♕✿~♕✿~Chapter 34//: Midnight talks and ambushes♕✿~♕✿~

Madison's POV

After driving the car for another hour and a half, Lucas tells me to stop the car so that we can change seats.

I put the car in park and get out of the driver's seat as Lucas exits his side of the car. He settles in front of the wheel, looking much more comfortable and relaxed now that I wasn't operating the car. Damon has a similar look of relief in the back seat.

I let out a breath as I sink down into the seat Lucas previously occupied, glad that I didn't have to drive anymore. The afternoon sky had darkened into night, and my excitement to drive had left along with the light from the setting sun.

I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. These days, sleep was a foreign thing to me. I am rarely able to close my eyes and rest easily. The few times I have been able to always ends with me jerking awake, gasping for air and nausea in the pits of my stomach making me want to run to the nearest toilet. Even though I had escaped Nathan, he was always there to greet me each time I closed my eyes.

The car soon starts up, and we're driving along the rough ground of the forest. We still hadn't found our way onto an actual road, and I find myself unable to go to sleep easily with the bumpiness.

I watch Damon in the rear view mirror, who's acting like a child that just received a gift as he sifts through the boxes of guns still left in the back of the car. I had almost forgotten about those.

Damon lets out a low whistle. He turns to look at me. "They have a variety of guns. I wonder how they got so much," he comments.

"Aren't we all wondering that?" I murmur tiredly. My body is sore, and I feel exhausted. My eyes are starting to close on their own accord.

"Damon, are you seriously taking those guns?" I open my eyes as Lucas asks this incredulously to Damon. I glance up at the rear view mirror to see him placing some of the smaller guns from the box into the holsters hanging by his hip. He looks up with an innocent look.

"What? Who knows when we'll need to use these guns," he tells Lucas. Lucas frowns at his answer.

"We won't be needing those," he says firmly, almost as if to convince himself that we'll get out of this safely.

Damon lets out an amused snort. "You're truly naive if you think that we'll escape Nathan and the Rogue Dawn permanently."

We fall into silence because we know what Damon says is true. There's a sense of foreboding and danger hanging stiffly in the air; we all know this fight isn't over yet. We had outsmarted Nathan and ducked away from his hold on us. He would make sure that we didn't get away with it.

The silence combined with the gentle movements of the car lulls me to sleep easily, my body giving in. I don't want to go to sleep because I know what I'll dream about once I do, but my body betrays me, pulling me down into the dark world of dreams.

♡

I'm shaken awake when a particularly harsh bump pulls me quickly from sleep. I feel hot all over and when I put a hand on my forehead, I find sweat. I let out a shaky sigh as I close my eyes, trying to relax my racing heart and panicked mind: I was not stuck down in that prison anymore.

I open my eyes to see that we have reached the road. The headlights illuminate the darkened path ahead of us, and I see no living thing outside. I don't know how long we've been driving, but it must be pretty late for there to be no other cars driving. An involuntary shiver runs through me as cold air wraps around me, and I stare resentfully at the broken window by a tired looking Damon.

"Sorry. Did I wake you up?" Lucas asks me. I think about assuring him he didn't, but he really did.

I tell him so. "But I was probably going to wake up soon, so it's fine." I wrap my arms around myself, allowing myself the chance to watch the dark and gangly trees pass by us as we drive. Soon enough, all of the trees across the nation will resemble these trees as winter comes in a full onslaught like it always does around this time of year.

"You're really dedicated to Ahren." Lucas breaks the silence between us with this statement. I turn to him with surprise.

I shift in my seat. "Why do you say that?" I ask him, curious to hear his answer.

He thinks carefully about his answer before saying it out loud . "You're intent on getting to Norta as fast as possible just to save him. I'm betting that if this happened a couple months ago, you wouldn't be in such a hurry to save him. You resented Silvers before the Choosing."

I'm silent for a moment, taking in his words fully. "I wouldn't really call this dedication. Ahren's a good person, and whatever Nathan thinks he did to him doesn't give him the right to kill Ahren. I want to get to Norta quickly so I can stop Nathan from killing someone that doesn't deserve to die. I know I don't really have the right to say this because I've only known Ahren for two months, but Ahren doesn't seem like the type of person to intentionally hurt someone. He's innocent, and I won't let Nathan kill any more innocent people."

"And this is a person's life that Nathan wants to take. A couple months ago, I didn't have any admiration for the royal family and Silvers, especially Ahren. But if I knew he would get killed, I would still send a message to the palace and warn them. It's just the right thing to do. This is the right thing to do. We can't let Nathan win," I tell Lucas honestly.

After all the words I throw at him, Lucas is quiet. I think that's the end of the conversation, until he speaks up, asking a question I don't want to think about.

"What if we don't make it there in time?"

Horrible images of Ahren getting killed in painful ways invade my mind, and my eyes widen in horror. I try my best to shut the terrible thoughts out. "I don't know," I murmur.

Throughout this drive, I have been trying to think positively instead of negatively. We would get to Norta, stop Nathan, and be victorious. I would be reunited with my family and friends. Ahren would be safe. We all would be safe.

But deep down, I know nothing in life can ever go smoothly like that. Something will happen; I have a gut feeling about it. Either it'll be a minor thing or something major. I don't know which it will be. I only know that something will happen, whether I'm prepared for it or not.

"But I do know that I would never be able to forgive myself if I don't try and stop Nathan," I say to Lucas. "I have to at least try and get there before Ahren is assassinated. I have to do my best to stop it from happening. And..." I swallow, my throat thick as I try to get the dreadful words out. "If I don't make it there in time, at least I would have the knowledge that I had tried my damn best to save him. Ahren's death would torture me, and the knowledge that I had tried my best wouldn't help me at all to accept his death, but I'd at least still have that knowledge," I say softly.

Lucas is speechless from my words, and Damon is quiet in the back as well.

Suddenly, Damon leans forward so that his head is between Lucas and I. He turns to me to give me a sickly sweet smile. "Wow, those words just came straight from the heart that I might actually cry. But I just saw something moving out there. It's creeping me out."

I frown, about to ask him what he means by that, when a gunshot sounds and Damon falls down further into the back seat with a pained grunt.

"Damon!" I exclaim in shock and worry. But I don't even have time to unbuckle myself to check on him before a second shot sounds and the car goes spiraling out of control as Lucas lets out a startled cry when the windshield shatters open.

I scream in terror as the car continues to rotate, the scenery outside a blur.

My scream is cut short as the car comes to an abrupt stop, my head slamming into the window by me and dark spots engulfing my vision.

♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~

What do you guys think is happening? Who shot the bullets at them?

Did you guys catch the foreshadowing in this chapter? It hints at what's going to happen in the end ;)))))))))

The next chapter will come next weekend. I have so much stuff happening on the weekdays, I don't know if I'll get a chance to update until the weekend comes.

Have a great week!

Glass_Sword