The highway stretched ahead, gray and endless, a ribbon of asphalt cutting through hills that rolled toward the horizon like frozen waves.
Fiona kept her eyes fixed on the road, her hands steady on the wheel, her jaw set so tight that the muscles in her neck stood out like cords. She did not look at Erza. She could not. The weight of the dragon queen's presence filled the car like water filling a sinking ship, pressing against her skin, her lungs, her thoughts.
Both women were silent.
Erza sat in the passenger seat, her silver hair catching the morning light and scattering it into fragments. Her violet eyes were fixed on the clouds drifting past the glass, but she was not seeing them.
