Sirens cut through the storm and the birds and the excruciating silence inside the van. Blue and red lights flashed through the darkness—police cars or ambulances, maybe both—and they were close.
“We have to run.” Priest shoved everything within reach into one of the bags, and Alara did the same. With only one road in or out, we would meet those sirens head-on if we tried to leave the way we came.
Lukas opened the back door and rain pelted the metal floor. I couldn’t see anything except the colored lights getting closer.
“If we get separated, head north.” Jared pointed beyond the prison. “Pennsylvania isn’t far. Find the second town closest to the state line, and we’ll meet there.”
Lukas turned to follow them, and Jared grabbed his jacket. “Take Kennedy with you. She’ll be safer.”
Lukas and Jared faced their other halves, the person who made them both weaker and stronger. Neither of them spoke, but something more powerful than words passed between them.
Lukas shook his head. “You’re faster.”
Jared’s eyes filled with doubt. “I don’t want to screw up again.”
“We all screw up.” Lukas backed into the storm and disappeared in the darkness.
Jared’s hand closed around mine, and we ran.
Our feet splashed through pools of water. Blood pounded in my ears and lightning cracked against the sky. I thought about the night my mom died—how scared I was and how alone. I was back in that place. In one moment, I had ruined any chance of destroying the demon that killed her, and I had endangered the lives of how many others? Thousands? Millions?
Jared swore the mark didn’t matter, but I knew it did. And sooner or later, it would matter to the rest of them.
We reached the edge of the penitentiary, or what was left of the stone building. It looked like a child had built it out of blocks and knocked it over afterward. The sirens grew louder, the blue and red whirling lights practically on top of us.
“Come on.” Jared led us deeper into the shadows. I tried to keep up, but the ground had turned into a river of mud, and I kept losing my footing. He tightened his grip on my hand as if he was determined not to let me fall.
The ground inclined, turning the gentle rise into an impossible climb as water and earth rushed under our feet. I lost my balance again. This time, my wet hand slipped out of Jared’s and I fell.
My shoulder hit the ground, and I slid into something sharp.
Pain shot through my ankles and calves like hundreds of knives piercing my skin. I jerked and the feeling intensified. Was it glass?
Lightning splintered the sky, illuminating the silver vines coiled around my legs.
Razor wire.
I tried to pull my body free, but the wire only wound itself tighter, the barbs digging deeper into my flesh. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming, and the tang of blood filled my mouth.
Jared dropped down next to me, rain running down his face in rivulets. “Are you okay?”
I closed my eyes, trying to stay calm. “I think so” was all I could manage.
He smoothed the mud-slicked hair away from my face. “Don’t move.”
Jared tried to untangle the wire, but the metal teeth clung to my legs, and the nerves in my back seized. I winced and clutched his arm.
“Shh,” he murmured. “I’m right here.”
A car skidded through the mud, and a door slammed not far from us. We didn’t have much time.
Lightning flashed again.
Jared’s hands were soaked in blood from trying to unwind the silver ribbons curling around me. Prisons used this stuff for a reason. He wasn’t going to be able to free me in the dark without wire cutters or an act of god.
I grabbed his collar and drew him closer, feeling the warmth of his breath on my face. “You have to go.”
“I’m not leaving you.” His voice cracked.
“Listen to me. People think I was kidnapped, and we just destroyed a prison. If you stay here, they’ll arrest you.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.” I held his face in my hands, forcing him to look at me even though we could barely see each other. “I won’t be able to handle it if you get in trouble because of me.”
You’re already in trouble because of me. The whole world is.
Jared pressed his forehead against mine. The subtle shift in position sent another surge of pain shooting up my legs, and a wave of nausea rolled over me. He ran his fingers along the side of my face, and a different kind of pain consumed me.
“I shouldn’t have pushed you away,” he said.
All I could think about was protecting him. What happened between us outside Hearts of Mercy didn’t change the way I felt about him. I wasn’t sure anything could. “It doesn’t matter—”
“Let me say this,” he whispered. “I was scared. I still am. It’s like you know me. You see things in me that no one else does.” He shook his head. “I’m not saying this right.”
I touched the scar above his eye. “You’re saying it fine.”
“I’ve never really had anything that was mine, and I never cared until now.” He hesitated. “And I know you aren’t mine… but I want you to be.”
Boots splashed through the mud somewhere nearby.
I have to get him out of here.
I ran my fingers over his lips. “If Darien’s spirit was telling the truth, I released a demon tonight. Think about all the innocent people Andras will hurt. You have to find a way to stop him, or I’ll never be able to forgive myself.”
It was a lie.
I would never forgive myself no matter what he did. But if Jared believed he was helping me, and the people caught in the trap I had unknowingly set, he might be willing to leave me here.
“Do you still care about me?” he asked.
I sensed him watching me. “We don’t belong together. I’m not one of you.”
His lips grazed mine. “Answer the question.”
My breath hitched. “I care.”
“It doesn’t matter if you have a mark. You don’t have to be anything more than you are.” Jared pressed his lips against mine with a hunger that matched my own. For a moment, there was nothing but the two of us. He slid his mouth around to my ear. “You’re enough.”
“I’ll check the west side,” a voice called through the rain.
I ran my hand over his face, trying to memorize every curve and every line. “Please go.”
“I’ll find you, I swear,” he whispered. “I—”
“Go.” I shoved him away.
He hesitated, and I closed my eyes, listening as the storm swallowed the sound of his footsteps.
He’s safe.
The pain subsided and numbness wrapped itself around me. I counted silently, praying he was far enough away, until the beam of a flashlight caught my eyes.
“Over here! I found someone.” The officer bent down next to me. “You’re gonna be all right, miss.”
I didn’t respond, hoping the rain would drown me. I searched for Jared’s face in my mind.
Would I forget it? Or would my mind finally save a picture I wanted to remember?
I lay in the mud as the officers struggled to cut me free. “The ambulance is stuck in the storm, but we’re gonna take good care of you. We’ve seen this kinda thing before. Haven’t we?”
The other officer winced as the wire sliced into his hands. “We’ll have you out of here in a few minutes, and your legs will be just fine.”
What about the rest of me?
They asked my name over and over—when they bandaged my legs, when they wrapped me in a scratchy wool blanket, when I waited in the back of the police car. They would figure it out soon enough.
I was watching the rain pelt the ruined prison windows in the glare of the headlights, when something moved at the edge of the wall. Someone.
Jared.
Only a few yards away, but impossibly far in every way that mattered.
I’ll find you.
I wasn’t promising him. I was promising myself.
I had managed to lose everything all over again—the things I let myself want, and the ones I wanted so desperately to be true. But there was only one truth now.
I was never destined to save the world.
I was the one who destroyed it.
Even though I couldn’t see more than his silhouette, I watched Jared until the officer climbed into the driver’s seat and the tires spun through the mud. Until I couldn’t see the prison or the road or anything except his face in my mind. I wondered if I would see it again.
And if the black doves would ever carry me.
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