The guard watches my bag shift as I pop the lid off the can—
His brow furrows.
And the moment it does, I’ve whipped out the can and aimed it at his face.
I don’t hesitate.
My finger comes pressing down on the button, and a steady stream of white mist billows right at his eyes.
The pungent stench of fruity perfume clouds us.
A curse gutters through the guard. His boots stagger back. His head whips aside to escape the spray directed right at his eyes.
Serena is frozen.
I drop the can and run at the guard.
I slam right into him.
He grunts as the path is taken out from under his feet—and we go spilling through the veil.
The cobblestone alleyway comes rushing up at us.
I hear the impact of the guard crashing down on the ground, a grunt, a crack, a wheeze—before a sudden hot pain explodes in my knee.
The cry that ribbons out of me is hollow.
I drag myself off the arching body of the guard, the man rasping for air.
The contents of my bag are spilling all over—and something breaks.
Serena stumbles through the veil, tripping over all my belongings, and for a beat, she just stands there, wide-eyed, and looking right at me.
“Fuck.”
That’s all she says before she drops to her knees and, hugging her arms, scoops up as much of my jewellery as she can.
The breaths are guttural through me, serrated down my chest, and the throbbing in my knee slows me down as I lean against the wall and try to stand upright.
Before I can, something grabs me by the ankle.
I look down at the guard, his grip on me, but the searing redness of his teary eyes and the arch of his chest is weakness.
Serena jangles with the jewels as she steps over him—and brings her boot down on his forearm.
Another crunch, another hollow shout.
The price we’re paying to run.
I wonder, in the song of his pain, if it’s too high.
Then Serena is dumping all the spilled jewellery into my bag and wrangling the zip shut.
Her cropped brassy hair looks darker in the shadowy lane, an alleyway of misery and history, the face of the master glaring at me with urgency.
“Go,” she grits out between her teeth, and her hands clutch my wrists, tight. “Go, go, go—”
Her words carry with us as she yanks me from the wall, and though my knee screams with every bit of weight I put on it, Serena’s tight hold on me doesn’t let me slow down.
