He snarled at her. Behind her, Guil had joined Al, Ada and Camille in heaving at the shelves. They gave suddenly, screeching across the flagstones far enough for Ada to wriggle into the gap and try the door.
It was stiff – but unlocked.
Dorval calmed himself, examining the liquid pooling across the floor. All the way to trembling Olympe.
‘He wants you back. Needs you.’
‘That’s not my problem.’
‘Oh, but it is. Do you really think a bunch of idealistic teenagers are going to keep you safe?’
A stronger burst of energy pulsed from her hands, rippling through the water like waves in a storm. Somewhere thunder rolled. A specimen twitched and squirmed as it drifted across the tide of liquid.
‘I’ll die before I let you get me.’
‘Then you will die. Because he will never stop.’
Olympe still held Dorval’s gaze, the fine hair around her face floating in the static sparking off her skin.
‘If I die, maybe I’ll take you with me.’
He smiled, bright and terrible. ‘You always did make this such fun.’
And he stepped away, out of sight.
Olympe let out a cry, collapsing forwards on shaking arms.
Ada kicked and threw herself against the stiff door, feeling it give. It scraped open far enough for Al to slip through.
Then Dorval stepped back into the doorway.
Holding a shotgun.
12
Somewhere in the Abbey
‘Move!’
Camille snatched Olympe up by the collar of her dress and dragged her through the door. A shot rang through the chapel, clipping chips of stone from the wall.
They ran with no idea of where – just away.The abbey was a warren of dark corridors, treacherous rotten floors and locked doors.
A warren that Dorval knew, and they didn’t.
At every turn she expected to find him in front of them, at every hesitation she waited for the rip of bullets cracking the plaster. Finally they burst through the front door. The abbey loomed, gargoyles lining the gutters and blank windows cold and lifeless.
There was no sign of Dorval. Yet.
Al peered along the muddy road back to the city. ‘Now what?’
‘We keep running. He’ll keep coming after us – after me.’ Olympe was looking at her bare hands, gloves abandoned in the chapel.
‘We’ll be like sitting ducks walking the main road,’ said Ada.
She was right. Their early start meant they were now trying to move unnoticed during the middle of the day.
Camille’s breathing wouldn’t settle, a hitch in her chest made her feel as though she was trying to breathe underwater. Olympe was right. Dorval wasn’t stupid. They couldn’t have lost him so easily.
