Page 60 of Godless
But I didn’t argue. Instead, I closed my eyes and let myself drift off.
The second I believed we were safe, the devil came for his due.
Something slammed into the plane from below.
The impact punched through my bones, and my skeleton rattled inside my skin. The plane bucked like a living thing trying to throw us. My shoulder cracked against the bulkhead.
Diego was shouting, but I couldn't hear it, couldn't hear anything past the blood roaring in my ears and the alarms shrieking. Lorenzo jerked awake and gasped against my chest.
Orange flames bloomed outside the window. The plane lurched hard left. My stomach dropped as we tilted, kept tilting, past any angle that meant survival.
No. No no no!
I grabbed Lorenzo, hauled him against me and wrapped myself around him like I could hold back metal and fire and the earth rushing up to meet us. His heart slammed against my chest, and I thought, mine, mine, mine, even as we fell to our deaths.
"Rafael!"
"I've got you." The words ripped out of my throat, equal parts promise and threat and vow.
The plane shuddered. Something tore through the cabin behind us and insulation exploded into the air. Cold wind blasted through and stole the air from my lungs. Lorenzo's fingers dug into my jacket and clawed for purchase. I crushed him closer until there was no space between us, until I couldn't tell where I ended and he began, until we were one thing falling together toward whatever waited below.
“HANG ON,” Diego shouted, fighting with the controls. “We’re in for a bumpy landing!”
We were going to die.
"Look at me." I grabbed Lorenzo's face. "Stay with me. Whatever happens, stay with me."
He nodded frantically and tucked his face back against my chest, burrowing in like he could crawl inside my ribs and hide there.
I held him tighter and wrapped myself around him like I could shield him from metal and fire and gravity itself. If death wanted him, it would have to go through me first.
The impact threw us around like rag dolls in our seats.
The seatbelt bit into my shoulder and sawed deep. Lorenzo's weight crushed against me, and I held on, refusing to let go even as the world disintegrated. We bounced and hit again. Something behind us ripped away with a sound like creation ending. Metal shrieked against metal, and dirt and fire sprayed up everywhere.
My head whipped forward and my vision went white, then black at the edges, but my arms were still locked around Lorenzo, still holding, still keeping him with me because I'd rather die than let him go.
Then, everything stopped.
My ears were ringing, and there was fire and twisted metal everywhere, but Lorenzo was still in my arms, still breathing, still mine.
"Rafael?" He groaned. “You alive?”
"Right here." My voice broke. "I'm right here."
He turned his head to look at me, and relief hit me so hard my vision blurred. Blood streaked down his face, but his eyes were open. “Diego? Jasper?”
"We're alive," came Diego’s call from the mangled front end. “But we need to go now. If this thing is leaking fuel…”
I shifted, and pain lanced through my ribs. Lorenzo hissed when I helped him up. We crawled through the wreckage, toward…
Jesus, the entire back half of the plane had been ripped away. If we’d been sitting on the back seats…
No. I couldn’t think about that. We had to get out. Had to live.
I crawled forward, making sure Lorenzo was in front of me, and kept going when we made it to the grass. We broke into a run, tumbling to the ground some fifty yards from the burning wreckage lighting up the rural New York night like a bonfire.
Lorenzo collapsed onto his back, breathing hard. "That was fun. Let's never do it again."
