Chapter Twenty-Three – Evangeline
We couldn’t just leave the poor girl to wander through the pitch-black streets, especially not when there was help so close by.
I heard Sofie’s shouts but I ignored her, knowing this wasn’t part of the plan. It was the right thing to do. Caden and the others tailed close behind, in case of trouble. I didn’t expect any. I’d drop the girl off with the next army vehicle and they could take over. That’s why the army was here.
To rescue survivors.
She weighed nothing and it took me all of ten seconds to track down a truck. I slowed before the headlights caught me, the Humvee coming to a squeaky stop. Beams of light suddenly hit us from atop the truck as several armed soldiers hopped off the back, their guns lowered but held as they ran around.
“I found her wandering the streets,” I hollered, a rash of butterflies suddenly stirring in my belly. There was no need to be nervous, given I was in full disguise and helping the girl—not killing her—and yet I knew that if there were any Sentinel in this group and they grew suspicious, this could set off alarms we didn’t need triggered. “She was hiding in a basement.”
“She’s covered in blood,” the soldier on the left said.
“Dried blood. Not hers, from the looks of it,” I was quick to point out.
Susan stood still, her hand gripping my arm as her eyes drifted to their guns, her heart racing.
“It’s okay. You’re okay now,” I soothed as Caden and the others stepped into the light. It drew the soldiers’ attention—and guns—in their direction. “They’re with me.” Only four figures in suits appeared. I assumed Mage, Sofie, and Lilly were hanging in the shadows with Max. That was fine. This would only take a minute.
I gave Susan a slight push, urging her forward. Finally, her worn navy-blue sneakers dragged along the pavement as she took several steps forward, her arms coiled around her chest tightly. “You’ll be fine. They’ll get you somewhere safe,” I assured her. When a soldier appeared from the truck with a gray woolen blanket to quickly wrap her up, her pulse finally slowed.
I watched them lead her away, my heart full for one brief moment because I’d been able to save one person and it’d been so easy. Spinning on my heels, I took quick steps toward Caden, anxious to be out of the spotlight.
“Why are you off the search grid?” One of them called out.
I faltered for one … two … three beats, unprepared for that answer. Apparently that was too long. Several clicks set my hairs on end.
Lilly stepped into the light beside me, her suit at least four sizes too big for her. Still, she managed to carry herself with an air of authority that surprised even me. “Who said we’re off the search grid? And why are you pointing guns at us?” she demanded.
“Sorry. The sergeant major’s got us keepin’ our eyes peeled for anything suspicious. Where’s your truck?”
“We just delivered a survivor to you. I’d say that’s quite unsuspicious. Why don’t you get her to safety,” Lilly calmly suggested, ignoring the last question.
“Right. Okay.” The gun muzzles lowered. It appeared that the threat had been squashed.
“Nibbs!” The driver ushered the soldier we were speaking to over with a wave. The soldier—Nibbs, I presumed—sidestepped over and leaned in close. With the truck’s engine purring loudly and the voices muffled, it was difficult to interpret what was being said. I heard “eight” and “movement” and “no heat.”
And then Nibbs’ raised his gun and pulled the trigger.
I watched the bullet sail through the air as if in slow motion, a sizeable missile-looking thing aimed for my chest. It was nothing to avoid it, letting it continue on until it hit a brick wall across the street and detonated.
In that brief time, though, the rest of the soldiers raised their guns and fired into the darkness.
Now we had a problem. We could easily run and avoid the bullets. But something had made them fire on us. This would be reported, and the witches would be notified.
I watched with trepidation as everyone—Sofie and Mage included—descended on the armed soldiers. In seconds, none stood. The engine on the truck revved as if to pull away but one of us reached into the driver’s seat, ready to dispatch the driver as well.
“Wait!” I cried out, rushing forward to find the soldier’s head pressed back against the seat, his neck vulnerable to the twist of an expert hand. “We need him to take Susan back.” As if on cue, Susan whimpered softly in the back. “Compel him.”
There was a pause and then Sofie pulled her mask off.
She tore the man’s gloves off, revealing an angled cross tattoo. “We can’t compel him. The witches have somehow blocked my ability.” She paused. “Care to do the honors?” I couldn’t tell if she was pissed at me for veering off the plan, but her tone certainly didn’t leave me feeling warm.
I removed my mask again and gripped the man’s chin, surprised at how quickly his heart raced, how afraid he was. I’d already disassociated the Sentinel from the innocent human population, seeing them as cold, villainous creatures who needed to be stopped. But he was human. He probably had a family somewhere. He probably thought he was fighting for a good cause.
Maybe he was.
“You will drive the girl back to the barricades and ensure that she is safe. You will say nothing about this.” I paused, taking in the bodies. “If someone asks where your group is, say … say they’re investigating a building where they heard people yelling.” I knew it wouldn’t be convincing but it might buy us some time.
His head bobbed sluggishly, that cloudy haze swirling within his irises. “I think it worked,” I said to Sofie. Mage, her mask also off, climbed into the passenger side.
