I looked around. The White Orchid was located on the edge of the tourist section of town, where the shopping squares full of businesses gave way to more industrial areas. Still, I knew exactly where we were—and the only thing that might save us now.
“This way!” I yelled. “Follow me! Run!”
I set off down the street, with the others following along behind me like we were all a pack of joggers. Only this wasn’t a casual run. It was a race—one that would determine whether we lived or died.
Bang!
It sounded like Blake had already gotten through the alley door, and we weren’t even at the end of the block yet. I risked a quick glance over my shoulder. Sure enough, Blake ran out into the street a second later, flanked by several Draconi guards. He must have heard the swishing sound of our footsteps because he whirled around and looked in our direction.
“Get the cars!” he yelled. “Cut them off and chase them down!”
Some of the guards headed in the other direction to follow his orders, but Blake sprinted after us, with close to a dozen guards trailing along behind him. If they caught up to us, we were dead.
I looked over at Devon, who was running along beside me, his strides long, smooth, and easy. Deah was also running well, but Felix had already started to lag behind, sweat pouring down his face. We still had about a mile to go, and I knew that he wouldn’t be able to make it that far before Blake and the other guards caught up with us.
Devon glanced back at Felix, then over at me, his face creasing with worry as he realized the same thing I did.
“Tell us all . . . to run,” I said between gasps of air. “It’s the only way . . . we’re going to make it.”
Devon nodded. I grabbed Deah’s arm and made her stop, and Felix staggered up beside us. Then all three of us looked at Devon.
He drew in a deep breath, then stared me in the eyes. “Run!” he screamed in the loudest voice he could.
Devon’s compulsion magic immediately wrapped around my body, making it feel as though I was a puppet and someone else was pulling my strings. Beside me, Deah and Felix also jerked upright, their fingers twitching, their bodies going into spasms, and their feet and legs churning of their own accord. With one thought, we all started running again.
Deah and Felix had no choice but to run as Devon had commanded, but my transference magic quickly overcame his compulsion, until his power was mine to use however I wanted. And right now, I wanted to get us as far away from the Draconis as fast as possible.
So the four of us ran and ran and ran . . . pulling away from Blake and his guards, although they continued to yell and chase after us. Devon’s magic made it easier for us to run, but his compulsion power didn’t help with anything else. It was still a hot night and sweat soaked my body, streaming down into and stinging my eyes, and the air was so humid that it was like trying to breathe in warm soup. But I didn’t dare break stride, not even to take a second to rest. I’d rather be hot, sweaty, and miserable than dead. Beside me, the others gasped, wheezed, and panted for air as well, but we all kept running.
We rounded a corner and a bridge loomed up in the distance, arching over this section of the Bloodiron River. I used to be wary of the bridge, and especially of the lochness monster that lived underneath it, but not anymore. The lochness was going to save us, just the way it had Devon and me once before.
“We just have to get across the bridge!” I yelled to the others. “Blake won’t be able to follow us, and we can disappear into the alleys!”
Deah looked confused, but Devon and Felix both nodded, some of the tension easing in their red, sweaty faces.
We ran on. Devon’s compulsion magic weakened and finally faded away altogether in the others, who began to slow down. I could have kept right on running, with the magic and strength still pumping through my veins, but I eased my pace to match theirs. We needed to stick together no matter what.
The bridge loomed up before us and I risked another glance over my shoulder. Blake and his guards had closed the gap again and were much closer than before. Blake had his phone clutched up against his ear as he ran, barking orders at whoever was on the other end, but I wasn’t worried. Once we reached the bridge we’d be safe—
Headlights flared to life in the distance.
I squinted against the harsh, unexpected glare. An SUV had turned onto the street on the far side of the bridge and was closing in fast on the span. The vehicle’s headlights clearly illuminated us, like four deer out on the road late at night, before it swerved to the side and stopped, blocking off the far end of the bridge. My heart sank as I spotted the symbol emblazoned on the SUV’s doors—a snarling dragon crest.
The vehicle ahead of us belonged to the Draconis. Blake was still coming up behind us, and now he’d cut off our escape route on the other side of the bridge.
Trapped.
We were trapped.
CHAPTER TEN
The others spotted the SUV at the same time I did, and we all skidded to a stop right before we would have stepped onto the lochness bridge.
Deah blinked. “That’s a Draconi car.”
“We’re cut off,” Devon said in a tense voice.
“Now what?” Felix asked. “Because Blake and his guards will be here in a minute, and we can’t fight them all off.”
Devon squared his shoulders and turned to face Blake and the oncoming guards. “You guys run. If you hurry, you can get away from the bridge, duck into one of the alleys that we just passed, and sprint out the far end. I’ll stay behind and hold them off as long as I can. It’s my job as the Family bruiser. Besides, I’m the one that Blake really wants. You heard what Victor said about capturing all the Sinclair leaders. I’m the only one he doesn’t have yet.”
His mouth tightened into a grim slash and he raised his sword and stepped forward, calmly facing Blake and the approaching guards.
