He pulls his phone out of his back pocket and ends the call that’s been broadcasting this to the police. “Thanks for the phone call idea, by the way,” he says to Lissa. “That was actually helpful.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Lissa bolts toward the exit, but Grant and I charge, going wide to cut off her escape. She lunges at Grant, poised to pistol-whip him in the head, and he breaks out his classic dodge-and-strike. I seize the gun from her hand and throw it toward the other end of the station; when I twist back toward Lissa, she greets me with a handful of chunky gold rings to the face.
I reach out to grab her around the waist, but she darts out of reach, leaving me to crash to the ground. She knocks Grant aside with an elbow to the jaw, and I manage to grab at her ankle and pull her off-balance. She lands in a heap, her other gun skidding across the floor until it falls onto the tracks.
I get to my feet before Lissa and reach for her hands, the zip ties burning a hole in my pocket, but she twists away at the last second and I just barely dodge a headbutt.
The sirens overhead have grown louder, and the whole platform buzzes with energy. She’s back up and full of fight, shaking out her arms. But Grant and I still have the upper hand. We stand between her and the exit.
The official exit, anyway. We all seem to realize this at the same time as a wild spark flares in Lissa’s eyes, and she turns to launch herself onto the tracks. We race after her, our footstepscrunching on the gravel between the tracks, the tunnel rumbling around us.
Grant catches up first, grabbing her arm. She twists and he anticipates her strike to his face but doesn’t expect the way she loops her foot behind his and trips him. He crashes to the ground and she runs straight over him, planting one platform boot directly on his chest to use as a springboard.
She lands in front of me in a crouch, and I see it too late: when she pops back up, her hands are full of gravel, and she sends a spray of it directly into my eyes.
The shock makes me cry out, and I rush to clear my eyes with one hand, searching the air in front of me with the other. I come up empty. I hear the dull thud of a punch and a hiss of pain. When I can see again, I catch just a glimpse of Grant and the trickle of blood streaming from his nose. I swallow down the sick feeling rushing through me.
But I don’t have long to dwell on it, because a pink-haired maniac is rushing at me again.
I duck at the last second, seizing her by the legs and hauling her into a fireman’s carry. I manage to slam her back onto the platform and scramble after her. We’re a blur of kicks and punches, and it’s several strikes and dodges before I realize that Grant hasn’t followed us. With Lissa in a headlock, I whirl toward the tracks. Grant is crouched, frowning at his foot.
“Grant?”
“Zip tie,” he calls, and now I see the white plastic tethering his shoe to the tracks, and the way he’s trying and failing to tug his foot free. “Right after she punched me in the face.”
“Thanks for trying to restrain me,” Lissa chokes out. “Really appreciated the extra resources.” I squeeze harder as she tries to claw my arm away with her sparkly pink nails. It’s then that I realize the distant, ambient rumbling is not so distant and ambient anymore.
“Use your shoelace!” I yell to Grant.
“That’s what it’s tied to,” he calls.
“THEN UNTIE IT,” I shriek.
“I’m working on it!”
Lissa takes advantage of my distraction, wrenching herself out of the headlock and throwing me backward into the grimy platform wall. I try to dart for Grant, but Lissa shoves me back, pinning me with a forearm against my throat.
“Real talk, girl-to-girl,” she says. “This is pathetic. See how much weaker you are when you’re focused on him?”
I pull at her arm, tuning her out as I crane for a look at the tracks. All the strength in the world is nothing to the building roar from down the tunnel and the mounting fear that Grant won’t get free in time.
I have to get to him. I have to help him get away. I turn my focus back on Lissa, jabbing my thumbs at her eyes. She leans away just in time and returns laughing in my face, never letting up the pressure on my neck.
“Theeeere it is,” she sings. “You see? You feel that fire that lights you up when youreallyfight? That’s all you can really count on.”
“No, it isn’t,” I croak. “I can count on Grant.”
“In a minute, you’ll be able to count the pieces of him that have been squashed into the tracks.”
My ears ring as I strain for leverage on her arm. She sneers at me. Grant struggles in my periphery. A light begins to glow from down the tunnel, igniting his silhouette. The noise shakes the station.
Lissa presses harder. “I’m doing you a favor,” she says. “He’ll break you down. You’ll see that all of this, everything you think you have together, wasnothing. A beautiful delusion.”
She’s dancing on the edge of the truth, but missing it completely. This all may disappear like a dream soon, but it’s not nothing. It matters. And it can’t end this way.
I try to pry her wrist away, and she steels herself against my grip.
