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“Hit me, Safi!”
The air inside the car was stuffy, humid. Safi could barely bring herself to breathe. She kept swallowing, but her mouth was dry. It didn't help that she had terror coursing through her veins and anxiety making a knot of her stomach.
“Come on!”
Safi cursed, fingers curled tightly around the steering wheel. Beneath her, the car hummed steadily, but her foot was poised on the gas pedal. She was hesitating. She was scared.
“Safi!”
She finally glanced up, looked at Max. She was standing in the road, and around them a terrible, enormous storm swirled and undulated. It was a miracle Max hadn’t been blown off her feet, but that was something Safi had learnt about Max—she defied reality.
Her hair whipped about her face, rain drops slamming against her pale white skin. Somehow, even in the dark, even from a distance, Safi could see the blue of her eyes—as if they were glowing embers, daring her.
And they were—begging her to do it, to hit the gas and lurch forward.
“Fuck!” Safi screamed, fist slamming against the dashboard. “I can’t!”
Max heard her, and she let her hands disappear into her hair, tugging. “You have to!” she cried out, voice bleeding desperation. “You know you have to, Safi!”
How the fuck was she supposed to do this? The car was swaying from the force of the wind, moving side to side as if it would tip over entirely. Safi wasn’t even afraid of that. What fuck would she have left to give, if she just simply got tossed over?
But she knew Max was right, goddamnit. Their actions—everything they had done—had led them here, to this terrible moment. She had played with forces she didn’t understand, assumed herself a god and didn’t take Max’s warnings seriously.
This was the result.
Safi rolled the window down and stuck her arm out, the rain pelting her skin so fiercely that it felt like needles, and her heart lurched to know Max was standing amidst that, waiting for her fate.
“Max, please!” Safi begged, reaching forward as if she could grab her.
Max’s expression was unwavering, stern. She’d done this before, gambled with fate and lives at the feet of an incredible storm. If Safi didn’t make this choice, the storm would make it for her. All around them Caledon crumbled to pieces, concrete torn free, trees uprooted. She’d long since stopped hearing the screams of terror from everyone they’d known and loved.
Somehow they were the last—Max in the road, Safi behind the wheel.
Safi’s expression flickered, memories overwhelming her, always coming back to this car. This piece of shit, rusty truck. She didn’t even know where it came from, why she was in this one. Only that it was needed here.
She remembered their first time meeting, seeing Max through the windshield. Nervous and awkward, but so beautiful that Safi had momentarily forgotten what she’d been mad about at the time—probably her mother.
A chunk of stone smashed through the back window, letting in more rain and howling wind. Safi didn’t flinch.
She remembered the first time they rode together, the way Max’s scent had filled the whole space and lingered long after she climbed out. How Safi had been a little addicted to whatever perfume she used, because it mixed so well with her natural scent.
Another gust of wind slammed into the truck, teetering it dangerously, but it just stayed there. Max stood in the middle of the road like she was part of it, cemented to it, unmoving and unwilling. She was being battered by nature but she wasn’t even flinching, and there Safi was, hesitating like a coward.
Safi wasn’t a fucking coward. But how could she do this?
“Hit me with your car!” Max cried out again.
What the absolute fuck.
She remembered with vivid clarity the day she finally gave in to her impulses and kissed Max. They’d been in her car, on their way to the Turtle, and Max was being unbelievably cute. For months, since the moment they met, Safi had been fucking pining for Max. She was awkward and sweet, but so caring and loving—things Safi was not.
Safi would fight tooth and nail to get revenge, whereas Max would always turn the other cheek, and sometimes Safi hated it. Hated that martyr complex of hers. Hated the way Max was always someone else’s, always helping and giving parts of herself away.
With that came the acceptance that she was greedy and selfish, so Safi parked abruptly on the side of the road, rolled her seat back and then she had her hands cupped around Max’s freckled cheeks, those gorgeous blue eyes blown wide in surprise.
“You drive me crazy,” Safi had whispered, eyes flicking from Max’s lips to her gaze, then down again.
“S-Safi?”
She watched Max swallow hard.
“I’m going to kiss you,” was the only warning she gave. Maybe she should have made sure Max actually wanted this—wanted her. But Safi was done waiting around, done yearning.
Max’s lips were softer than anything Safi had ever experienced. The way Max immediately melted into her, fingers clutching at her arms, quivering, made Safi want to dissolve away. Max kissed her back, of course.
A soft little moan slipped between their lips and Safi pulled back to cup Max’s chin, run a thumb over her bottom lip. Max’s eyes were clouded over with want and her cheeks were dusted over with a blush. She was adorable—exquisite.
“I’ve been wanting to do that since forever,” she admitted.
Max’s breath stuttered. She seemed taken aback by the admission, which confirmed to Safi that Max hadn’t realized how Safi felt, or what she wanted. But the way her lips parted, the way she was clutching onto Safi for dear life, told her that this wasn’t unrequited.
Max wanted her back.
“Yeah?” Max said, voice huskier than usual. God, Safi could listen to her speak all day. “I’ve kind of wanted that forever, too.”
