She didn’t wait for him to agree. She turned a corner and stopped. There were two more ministry officers now.
She waited a moment, assuring they recognized her before she turned and ran, leading them down a street away from the others. A gust of wind nearly knocked her off her feet, and she cursed Ciaran and his elixir as she pushed through the front door of a narrow home. A startled shriek as she weaved around a woman with a baby in her arms.
Marlow burst out the back door into the dirty alley. That would give her some breathing room, but she needed to make sure they followed. Which was why she’d taken the gun. She fired into the air as she ran. The sound carried and panicked screams went out around her, the commotion pointing out her location. A moment later, the officers were behind her again.
When she was sure they had gone far enough that Felix and August were out of range, she changed course. Losing them was easy. She slipped through an open metal gate, beneath an archway, past a building with a worn-out ad for some ale company painted on the side, following a route she’d taken dozens of times. She ducked through an abandoned dress factory and slowly made her way back toward the Laughen & Son’s storehouse where she’d meet the others.
Footsteps—too close—sent her pulse soaring again.
Marlow spun and pressed her hand to the man’s shoulder, ready to call her magic, but she stopped when she saw his face.
“Gideon?” Her arms were around him in an instant. “How’d you make it out? How’d you find me?”
“You got a whole load of trouble on your tail,” he said. “Hard to miss. We need to get off the streets. Where’re the others?”
She let go and nodded. “Right, yeah. Come on.”
When Gideon let out a sharp whistle, Lark and Niall joined them, along with two others she recognized, but didn’t know by name. Marlow beamed, dizzy with relief, but kept herself oncourse, leading them to the storehouse, where Felix and August were waiting outside.
When Felix saw Gideon, his eyes went round.
Before he could ask the questions Marlow herself was dying to ask, Gideon held up a hand to stop him, then motioned to the door.
Felix nodded, smiling. He pulled open the heavy door and stepped inside, then she and the others followed. Felix used the dim light from the open door to light a lantern mounted on the wall.
Marlow strode across the wide room. It was just as she remembered it. Pipes crawled up the brick walls, and the air smelled of lumber. She could almost see her and Felix sparring in the centre of the worn wooden floor, him rushing his moves, and her chiding him for his lack of patience. It felt like home. Gods, she missed her city.
As the door fell shut and the sounds from outside faded, a new noise caught her attention. An odd shuffling. She stilled, listening. The place should’ve been empty.
Before she could warn the others, something crashed into her, sending her off her feet.
August recoiled as Marlow flew sideways, pressing himself back against the wall. The lost crawled out from the shadows, all burned skin and blistered arms and bloated faces.
There were so many.
The last time he was here, that night with Felix, it was abandoned. Where had they all come from?
Marlow was back on her feet in an instant. The lost who’d hit her, a stocky man in tattered work clothes, swung the pipe again, but this time, Marlow ducked out of the way with a quick spin. She straightened and grabbed the man’s arm, the rings in her eyes igniting red. The man howled in pain, fighting to get free, but her other hand went to his chest, and he convulsed, then dropped.
A man whose face was more blisters than skin tackled one of Gideon’s group to the ground, digging a knife into his chest and tearing before the others could get to him. Gideon buried his saber in the man’s back, but it was too late.
August watched helplessly as the others fought off the creatures, his head screaming to run while his feet refused to listen.
Felix dropped a man dressed in a City Watch uniform with a dagger to the throat, then turned and shouted a warning in his direction.
But even as the woman lunged, August couldn’t move. Felix snatched the dead officer’s saber and cleanly severed the woman’s head. It rolled across the dirty floor before coming to a stop a few steps away.
Felix held August’s gaze for only a second before turning back to the fray.
Run run run run. The word resonated in his ears, its frantic rhythm matching his heartbeat.
Two more lost climbed out from behind a stack of rotting crates. The others were busy fighting and hadn’t noticed. August finally came back to himself, his body finally snapping into motion. He pulled in a sharp breath and pinpointed their location before tearing open the veil. He crossed the room inside the Hollow Dark and tore open a second rift, dragged them both inside, then swiped it closed.
Now what?
His hand went for his dagger before he remembered that Felix had it. Two sets of bloodshot eyes locked on him. He stumbled back as they lunged, falling backwards through the first tear and hitting the ground hard. He stared up at the swirling darkness. They were stuck inside.
August closed the tear, then watched as Felix kicked the legs out from beneath a man with a metal mask. The man dropped to his knees, and Felix drove the saber straight through his chest.
