“My Shadows won’t hold me. I’ll have to climb.” Her hands were trembling, but her jaw was set with determination.
Zach growled, spooling out more Shadows, ready to wind them around her. “You got us here. Now it’s my turn. Together, remember.”
Emma took another step back, further away. “You can’t hold us both.”
Fuck that. “I can try.”
“And if we both fall?” She shook her head sharply. “I won’t risk you.”
Zach folded his arms over his chest and glared at her, rage and terror building together in his throat. “I won’t leave you.”
“Just for a moment. You go first and then I’ll jump to you. I promise.”
He opened his mouth to disagree when a scrabbling noise rose from the door behind them. Fuck. Gordon was almost through.
There was a loud click as Gordon turned the lock. They were out of time.
Zach pressed a hard kiss to Emma’s forehead and then turned away. He trusted her to do as she’d promised. Trusted her to protect herself. Trusted her to jump.
He grabbed the silver bowl and threw it out the window, not bothering to watch it land before he threw himself out behind it, diving headfirst out through the narrow gap.
His Shadows tightened around the gutter as he flew in a wild arc out the side of the house, and then suddenly, he was caught in the air. He hovered for a moment, stunned. Swathed in Shadow nets that tightened relentlessly, keeping him pinned. He roared helplessly, thrashing to get away. Emma needed him and he was utterly trapped.
“Zach! No!”
Wait. Was that Kay? He froze, sword half-formed in his hand. Suddenly he was flying down. He landed safely as Kay, Ethan, and Riley lowered him to the ground and the Shadow ropes fell away in wisps of smoky darkness.
“Emma’s still in there!” He ran back toward the house, adrenalin thundering through his veins.
Emma had climbed out the window after him and lowered herself from the windowsill to balance on the narrow balcony rail on the floor below. She must have jumped the last few feet to land on the thin wrought-iron, balancing like a tightrope walker as her Shadows billowed around her. God.
Gordon looked down from the upper window, his face contorted with rage as he lifted his hands. Dark blue Shadows, the color of raven’s wings, twisted in his palms as he glared down at Emma. “What did you do, little girl?”
Emma looked up at him, her voice clear and confident. “I took away your blood Shadows.”
Gordon’s eyes narrowed as he spat, “Then I guess I’ll need more.” He twisted his hands and hurled a huge taloned claw straight at Emma.
Zach’s heart stuttered in his chest as the claw closed around Emma. She twisted her hands, and even from the ground, Zach could see that she’d made two gleaming knives. She hacked at the claw, and it fell away into broken ribbons of lashing Shadow as Gordon lifted his hands to launch another attack.
“Emma! Now!” Zach screamed, hurling a massive Shadow net up through the air toward Emma. She didn’t hesitate. She didn’t even look down. She simply stepped back into space as if she didn’t have a doubt in the world.
Zach’s Shadows shuddered as they caught Emma, and he poured out everything he had, desperate to soften the blow as she hurtled toward the ground.
Then Kay was there, her midnight blue Shadows winding through his ocean blue, bolstering and supporting him. Together, they wrapped Emma in their net and lowered her safely to the ground.
More faces appeared at the window as the Council looked out. Their expressions twisted with shocked outrage, but before they could react, Zach threw up a huge shield, and he and his friends started to run.
Emma’s hand was in his, she was safe, and they were free.
They turned the corner onto the busy high street just as police sirens started nearby. “Here.” Kay hurried them down a narrow side street to Ethan’s car. They piled inside. Ethan and Kay in the front, and Riley sitting in the back with him and Emma.
Ethan pulled smoothly into the road and drove quickly away, leaving the sirens and chaos behind.
Zach hauled Emma onto his lap. He dragged his hands down her sides, over her arms, along her neck, and into her hair. Feeling all of her, checking her for hurts, holding her pressed tightly up against his body.
His Shadows whipped around her, as frantic as he was, while her Shadows poured out, wrapping themselves over his, until he was certain she was unharmed and he could finally breathe.
How many times had he nearly lost her? Too many. He pressed his face into her neck, breathing her in, holding her safe. “Never again, okay?”
