“We’re not far,” Anton assured me.
I hoped not. I wasn’t sure how much longer we could keep this race up before we were caught.
He dashed down a path of broken stone that formed a spiral, with me right on his heels. Rather than following the spiral, he jumped and leapt over boulders and bushes, taking a more direct route to the arched wooden bridge in the distance.
We thundered over its planks, the vibrations sending ripples into the water and disturbing the water lilies floating on the surface.
After several more bridges and a few detours to avoid a couple of ambushes, we reached the other side of the water garden. The scenery beginning to look a lot more familiar. This was the same route we’d used a few nights ago.
We pounded back onto the thoroughfare, past bars and dance floors until the threshold of the boundary beckoned.
We were almost there.
Anton and I put on a burst of speed, uncaring as we barreled into spooks who were too slow to get out of the way. By the time we crossed the barrier, I smelled like a liquor cabinet. My shirt damp from all the drinks that I’d gotten dumped on me. None of which mattered as I felt the tingle announcing our passage back to the real world.
“We made it,” I said, feeling a little surreal.
A part of me hadn’t thought we would.
“We’re not safe yet,” Anton declared, hooking his arm through mine and guiding me through the betting tables as we made a beeline toward the elevator.
A commotion came from behind us. Gasps and screams as the assassins followed us into the casino. They weren’t careful as they traveled, shoving people out of their way in much the same way we had in the Playground.
One jumped onto a blackjack table, drawing his bow and letting the arrow fly.
It missed me, ending up in the arm of a woman wearing sweats.
“What the hell are they doing?” I asked as Anton dragged me toward the elevators. “What about the covenant?”
“They must have decided the benefit outweighed the risks. Also, technically, they haven’t done anything that jeopardizes our secret.”
I gave him a look like I thought he was crazy before stabbing my finger at the Fae now leaping from table to table. “That’s not exactly subtle.”
“While unusual, their weapons are ones that humans would recognize and not think anything of it.”
“And their clothes?”
They looked like rejects from a fantasy novel.
“Cosplay,” Anton answered. “Or young adults who got too swept up in a fantasy game. All easily explainable.”
I wasn’t going to question how Anton knew what cosplay was or his easy dismissal of what was happening. The elevators were now in sight.
I raced forward, stabbing the button to summon them before looking over my shoulder. The assassins were closing fast. I didn’t care what explanation Anton came up with. If there was a massacre, it was going to be hard to pass it off with the humans.
Thankfully, the elevator had only eight floors to go.
“Come on. Come on.”
The humans on the casino floor proved unexpectedly helpful as their panic led to mass chaos. Except for the Fae still bounding across the tables, it hampered the rest of his party’s movements.
The table Fae hit the end of the row, leaping into the air and drawing his bow. Anton easily dodged the incoming arrow, careful not to draw too much on vampire speed. Onlookers would assume he got lucky.
He snatched the Fae out of midair, body slamming him into the marble floor. It cracked, a spider web of fissures extending from where the Fae now lay motionless.
That was going to be a little harder to explain.
The elevator’s ding sent my heart racing.