But I wasn’t about to let Devon sacrifice himself for us. Not when I knew that Blake would probably kill him, despite Victor’s orders, just for making Blake chase us. So I whirled around and around, trying to figure some way out of this mess. I’d thought that once we’d gotten across the lochness bridge, we’d be safe, but Blake had cut off our escape route by sending that SUV to the opposite side. And despite what Devon said, we couldn’t go back, not now, not with Blake and his men getting closer and closer by the second.
Desperate, my head snapped left and right, my gaze scanning the surrounding buildings, searching for a ladder or a fire escape or even a drainpipe that we might climb up to at least get off the street and give me a few more moments to think.
But there was nothing. No ladders, no fire escapes, no drainpipes. Just the rundown warehouses and the bridge and the dark, glimmering surface of the river below where the lochness made its home—
The river.
My head whipped around again. The lochness had saved Devon and me once before when we’d been on the bridge because I had paid its toll. I wondered if the creature would do the same thing if we actually went down to the water where it lived.
Monsters are your friends. Never forget that. Seleste’s voice whispered in my mind. That was the prophecy, the warning, the message she’d given me last night. I just hoped that her words were true. That the lochness really was my friend and that I wasn’t about to get eaten, along with my friends.
Only one way to find out.
“This way!” I hissed. “Down the riverbank!”
“What?” Deah hissed back at me. “Are you crazy? A lochness lives under this bridge! It’ll drag us into the river and drown us before it eats us. And that’s if we’re lucky.”
“Trust me. This is our only option. Now let’s go.”
Still holding on to my stolen sword, I raced over to the bridge, using my free hand to shove up my black suit jacket and dig into one of the hidden slots on my belt. I didn’t have time to sprint out to the stone marked with three Xs in the center of the bridge where you were supposed to leave your tribute, but I wa
s hoping that the lochness wouldn’t be too picky about where I put the coins, as long as it got paid. So I grabbed all the quarters I had in my belt and slapped them down on the stone column at this end of the bridge. Then I sprinted back toward my friends.
“This way! Follow me! Hurry!”
A wide swath of grass ran alongside the bridge before gently sloping down and running all the way to the water’s edge. It would have been a pretty picnic spot, but none of the locals ever stayed close to this part of the river for long, knowing that it was the lochness’s territory. Several black-and-white monster warning signs were also planted in the grass to keep the tourist rubes away. DON’T FEED THE LOCHNESS.
But I sprinted past the warning signs and scrambled down the bank anyway, hoping that I hadn’t just made it that much easier for the creature to snatch us up with its long, black tentacles. All the while, I kept listening, hoping to hear the scrape-scrape-scrape of coins sliding off the stone column above as the lochness accepted my tribute.
But try as I might, I couldn’t hear anything over the rapid thump of my heart, the slap of my sneakers on the grass, and my friends’ harsh, ragged breathing. I’d just have to risk it.
We reached the bottom of the riverbank and stopped. A wide stone ledge ran along the edge of the grass, almost like a boardwalk, separating it from the water. The moon and stars were shining brightly tonight, making the rippling surface of the river gleam like a sheet of polished silver. The air was even more humid down here than it had been up on the street, and the entire area smelled wet and fishy. I stared out at the water, using my sight magic, but I didn’t see anything lurking in the dark depths.
“Now what are you going to do?” a snide voice called out. “Go for a swim?”
The four of us whirled around.
Blake and his guards stood at the top of the riverbank, swords clutched in their hands. I raised my own stolen sword, ready to defend myself and my friends. But instead of charging down the slope after us, Blake snorted and actually sheathed his weapon.
“You are without a doubt the four stupidest people ever.” He stabbed his finger at the closest warning sign. “Don’t you know that this is a lochness bridge?”
I didn’t say anything, and neither did any of the others.
He laughed and shook his head. “I don’t even have to come down there to kill you. The lochness will do it for me. All I have to do is wait.”
All around him, the guards snickered and sheathed their own swords. Across the bridge, Draconi guards got out of the SUV, spreading out until they had lined the opposite side of the river. All of them sneered down at us as well, just like Blake was doing.
I tensed, but I still didn’t move or say anything, and neither did my friends.
Blake and the guards all focused on the river, expecting the lochness—or at least its long, black tentacles—to shoot up out of the water, grab us, and drag us down, down, down to the bottom of the river, never to be seen or heard from again.
But nothing happened. No tentacles, no sprays of water, nothing.
A minute passed, then two, then three.
And still, nothing happened.
I took deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart and frayed nerves, listening for the faintest splash that would tell me the lochness was about to strike, but I didn’t hear anything. No splashes, no slaps of water, nothing.
Beside me, Devon, Felix, and Deah all kept glancing at the river, with Devon and Deah clutching their swords tightly, ready to lash out with the weapons if the monster did attack us.
And still, nothing happened.
The Draconi guards started muttering and shifting on their feet, wondering what was taking so long. Blake scowled. Apparently, the lochness wasn’t killing us fast enough for his liking.
“Fine,” he muttered. “I’ll just come down there and finish you off myself.”
Blake unsheathed his sword, twirled it around in his hand, and left the street behind. I wondered if he might go over to the bridge to leave some money for the lochness like I had, but he ignored the stone column where I’d left my quarters. I sucked in a breath, my heart lifting with sudden hope.
