. All of us did.

“It might jar her too greatly!” Owen argued.

I remained there, crouched on the hood, looking down the road. Where were the others? They should’ve been following more closely, though I could understand why they’d take their time. The thought that they might have met up with an accident of their own sent a bolt of stark, flaming fear through my chest.

Then, as if in answer, a pair of headlights shone through the darkness.

Within moments, the SUV came to a stop, and one of the doors opened.

Hecate’s stature and auburn hair with its gold streaks set her apart from the others with whom she’d been riding. She slipped and slid her way through the mud as she fought to reach us.

“What happened?” She shrieked when she caught sight of the interior. “Callie!”

“She’s injured.” For the first time, I felt something deeper than resentment or irritation toward her. Especially when her face crumpled just like the hood of the SUV on which I crouched.

“Callie!” She opened the driver’s door and all but hurled Owen out from behind the wheel without so much as lifting a finger.

“Hold on, now!” I jumped to the ground and helped Owen to his feet.

She didn’t care. She climbed into the SUV, kneeling on the seat to examine her sister.

“You okay?” I asked Owen, who only nodded with a grim smile. He didn’t much care for being handled that way, but instinct told us both not to bother fighting her just then. Not when there wasn’t any time.

“What happened?” Leslie reached us, the rain and wind making it all but impossible to hear her. She looked into the vehicle and backed away with a distraught expression. She wiped the hair which plastered itself to her face away, looking from one of us to the other.

“What are we doing to do?” Owen looked at me, and the fear and guilt and panic in his voice spoke of responsibility. He felt responsible for this, though there was nothing he could’ve done to stop it. That was our way. We took seriously that which was our responsibility to protect, and we’d flown overseas to protect the witches on their mission.

To say nothing of the responsibility we felt toward each other.

I didn’t answer. Instead, I went to the driver’s door, where Isla and Hecate were still examining Callie’s situation. I could just make out Callie’s profile. Her closed eyes, the blood trickling down the side of her face. Still unconscious, though breathing.

“She’s pinned beneath the dash,” Isla called out from inside the vehicle. “Her legs are likely broken.”

Iris joined us, then Electra. The energy which built between them was enough to make me fear for our safety, seeing as how there was already a deadly storm bearing down on us and the trees which swayed and creaked in the wind sounded near ready to topple.

I didn’t need a bunch of emotional witches to heighten the odds that I’d be crushed.

“What about our blood?” I called out, looking to Iris and Electra.

“No!” Hecate shouted, glaring at me over her shoulder. “No, absolutely not!”

“It could heal her,” Isla urged. “She could be better so quickly.”

“I said, absolutely not!”

“Iris. Electra. Please, have some sense!” I couldn’t help but flinch as a bolt of lightning struck dangerously near us. “She needs help, and we cannot stay out here much longer!”

“Can we fly?” Leslie asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t think we’re far enough up the mountain to avoid being seen by those below, and I wouldn’t fly in this storm,” I added. The wind was nearly enough to knock me off my feet, no matter how sturdily I planted myself.

“What’s the point of being a dragon if you can’t fly?” Hecate snarled.

“What’s the point of having blood that could save her if I can’t use it?” I shouted in reply. “If she dies, it’ll be on your hands!”

I regretted it as soon as the words were out of my mouth, but there was no taking them back. Even Leslie gasped in surprise, clutching my arm when Hecate jumped from the SUV like a wildcat about to pounce on her prey.

“Stop!” Iris slid between us. Literally. Her feet slipped in the mud, but I caught her before she went down. “This is ridiculous! We have to remain focused on helping Callie. She needs us!”

Hecate glared at me. “I’ll kill you without a moment’s regret.”

“I’m sure you would,” I sneered. “Now isn’t the time. If we’re to reach the top of the mountain, we need to go now. Every moment we spend out here is dangerous—especially to her!” I thrust my arm out, pointing to where Callie still sat.

“He’s right,” Iris cried out over the roaring wind and the roaring in my head as my dragon fought to make himself heard.

My dragon wanted Hecate dead. He wanted the satisfaction of sinking his teeth into her soft flesh. Of feeling her blood run over his scales as the rain drenched him and washed it away.

Yes, that would be satisfying. It had been too long since he’d experienced the thrill of a good kill.

It seemed neither of us was skilled at thinking rationally when in the grip of a tense situation.

“We don’t all need to go,” Owen shouted into my ear. “What if we take the vehicle that’s still running and continue up?”

“Is that even safe?” Electra asked.

“What’s safer? We can drown out here, or get crushed by a falling tree or we can continue. We must reach them! And they might be able to come down and help her!”

“That’s true,” Isla agreed. “Don’t they have a scientist or some such person up there? Someone who knows… something?”

There were too many questions, too much hanging in the balance. Even Hecate looked uncertain, the fire in her eyes dimming momentarily as she considered this.

“I’ll stay with her,” I decided on the fly. “We can wait here, in the SUV. It’ll be safe enough until someone comes back down for us.”

“Absolutely not!” Hecate shook her head, her teeth bared. If I didn’t know better, I would think she was the shifter and not me.

“Someone has to stay with her!”

“Then I’ll be the one to do it!”

“Your mother would never allow that, and you know it. She would want one of us down here with you in case there’s trouble.”

She burst out in incredulous laughter. “There’s already trouble!” Her barking laughs held a tinge of desperation at the edges, the laughter of one who struggled to maintain a grip on themselves. Once again, I softened, just a touch. Only because I knew the horror of seeing members of my clan lying dead at my feet. The certainty that there was nothing I could do for them.

Wondering if I was about to lose my mind in the midst of the horror all around me.

“We’ll both stay,” I concluded, “and that’s final. The rest of you can continue up the mountain.”

“How would we be able to contact you?” Leslie asked, clutching my arm again.

“I don’t know. I suppose you wouldn’t.” I walked her back to the SUV, as it seemed she wasn’t willing to go on her own. “You’ll be fine. We’ll be fine, too. I promise.”

“You cannot promise something like that. You don’t know.”

“I do know. So do you.” I pressed my palm to her chest. “You know. How many storms have we withstood? Yet here we stand.”

She threw her arms around me and squeezed just once before retreating to the relative safety and quiet of the vehicle. Isla followed, then Iris. Owen got behind the wheel, our eyes meeting through the windshield, and Electra sat beside him.

“I still think you should go with them!” Hecate shouted.

“Yes, I’m sure you do.” I brushed past her on my way to the wrecked SUV, which still sat with its lights on and engine running. No sense in leaving that as it was. “Come on! We have to help her somehow.”