The Shattered Dark
Page 42

“What do you want with your brother?” I ask. If he’s a vigilante, maybe I should find a way to ditch him.
“I haven’t seen him in three years,” Lee answers. “I want to talk to him.”
“He hasn’t mentioned you.”
“We didn’t part on good terms,” he says, then he uses a button on the center console to move the mirror on his door. To focus on the patrol cars pursuing us, I assume. Five are behind us. One pulls parallel whenever he has the chance, but so far, they aren’t being aggressive about forcing us to stop. Back in the U.S., some cities have a policy to just follow suspects. If we’re lucky, they have the same policy here.
“So, the gate,” Paige says. “How are we going to use it without a fae?”
“Someone will be waiting for us there.” I hope someone will be waiting. This was Aren’s plan. If we’re separated, he’ll bring an army to the gate to make sure I’m fissured out of this city unharmed.
If he has time to summon that army. If he wasn’t killed back at the club.
Fear surges through me, making my throat close up. It’s exhausting, worrying about him so much, and even though I’m still upset about his connection to Thrain—or, more precisely, about him not telling me up front about the connection—I can’t make myself not care.
“Who’s ‘someone’?” Paige asks. Then she slams on the brake. The car fishtails on the wet pavement, but she maintains control, which is lucky for the humans standing no more than two feet away from the front bumper.
“Crap, people!” Paige yells. “You have to look before you cross the street!”
A patrol car pulls up beside us. The officer opens the door.
“Not yet,” Paige says, her tone hard, determined. She pounds on the horn, shifts into first, then drives straight at the people. They scurry out of the way before she hits them.
Lee watches the officer as we speed away.
“You done this before?” he asks Paige.
“Star in my own police chase?” She shakes her head. “Nope.”
The cops fall into pursuit behind us again. We’re screwed if the rebels aren’t at the gate. We’ll be arrested. I’ll most likely be charged with murder, maybe with grand theft auto, too, which is completely unfair. Every car I’ve climbed into in the last month might have been stolen, but they were all stolen by someone other than me.
Lee holds on to the oh-shit handle above his door as Paige veers around a fountain, which for some illogical reason, is placed in the middle of the road. “Where did you learn to drive like this?”
She shifts, then, very deliberately, she meets Lee’s eyes, and says, “I dated a guy who street races.”
Lee’s mouth tightens as if this is some kind of verbal jab. My gaze shifts back and forth between the two of them. Do they have a history together? I’d swear the last guy she dated was named Ryan. Or maybe Roger. I’m pretty sure it started with an “R.” Anyway, if there is or was something between her and Lee, she has plenty of exes to throw in his face.
“Have you guys known each other for long?” I ask.
“No,” they say in unison. Then Lee turns his glare on me as if my question offended him. “Where’s the gate?”
Or maybe that look is because I’m asking questions that really aren’t important right now, not with half the British police force on our bumper. And not with a roomful of slaughtered humans discarded in an apartment and one innocent girl stabbed to death in a club.
“We’re getting close.” I sink back into my seat, and the edge my adrenaline’s been giving me fades. I don’t think those deaths are the only ones that occurred tonight. The club was packed. Everyone was panicked. My gut tells me not everyone made it out of there okay. Shane might not have made it out okay.
I stare out the window. Lights from the patrol cars tailing us flash in my peripheral vision, but I block them out and focus on the buildings we’re driving past. They’re all big, blocky warehouses. London’s gate was near the city airport. We’re curving south. If we curve back to the north once we pass the warehouse ahead, I think we might be there.
“You’re sure a fae will be waiting?” Lee asks.
“Yes,” I say, praying I’m not lying.
We pass the warehouse. I think this is the right location, but a thin line of trees separates the road from the bank of the river. At the speed we’re driving, I won’t be able to see the blur in the atmosphere. Too bad Sosch isn’t here now. He’d beeline straight for the gate and—
“There’s Aren,” I say, and my heart finally starts to beat easily again. He’s alive and he doesn’t look hurt, thank God. He’s standing on the bank of the river with two other fae. It’s not quite an army, but it might as well be. Kyol is here.
Paige slams on the brake.
Unbuckling my seat belt, I say, “We have to make a run for it. Fast.”
I don’t have to tell them twice. They open their doors the same instant I do, and we’re running, sprinting for the riverbank. I can hear the cops behind us, climbing out of their cars and yelling at us to stop.
I’m certain I can keep ahead of them—I have a little too much experience running for my life—but Paige doesn’t. She loses too much time looking over her shoulder. A particularly quick cop grabs a handful of the back of her shirt.
Ten years ago, I left her at Bedfont House, and she took the blame for our escape attempt. I won’t do the same again.
I stop so quickly the officer on my tail barrels into me. I have the foresight to drop to a crouch, causing him to flip over me. He lands spread-eagle on the ground, and I’m up again, sprinting toward Paige. I ram my shoulder into the cop holding her. Paige is fighting back. She’s able to get loose. I grab her arm and pull her toward the gate.
But we’re surrounded.
“Hands where we can see them,” a female officer yells. All the cops have their batons out.
Light flashes in my peripheral vision. I turn that way, see Aren and Kyol step out of two fissures just outside the cops’ circle. No one looks their direction. They’re invisible to normal humans.
“This way,” Aren says.
I start to tell Paige to run, but she’s apparently already decided to make a move. She leaps toward the small gap between two of the officers. The officers close in, one raising his baton.
Aren bats the baton away when the human swings, causing it to narrowly miss Paige. The second officer’s baton comes close to hitting me, but I duck. Then Paige and I are outside the circle, catching up with Lee, who’s doubled back to help us.
“Go!” I yell at him, but he waits for Paige, steadies her when she trips. Then they’re both running for Trev, who’s waiting at the riverbank.
I’m right on their heels, but an officer is nearly on top of me. I don’t slow down or look back, but there’s a thump when he hits the ground just behind me.
“Faster, McKenzie,” Aren says. There’s no doubt the fae can keep the humans off us. Keeping them off us without them noticing that their efforts are being sabotaged by an invisible force is another question.
But we’re lucky. We make it almost all the way to the bank without another problem from the cops. In fact, we’d probably make it to the gate and disappear from this world without another hiccup if Kyol didn’t appear in front of Paige. She grabs Lee’s arm and skids to a stop.