He hadn’t paid the toll.
Sure enough, Blake had only taken a single step down onto the grassy riverbank when the clink-clink-clink of coins sounded, as the lochness finally accepted my tribute.
“Duck!” I yelled at my friends.
The four of us had barely crouched down on the stone ledge before a long, black tentacle shot up out of the river, spraying water everywhere. The tentacle undulated back and forth over our heads, like a copper crusher about to strike.
And then it did.
The tentacle zipped forward, heading straight for the cluster of men still up on the street. Blake’s eyes widened and he managed to avoid the tentacle, but the guard standing next to him wasn’t so lucky. The tentacle wrapped around the man and hoisted him high in the air before snapping him back and forth, and back and forth, almost as if the lochness was waving a flag, declaring that this was its territory and no one else’s. Then the tentacle tossed the guard aside, as easily as I could throw one of the stars hooked to my belt. The guard slammed into the side of the stone bridge, then plummeted down into the river below.
The guard screamed all the way down, and water spewed up like a geyser as he plunged below the surface of the river. The water bubbled up all around that spot, frothing and foaming like rapids, but the man didn’t reappear, not even for an instant, and I knew that the lochness had him.
The smart thing would have been to retreat, but Blake was too angry and too determined to get us.
“Kill them!” he roared, whipping up his sword and starting down the riverbank.
He hadn’t taken three steps before more tentacles started shooting out of the water, one right after another, this time attacking the Draconi guards on both sides of the river, making them scream, shout, and lash out with their swords.
But the lochness was quicker and much, much stronger than any human, and its tentacles whipped back and forth, easily dodging all of the guards’ frantic, clumsy blows. We were still between the monster and the guards, right in the danger zone. One of the tentacles clipped Devon, spinning him around, and I had to lunge forward and grab him before he toppled backward into the river. The lochness wasn’t attacking us, but we still needed to get out here before the creature accidentally knocked us into the river and drowned us.
Since we couldn’t climb up the riverbank where Blake and the guards were, there was only one other place to go.
“We have to get out of the way!” I yelled. “Get under the bridge! Go! Go! Go!”
Deah and Felix both looked at me like I was crazy and was going to get them killed after all. Maybe I was, but I’d rather be eaten by the lochness than let Blake capture me. So I got to my feet and darted toward the bridge, and the others fell into step behind me.
The ledge ran all the way under the bridge, and the stone curved up, like the inside of a pipe, before becoming part of the bridge itself. The span blocked out all the moon and starlight above, making it almost pitch-black down here. I could still see just fine, but the others couldn’t, and Devon stumbled into me, almost knocking me off the ledge and down into the water. I grabbed his hand and pushed his shoulder up against the curving stone wall.
“Grab Felix, and tell him to get Deah!” I yelled. “Press yourselves up against the side!”
Devon nodded and did as I asked. With one hand, he reached out and touched Felix, so that Felix would know where he was. Then, Devon wrapped his arm around me, shielding me with his body and pulling us both up as close to the wall as he could get. On his other side, Felix did the same thing with Deah.
By this point, it seemed as though the entire river was boiling at our feet, the water frothing and foaming like a science experiment volcano that was about to explode. Wave after wave of water dashed against us, soaking us from head to toe. Despite the day’s heat, the river was cold enough to make
me shiver and I had to press my teeth together to keep them from chattering.
Despite the constant cascades of water, I peered over my shoulder, looking back toward the river. The others didn’t have my sight magic, so they didn’t see the pair of enormous eyes that glowed a bright, vivid, sapphire blue out in the center of the water, or how the lochness lashed out again and again at the Draconi guards with its thick, strong tentacles.
But I could see it all as clear as day, and it chilled me far more than the water did, even though the lochness was only protecting us as I’d asked it to. Maybe Seleste was right. Maybe I’d paid enough tolls for the lochness to think of me as a sort of pet, the way I did it. Or maybe the monster really was my friend, for whatever reason.
The lochness’s attack seemed to go on forever, although it couldn’t have lasted much longer than a couple of minutes. But the Draconi guards must have finally retreated out of the monster’s reach because the tentacles slid beneath the surface of the water, and the river slowly calmed until the current was as soft and steady as before.
Under the bridge, in the blackness, the four of us remained still and frozen, barely daring to breathe, much less move.
Finally, I heard the steady thud-thud-thud-thud of boots smacking against stone, as though someone were pacing back and forth along the street above us.
“They have to be dead.” Blake’s voice drifted down to me. “No one could have survived that. Not down there so close to the river. The other cars have come. Let’s get out of here before that, that thing decides to attack us again.”
The remaining guards quickly chimed in with their own murmurs of agreement, wanting to get away from the bridge and the lochness as fast as possible. More footsteps slapped against the street, and car doors slammed shut one after another. A few seconds later, the crunch-crunch-crunch of tires sounded, and several vehicles drove away, the rumbles of their engines fading to nothingness.
Slowly, the four of us relaxed, although we still didn’t move from our spots under the bridge.