“That was an accident!”
“Was it?” My teeth are bared. “You knew we’d run out of magic.”
The Normal looks guilty. I still have my hand at his throat. His skin is a few shades darker than mine, and he’s wearing a thin gold chain around his neck. “I was just following you,” he says, sounding a bit more urgent. (Good, heshouldfeel urgent.) “I thought you wereleadingme off the interstate. How was I to know you didn’t know what you were doing?”
“Why would you follow three monsters leading you away from civilization?”
He shrugs. “Curiosity?”
I blow air through my teeth. My grip tightens. “If it was all an accident, then how did the dark creatures know to find us there?”
“You weren’t exactly lying low,” the Normal says, glancing over at me. “You cast a dozen spells and killed seven vampires at a Ren Faire. Out in the open! Those places are crawling with magickal types.”
“Why would anyone with magic want to go to that place?” I demand. “It’s a complete farce—it was insulting!”
The Normal starts to laugh. I can feel it under my thumb.
I feel ridiculous. This whole situation is ridiculous. This whole country. I let go of him and sit back in my seat.
Simon’s face is in the window behind me. He’s clinging to Baz. “Where are we going?”
“There’s a town ahead,” the Normal says. “Scottsbluff.”
“They’ll expect us to stop there,” Simon says.
The Normal’s looking at Simon in the rearview mirror. He raises his voice to be heard: “Maybe. But we’re safer in plain sight. On the road. In towns.”
“All right,” Simon says, “but we need to pull over for a second.” He turns to me. “Baz…”
“Pull over,” I order.
“There’s a rest stop in five minutes,” the Normal says. “Sanctuary.”
SIMON
It’s too loud to talk in the back of the truck.
I huddle close to Baz, half in his lap, while the shock of still being alive passes. He holds me there, a little too tightly. Usually I forget Baz is so much stronger than me. He doesn’t carry himself like he’s that strong. He doesn’t touch me that way. He never pulls or pushes me, not like that. Not any harder than I can push back.
I push in a little closer.
His voice is thick, strained. “You should be wearing your cross.”
“We’ve been through this—I’d rather risk a bite.”
His arms tighten. It’s a bit hard for me to breathe.
“I would never,” he says.
“I know.”
After a few minutes, we pull over at some roadside services. Baz gets out to hunt, and I get out to piss. Penny charms avending machine—it takes her a few tries—and I grab armfuls of crisps and cheese biscuits.
She leans, headfirst, against the glass. “I’m running on empty. I couldn’t cast a truism right now.”
I nod. “Baz’s the same. He dumped all his magic on cloaking us. Can we trust Shepard?”
Penny pushes away from the vending machine, shaking her head. “My magic says yes, but my gut says no. Simon, he knows too much—how does heknowso much? We should leave him here and steal his truck.”
