Those Who Will Listen
JACK
Fleur leads the way to the sedan, doubling back over the scent trail she left for Julio and Amber. Woody limps along behind her, carrying the broken drone. I follow behind Poppy and Chill, my thoughts heavy as I watch them. Chronos said, in the end, Fleur will be left alone. Julio and Amber are already gone. And he was right about Poppy. What if he was right about Chill, too?
Marie lags behind all of us, the cherry of her cigarette glowing red in the dark and tainting the air with smoke. I check over my shoulder, making sure she stays close, as Slinky picks his way curiously through the brush.
The parking lot ahead is dimly lit, and I spot the SUV we stole back in Virginia parked close to our sedan. Fleur steps up her pace once we’re in sight of the cars. She’s anxious, distracted, clearly eager to get on the road. I run to catch up, holding her back before she gets too far ahead of us.
I have that same nagging feeling I had at the bar, as if we’re not alone. Or we’re being watched.
“Get down!” Marie shouts. We duck at a sharp pop. Glass rains over the parking lot as a ball of ice takes out the bulb in the nearest light post. Fleur and I reposition, sheltering our Handlers behind us.
All but one.
Marie’s cigarette glows on the ground. Her hands are up in supplication, and a blade glints at her throat. The Guard is shrouded in darkness, her dark curls blowing like shadows over the patch on her shoulder.
Fleur edges closer.
“Stay back!” the Guard calls out.
Marie sucks in a sharp breath, and Fleur goes still.
I know that voice. The air prickles around Fleur as she recognizes it, too.
“Noelle?” I look past her, making sure she’s alone. There’s no sign of Doug or the rest of her team anywhere. “What are you doing here?”
“You’re all under orders for Termination.”
Fleur’s hand fists at her side and I reach to still it. If Noelle had any intention of using that knife, she would have done it already.
“I want to talk to Jack. Alone,” she says.
“Zero chance of that happening,” Fleur growls. The air crackles with the swell of her magic. A low vibration takes hold of the parking lot, dirt and stones popping off the surface as it builds. Noelle stumbles back, dragging Marie with her. We all reach to steady ourselves as the pavement begins to splinter and a narrow crack forms, carving a clear line between Noelle and the rest of our group.
I touch Fleur’s shoulder. She recoils, shaking me off with a shudder. We all turn to gape at her as the tremor stills.
“How did you do that?” Noelle asks, wide-eyed and breathless, her knife pointed at the gap in the pavement.
I don’t know. By the awed looks on our Handlers’ faces, neither do they. Lyon’s words echo in my mind.The longer you remain together, the more powerful you’ll become.Lyon was right. There’s no way Chronos will let us walk away from this.
“I should have done it a year ago.” Fleur seethes. “I should have taken that entire building down and buried you and your team with it.” Every word simmers with rage, her disdain too raw to be anything but personal.
Doug was quick to take all the credit for Reconditioning Fleur. But Noelle was there. At the very least, she stood by and watched. That day I ran into her in the Crux, I assumed she felt guilty about the Termination she’d observed, or the bruises Doug gave me, or the fact that she was the one who had reported me and Fleur. It never occurred to me that she might have slipped her card key into my hand because she felt guilty about something worse.
Noelle reaches for her ear as Fleur takes a step closer, but there’s nothing there. No flicker of red, no flashing light. Just the glowing stub of Marie’s dying cigarette on the ground between us.
“She’s not wearing a transmitter,” I say, just loud enough for Fleur to hear me. “If she’s here to kill us, why risk removing her tracker?” Unless she has something to say. Something she doesn’t want anyone else to hear.
Noelle backs away, her grip on Marie tentative, as if she’s thinking about running.
“Who else knows you’re here?” I ask her.
“No one. Just me.”
“If no one knows, how did you find us?”
“I followed them.” Noelle jerks her chin toward our Handlers. “I’ve been following them since they left DC.” She reaches deep into the front pocket of Marie’s army jacket and tosses something across the gap between us. I snatch it out of the air by reflex, not registering what it is at first.