They kissed again.
The first time they fucked in that car, Safi was feral for it. It was night time and they’d parked somewhere secluded. It wasn’t the most comfortable, but Safi couldn’t wait until they got to her place or Max’s. She was insatiable and Max drove her absolutely wild.
Their heated breath fogged up the windows, and Max’s hand smeared a print against it. Her moans were the only thing Safi could hear, the taste of Max heady and hot on her tongue. She wanted to be everything to Max—all around her, inside all of her.
As she worked Max into climax after climax, she kept her eyes on that face, watched every twitch and shift in Max’s expression, and her chest felt hot and tight with love and adoration.
She wanted to pull Max apart—shatter her into pieces—then put her back together. Over and over again.
“Safi!” Max cried.
Safi snapped back to the present—this terrible, horrible reality. Why this? Why now?
Her heart cracked right down the middle. Max had warned her—she’d fucking warned her. Why was Safi so bullheaded? Why did she put her own needs before everyone else’s? Before Max?
“Please,” Max begged, finally beginning to show signs of strain. “I can’t keep holding it back. You need to do it now!”
“Fuck, Max!” Safi shouted, tears filling her eyes and spilling over. “Is there really no other way?”
Max abruptly dropped to one knee, blood dribbling down across her mouth and chin. Her shoulders began to heave and the arms she had outstretched were shaking terribly. Safi never realized the strain this must have been putting on her body—Max couldn’t keep this up much longer.
Either Safi crushed her, or the storm would.
“You have to do it,” Max cried out, her teeth dyeing red. “I’m so sorry, Safi. I’m so fucking sorry.”
Safi angrily rubbed her tears away. She didn’t want to hear it—Max’s apologies. For too many years, for too fucking long, Max had held the burden of choices she never should have had to make. At least this time, Safi would be the one making the choice.
“I love you, Max,” Safi said softly under her breath, more for herself than anything.
But somehow in this fucked up nightmarescape, Max heard her. Her grin was broad, red, but it was still so beautiful.
“When you wake up, don’t forget to tell me that,” Max replied.
That smile stayed on her face even as Safi hit the gas, as the truck lurched forward, wind and rain battering hard against her. It was as if the storm was trying to stop her from stopping this.
The car slammed into Max, the windshield cracking from the force of her body, and Safi listened to every bump as Max went over the top, hit the back of the car and then the road. The wet, broken sound of her body would haunt Safi for the rest of her life.
She woke, gasping loudly, her face soaked with tears.
“Whoa,” Max gasped beside her, crawling closer and pulling Safi into her arms. “Are you okay?”
Safi started trembling terribly. The tears wouldn’t stop.
“We stopped the storm, right?”
Max rubbed a hand against her upper arm, soothing her. “Yeah we stopped the storm, together. What’s going on?”
Safi squeezed her eyes shut. Just another weird, fucked up dream. Either Max was pointing a gun at her, or Safi was being told to run her down. Hit her with a car. But that… that wasn’t real, none of it. Not anymore, at least.
“Fuck,” she said, letting out a strained breath.
Max was almost moulded to Safi’s side, her expression crestfallen as she took in the tears, the quivering lip. Max hated to see her hurt, so Safi put in great effort to gather herself. It helped that they were both still naked from the previous night’s fun.
Safi’s eyes ran over every inch of Max’s skin. She gently pushed Max onto her back, tossed the blanket off of them and inspected her entire body for any sign that the nightmare had happened—that Safi had fucking killed her.
But no, Max’s body was perfect. Soft and freckled, bare for her. She swallowed thickly, heart thudding hard.
Usually, Max would have given her some kind of wisecrack for this—the pushing over, studying her nude body—but she didn’t this time. There was something strange in the way Max looked at her, like she knew.
But she couldn’t, because that dream hadn’t been real.
“I’m okay,” Max said softly. She took Safi’s hand, guided it to press between her breasts. There, Safi could feel her heart beating. “Alive. I’m fine. We stopped the storm, we saved Caledon.” She smiled, and for a second Safi saw the flicker of blood against her teeth. “Together.”
Tension coiled along her shoulders because Max—Max was so fucking good at lying. She was so good at meddling and putting herself through absolute hell if it meant she helped those around her. Safi didn’t trust that Max wouldn’t do something reality-altering again. Wasn’t sure if perhaps the dream had been real, after all.
She decided to let it go and instead collapsed against Max, allowed those arms to encircle her. Always in these moments of vulnerability, Max was the strongest between them. She saw the ugliest, rawest parts of Safi, and she loved her anyway.
“I love you,” she said against Max’s bare shoulder.
Max pressed a kiss against her neck, sending a shiver down her spine. “I love you too, Safi.”
In any other circumstance, that single kiss would have sent Safi into a horny tailspin. Not this time. Her body was still in fight mode, her brain traumatized. She clung to Max, still shivering slightly, and vowed to never do anything that would put Max in danger, not like before.
She’d never let Max slip away from her, no matter the cost or the consequence.