Petrina said, “She’s lying.”
Evalle shook her head. “You know I’m not, Tristan. I won’t accept freedom unless the Tribunal gives it to all three of us.”
Rain streamed down his face while he debated. He wiped water from his eyes and finally said, “If Webster and Aaron agree to go—”
Petrina grabbed his arm. “No!”
He gave her a hard look that silenced her, then finished saying, “You’re right. I can’t make that choice for them. If they agree to go with you, then I’ll tell you enough to support your case, but if I find out you’ve lied to me at any time, I’ll make you regret using them for as long as you live.”
The weight she’d been toting on her back for days lost a few pounds.
Petrina’s gaze shifted to her right, where Webster and Aaron came walking up from across the street.
“Hi, Evalle,” Webster called, grinning.
“Hi, Webster.” She started to speak to Aaron, but she smelled sulfur. Then saw the leading edge of the fog creeping up behind Tristan and his sister. Webster and Aaron would be in the line of fog in another few steps when they joined Tristan.
Webster called over to Tristan, “Thought we were meeting at the subway station.”
Before Tristan could answer, Evalle said, “The fog is coming. We have to get out of here.”
Tristan spun to look behind him, and just that quickly the fog began to circle them.
A growl rattled from the bushes.
Storm. Evalle looked at him and shook her head, pleading with him not to attack.
Tristan said to Webster and Aaron, “Stay close to me and hold your breath if the fog catches us.” When the other two Alterants joined Tristan, he turned to Evalle. “The only way out is behind you. You can talk to Webster and Aaron on the way if—”
A man’s voice boomed through a loudspeaker from behind her,“Evalle, back away from the Alterants! We’ve got them in our sights.”
She turned and saw nothing, which meant Isak’s black-ops team was invisible in the night. When she looked back at Tristan, his face had twisted with rage.
He shouted at her, “It’s a trap. You lied to me!”
“No, I didn’t. I tried to tell you about the Nyght Raiders.”
“Bullshit. You were just buying time until you had us all in one spot. You knew I wouldn’t agree to go with you and leave my sister. I can’t believe I listened to you.”
“That’s not true!” She caught Storm moving from cover, where fog smoked around him. She shook her head again.
He growled viciously, padding back and forth, ready to leap.
The sulfur stench burned her throat on her next breath, and yellow haze fingered closer to Tristan’s group.
The voice behind the loudspeaker said,“Evalle. Back. Away. Now.”
When she looked over her shoulder this time, seven men had emerged from cover in full battle gear, holding Isak Nyght’s mega blasters. In fact, Isak led the group.
She called out, “Isak, stop. Don’t shoot.”
Webster and Aaron roared, and she knew without looking that they were starting to change into beasts.
But the damage had been done the minute Isak saw Tristan’s and Petrina’s green eyes.
In that moment of thunder rolling, Storm snarling and Isak shouting, everything felt as if it happened in slow motion as she realized she had a way to save others even if it meant the end of her last hope.
She had one Tribunal gift left.
