Gypsy Moon (All The Pretty Monsters #4)(50)

“What’s going on?” Damien calls out as Violet’s seatbelt clicks into place.

The plane dips immediately, and Violet squeals, as I quickly strap my own damn self in.

“A storm,” Arion says mildly. “An electrical one.”

My eyes widen, as Violet whips off her necklaces, tossing them toward the back of the plane.

She screws her eyes shut, her skin paling, as she shakes with notable dread or fear.

“Oh, right. You’re a lightning rod,” Damien says dryly, as he fastens his own belt on the second hard dip of the plane. “This ought to be interesting.”

Violet shrieks a little this time, grabbing his arm and squeezing hard.

“Considering I’m inside a flying metal object, I’m surprised the storm isn’t already over here,” Violet says in a shaky, half panicked tone.

The plane violently dips this time, like Vance is forcing our descent too fucking fast.

“Can he even land anywhere here?” Damien snaps as we’re aggressively jolted, my teeth smashing together so hard I’m worried I’ve broken an important tooth or two.

“H-he said i-it won’t be pr-pretty,” Violet stammers, shaking even harder in her seat, as the plane’s descent gets faster and— A scream tears through the plane as something bright and blinding crackles and pops in the air, nearly searing my eyes with the heat off it. It’s so bright that it’s all I can see, making it impossible to know what the actual fuck is happening right now.

The plane is thrown, as the scream gets louder. The light abruptly vanishes…and then I realize what just happened.

The bolt of lightning that just struck us and tore a problematic slit through the plane…was consumed by Violet...

There’s a completely silent moment—no screams, no thunder, no thrumming engines—and we just seem to hover in a moment of suspended animation.

Violet’s eyes get more violet, and her breaths shake harder, along with her hands, as a slight whimper escapes her lips.

That’s when the plane drops hard, and the absence of the thrumming engines finally registers as a really bad fucking thing.

“Vance!” Damien and I both shout, as the thunder warns us of what’s soon to follow.

Arion comes over the speaker—which seems to be the only fucking thing still working on the plane, as we essentially plummet with a little style.

My ears pop, my stomach climbs, my heart pounds heavily, and I watch as gravity works in clumsy motions, sending things flying and crashing all around. Air whirs through the plane that is wobbling and threatening to be torn apart, metal screeching as it fights to stay in one piece.

“Vance can’t talk right now. He’s in the middle of crashing a completely fried plane. This won’t happen on Air Arion when I’m your captain,” the psychotic vampire says with a careless tone.

“Brace!” Vance shouts abruptly, before we’re all jolted hard.

My head flies back as a sense of weightlessness hits briefly, just long enough to confuse all my senses, before that clumsy gravity hits me so hard that it feels like I’m being dragged down by hundreds of hands, violently rocked and jarred.

Violet screams again as the light blares inside. It’s almost like having a welder’s glare directly in front of unshielded eyes, as we’re launched sideways, skidding in circles. We crash and tumble through what sounds like a forest, but all I can see is that damn streak of blinding light.

My seat feels on the verge of breaking off, just as we’re painfully yanked to a halt. Violet’s bloodcurdling screams of agony mostly distract me from all else going on.

That light is so bright because it’s all funneling directly into her, and her body is contorted in obvious torture, as it finally fizzles out as abruptly as it started.

Not even one scorch mark is on anything but her. It’s like she absorbs every fucking spark.

Violet’s body slumps forward, and her weak eyes helplessly look up at me, as Damien curses his broken leg.

“Get me out of here. It hurts worse with so much metal,” she whispers almost desperately.

My seat collapses when I rip the belt free, grabbing her as quickly as I can. Making as much haste as possible, I maneuver myself through the carnage, stumbling only a couple of times.

“Violet!” Vance shouts from the front, just as Arion kicks the cockpit door open on its side.

He throws himself into the door above us, knocking it open, as he disappears out of the way. I launch myself through the opening he makes, cradling Violet to my chest, as I land in an unsteady crouch.

The thunder warns of the next strike, and Violet slaps at my chest.

“Put me down! Put me down!” she shouts in a panic, shoving hard at my chest.

I don’t get her lowered fast enough, and pain licks up my spine so hard that I don’t even feel it at first. In the next instant, it feels like I’m blinded and flayed open, as it rockets through me with another shock.

On the next blink, I’m crashing hard into a tree, knocking it to a lean, as it cracks a couple of my ribs. Dropping hard onto the ground, I grunt and peer through half-lidded eyes to take in the blurry image in front of me, as the rain pelts Violet.

It all seems to slow down at once, as I rock back up to my feet, staring as her head flings back, back arching, while the light feeds into her body. Her head swings back, and her hair sprays water in the streak of its sharp path.