The Crash
The helicopter fell like a wounded bird through the storm.
Liam's voice cut through the chaos raw, urgent, desperate. "Brace yourselves!"
The ground surged up in a blur of white and gray.
Metal screamed. Wind howled.
Then impact.
The world turned upside down.
Isabella's scream was swallowed by the explosion of snow and steel.
The chopper slammed into the frozen slope, skidded across the ice, and came to a grinding halt against a wall of jagged rock. Silence followed eerie, absolute.
Snow drifted through the shattered cockpit.
Liam hung limply in his seat, blood seeping from a cut on his temple.
Sebastian was already moving, adrenaline overriding pain, his arm wrapped protectively around Isabella.
"Are you hurt?" he rasped, pulling her upright.
She blinked, disoriented, her lip split and her face pale. "I, I don't think so."
He checked her quickly, eyes scanning for injuries. His relief was almost painful.
