“What?” Gentry tried to fight back a wave of panic and failed.Not another thing going wrong.Please.She only had so much more luck left. They had to get somewhere safe where she could regroup, finding her footing. Some place with internet. “But what about the Favor? You have to get me somewhere safe.”
“And I am. But pretty soon lack of magic is going to knock my ass out, and there’s nothing I can do about that,” Kit snapped. “You’re going to have to drive.”
He said the words like it was so easy, and Gentry flushed, the heat creeping almost all the way to her collarbone in its intensity. “I can’t drive,” she admitted, “never learned how.”Although she’d been eighteen years old when she’d been committed to the Curse Ward, she’d never learned to drive. Her father had always taken her to cities with public transport for running a con, so the opportunities to learn had been few and far between.
Silence as Kit took in her words, comprehended what she was saying. He pinched his brow and bowed his head. Then he spoke. “Faaantastic. If you can’t get us to the safe place while I’m passed out, your poorly worded favor is going to kill me. Do you understand? The magic will choke off the air to my lungs, and I will suffocate if we don’t get you there.”
For the first time since she’d captured this witch, Gentry felt a tiniest ounce of regret. She hadn’t known how the Favor made a witch keep their word. Only that it did. But, then again, he had tried to kill her. She bit her tongue hard to stop herself from apologizing and instead said, “I understand. Let’s switch seats. You’re going to have to give me some pointers for however long you can stay awake. Also, I have no clue where we’re going.” They’d just have to pray she’d figure it out and not get them pulled over.
“Right.” Kit raised his head from the dash, and they switched seats quickly. The assassin had once again lost his grace, fumbling to buckle himself in with the car’s old-timey buckles. Then he told her the address of the safe place, which was another hour out. She input it into the cell phone she’d stolen from him, adding more stops to avoid as many towns and cameras as possible (and hence making the drive far longer), and then they were off.
To Gentry’s quiet relief, the witch ended up being a hands-off type of teacher, giving her time to figure the dials and gear shift on her own. When she at first struggled to keep the car on the road, he showed her how not to oversteer and to keep her eyes on the white lines. All with that calming, slow drawl of his, whichwas growing fainter with each moment. It made him sound less angry, less hateful.
Despite the situation and what he was, butterflies flew in her stomach. This, being in a car with a hot guy, was something normal and had so desperately missed. She shut her treacherous thoughts down.After, she promised herself,once this shit storm is over, I’ll find a cute, normal guy to go on car rides with.
About half an hour later, Kit passed out and left Gentry on her own. She sat up close to the steering wheel, her eyes hawkishly looking for any obstacles or police who could ruin their escape. More than once, other vehicles honked viciously at her before passing. She trucked on.
It took an hour of vacant country roads before she dared pull to the side in a tall patch of weeds. She eyed the witch, particularly his chest. It moved up and down in a rhythmic movement.
Perhaps he’d been lying about the severeness of the Favor,she thought as she picked up his cell phone. This was the one time she had to do a dive on him, and also to make sure they weren’t being tracked by his employers. Fingers flying across the screen, she examined its settings and apps for any vulnerabilities. It was using a VPN, and otherwise didn’t seem to be sharing its location with anyone.
She glanced back at the unconscious guy, who was draped awkwardly in the passenger seat, his mouth slightly ajar as he slept. A bit of guilt hit her from the blood on his neck and seeping through his shirt. But then she shut that shit down. He was a hardened assassin, who’d been strong enough to throw Justin around like he’d been a mere inconvenience. The phone’s configuration proved he wasn’t an absolute idiot, either. She couldn’t quite get a read on him.
It made her uncomfortable.
You still have the Favors,she reminded herself. She didn’t have to understand someone she controlled. Nonetheless, she snooped through his phone with the thoroughness of a computer forensics expert. His likes, his dislikes, his contacts, everything, she filed away for later. Her favorite game — information — put her into almost a hypnotic state, and time lost all meaning.
I’m coming home. The Redbacks are eliminated.
That single message from Kit to a woman named Visha (who she surmised was his girlfriend) destroyed Gentry’s focus and she was suddenly very aware of the man who was in the car with her.The Redbacks… her notes on the now defunct coven came flying back. That once powerful coven had dwindled to zilch. The powerful witch who the online forums claimed had single-handedly wiped an entire coven out…thathad been Kit?
She jumped when Kit shifted in his seat. Shaken by almost getting caught, she punched the car back into drive. Her mind raced with the fact that she was in the car with a far more powerful witch than she realized.
But the Favors, you have the Favors. Keep calm. Stick with the plan.She repeated the lines until she believed them, until her hysteria was boxed with all the other emotions that she’d deal with later. Anger. Regret. Fear. All would be dealt withafterher curse was lifted.
By the time they were on the homestretch, Gentry almost enjoyed driving. The car’s creaky brakes and slow acceleration became something she’d grown accustomed to, and she even managed to hit the speed limit a couple times. Soon fields of wheat and corn transformed into hilly forest, the ravines so dangerously unguarded that Gentry drove on the yellow line, her hands shaky.
They arrived at their destination at a snail’s pace. Amongst the trailers and falling down homes built into the hills sat an oblong ranch-style house with a wraparound porch. It sat on a stretch offlat land, and it looked to be the only well-maintained home for several miles. On the side of the house’s white trim was a mural of mermaids, dragons, unicorns, and all sorts of creatures which were historically magical. The bright colors were optimistic, the lines thick and swirling with a hope that churned Gentry’s stomach to look at. The place looked well-loved, and it was clear children were inside.
The driveway was a good half-mile long, but the lack of trees and flatness made the house’s visibility clear from the road. A sign atop the house read SOPHIA’S ORPHANAGE.
“An orphanage,” Gentry hissed, alarm making her words sharper than normal as she reared back to the unconscious witch in the backseat, “this is your safe place?”
He didn’t answer, choosing instead to toss and turn so that his back faced her.
Before she could back out of the driveway, to leave before they could lead whatever evil forces were after them to the poor orphans inside, a small, round, elderly woman came out of the house. Her tightly coiled white curls atop her head, and she had a huge shotgun hoisted against one shoulder as she hobbled over to their shitty, stolen car.
Too soon, the woman tapped on the driver side’s window with the tip of the barrel.
nine
Gentry
Gentry froze, only cracking the window open when the old lady’s lip curled and she made the ‘unrolling’ motion as if she were sorely wasting her time.
“What’s your purpose here?” she snapped, her gravelly tone so severe that Gentry instinctually straightened in the driver’s seat.
Her voice came out in a croak, “Kit told us to come here. That it’s a safe place. We have some bad people after us. I can see now that we should probably leave.” For so many reasons, one being that she couldn’t bring herself to look at the mural again. That witch might as well have directed them to a church. She felt as though she were tainting a holy place with her troubles.