“I think it did,” she echoed, her suspicious gaze flickering to me.
What did they see when they looked at me? Was there a pink glow around me when I healed Susan? If I was wielding magic, I hadn’t the foggiest clue how I was doing it. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I still needed Sofie very much. There would be a time and place to ask those kinds of questions.
“What is this?” Mage demanded to know, tapping at the screen mounted on the dashboard.
Still in a haze, the man explained, “Motion detectors … infrared scanners … sound monitors …”
It clicked—his warning to Nibbs, just before the soldier shot at me. Eight, he’d said. Their scanners picked up our movements. And no heat. Right. We didn’t emit body heat. That made sense.
“Do all vehicles have these?” Mage pressed.
“Yes.”
“Does this feed into anything at the base?”
“No.”
“Did you radio this in before you called Nibbs over?”
“No.”
The three of us released a collective breath. It didn’t last long, though.
“I tripped the emergency switch to tell them we needed urgent back up.” The admission came a split second before Bishop’s bellow.
“We’ve gotta go!” Lights appeared on the horizon, bouncing up and down as they raced over debris.
Susan had folded herself into a crevice behind the passenger seat and was shaking uncontrollably. Leaving the girl like that made me sick with guilt but we didn’t have a choice. “Nobody will hurt you. Just stay in here until someone asks you to come out.”
I didn’t wait for her answer.
We escaped down the street and around the corner just as the sounds of squeaky brakes and boots hitting pavement carried through the night’s silence.
“Lilly? Check in with Isaac!” Mage called out, peering back around the corner. We could’ve easily outrun the trucks but I knew what Mage was worried about. Attracting the witches’ attention.
Lilly’s gloved hand raised as if asking for silence; her other hand pressed against her ear. “No alarms yet.” She tore her mask off. “Well, at least we learned something. Perhaps we stick to the plan, going forward?”
Was she referring to the Sentinel’s tactics or my abilities?
Sofie’s next words told me what she was focused on. “You healed that girl.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I guess I did.” I paused, and then the panic bubbled. “Do you think they could see it? The witches, I mean.” I hadn’t even given it any thought before. We still had to somehow get to the thousands of fledglings in the tunnels before they broke free! Had I just screwed up our entire plan because of my impulsiveness?
“No,” Sofie quickly confirmed. “That’s not sorceress magic you’re channeling.”
Not the same magic? What other kind of magic was there? “What does that mean?” Déjà vu washed over me. Hadn’t we been here before, so many times? Hadn’t I asked her this question so many times? The only difference was I trusted Sofie then.
“I’m not sure yet,” she whispered. I so desperately wanted to believe her soft words. But I knew better.
“It means that the witches cannot sense it, either,” Mage said. “That could be a big advantage for us out there. Evangeline, if you learned how to wield it properly, if you figured out your limitations, this could help us tremendously.”
“I doubt anything that the Fates have done will help anyone but the Fates,” Caden interjected, his tone sharp and so very readable. Don’t trust what they’re saying, he was reminding me.
“But what if you could turn this war around?” Mage said.
“What if this is a trap that will end up killing her?” Caden yelled back, taking several steps forward to place himself as a barrier between Sofie and me. “I won’t let you use her!” Another thirty seconds of this and we wouldn’t need the witches or the fledglings or the Sentinel or Viggo; we’d all be trying to kill each other.
“I don’t know how I end up doing anything that I do,” I admitted with frustration. “And we have somewhere we need to be.” I didn’t wait for a response, instead running down the street. In seconds, the others followed, weaving in and around cars and fallen power lines.
We ran in silence, our suits creating a strange rumpling sound as we moved. If any survivors existed here, they were hiding because I sensed nothing stirring, not even a stray cat. I kept my eyes forward, trying not to count the growing number of bodies in my peripherals, the ones I had to sidestep or run over. By the charred remains of both people and buildings, we were well within the radius of the fire. I couldn’t wait to get closer to the epicenter, the expectation that I wouldn’t be able to identify anything a relief.
We passed a collection of busses—likely a station—when that eerie sixth sense kicked in again, the one I’d felt back at base camp.
The one that instantly made me think of Viggo.
“It’s him!” I hissed.
Caden closed the gap between us. We ran side by side, our shoulders bumping against each other. “Who?”
Without turning my head, I scanned the dark recesses surrounding us, hoping I was merely paranoid. I couldn’t find anything. Not a flash of movement or a glimmer of an eye.
And yet I knew I was right.
“We need to stay together.” Why wasn’t Viggo attacking?
Rounding the corner, Caden stopped and grabbed my arm. His hand moved to pull off his mask.
And it clicked. Viggo didn’t know which one of us was Caden.
“No, don’t!” I grabbed his hand, yanking it down before he could reveal his face. The face that one day, I would be able to sit by a quiet river and stare at all day if I wanted. “Come on. Keep running.” We had a clear advantage here. I didn’t want Viggo to know that I was on to him.
“What is going on?”
“Don’t stop running and keep your focus forward,” I warned. “Viggo is following us.”