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The lock popped, and Noel gritted his teeth at the squeal of the hinges. “We’re sitting ducks in here.” He grabbed his bag and helped haul Grey to his feet. “I think it’s better we take our chances before they figure out we’re part of the hunt.”
But instead of letting go, Noel squeezed Grey’s hand even tighter as they hurried past the cells with the growing shouts, zips of electricity, and cries of malformed faerie things making his heart pump faster with each passing second. He glanced back every few steps, the corners of his vision darkened by adrenaline. Grey’s breaths started to slip into hyperventilation as they reached the door outside with a raucous fight breaking out just on the other side.
“We can’t?—”
Noel spun around and dug his thumbs into Grey’s shoulders, nearly nose-to-nose and trembling in the low lamplight of the concrete jail. “Fair folk show no mercy. I know you’re scared but stick close and keep quiet. I’ll get us out of here. Trust me.”
Grey’s now-free hand wrapped around one of Noel’s wrists. The fear reflected in his colored eye might as well have been a thousand knives running him through before he took his hand again—an anchor he refused to deny himself. All his previous fear of Grey pulling the life force from him immediately vanished when he ripped the door open, and they stumbled out into the dirt.
Noel’s eyes went wide at the circle of guards past the building and further toward the center of town with weapons drawn and orders for the townspeople to stand down. His knees locked up for the briefest moment until he caught a slicing arc of pink in the distance. A quick jerk of Grey’s arm, and they bolted toward the garage. Distant cackling chilled him to his core. He took a sharp turn around the garage’s overhang and skidded to a stop, throwing up his hands, Grey’s still firmly tucked into one.
The muzzle of Bandana’s gun pointed straight at Noel’s face. He swallowed. “Please just let us leave, and I promise we won’t cause any more trouble.”
A dark, warped chuckle slipped from Bandana, and he shook his head. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Every hair stood on end. This wasn’t the voice of the man they’d encountered earlier. This was something else—something animalistic and dual-layered in a twisted way he couldn’t quite describe.
Grey bumped against Noel’s side. “There’s something wrong with his eyes,” he breathed. God, he was right. They were oozing black at the corners, eating away at the white.
In a flash, Noel and Grey jumped back, tearing their hands apart while the guy slumped forward with a resounding crack. Another shadow took his place: thin, shorter, with tanned features and a mess of dark brown hair in short, messy waves cascading over her face. Wide, gold eyes contrasted the steel sheen of the bat in her hands. “You,” she whispered, tendrils of loose hair getting caught on her chapped lips.
His gaze flicked to the tattered black denim jeans, studded belt, and dark gray plaid flannel shirt tied around her waist. He recognized that checkered flag in its blurred sprint into the woods by the obelisk all those nights ago.
She bared her teeth and pointed the bat toward the garage. “Get the fuck out of here. Both of you. Why the fuck are you two even here together?”
A howl jolted the three of them from their confrontation, and the girl whipped her head around to find the source of the noise before jogging toward one of the motorcycles.
Noel started for his own, fumbling for his keys while the girl pulled at wires. Her scowl shone through tangled hair when Grey climbed on behind him.
“Get your own fucking ride, dumbass. If they catch any of us together?—”
“We know the risk,” Noel snapped.
“Yeah, and the longer you two stick together, the more likely the wardens will kill two birds with one stone. Fucking. Split.” Her engine revved with another cry from inside the city.
“It’s our decision,” he ground out, his argument solidified with Grey’s arms wrapped around him as he began the backward shuffle from the garage. “We’re going to break it.”
She guffawed. “Break this curse? You two seriously think you can outwit the fair folk? Goddamn you’re fucking stupid.” She backed up and rolled past them. “Suit yourselves. It’s your funeral.” Then she was gone, through the gate in a heartbeat with the cackling howls of beasts chasing after her.
Noel punched it forward and drank in the first glimmer of morning grazing the edge of the horizon and shot southward in search of freedom.
22
GREY
The snapping of jaws ratcheted up Grey’s heartrate ten-fold as they hurtled past trees and brush. He dared a glance back to the horrid pink glowing dots jerkily bouncing above their mount, their body anchored low with a greenish blade in their hand. The jagged, feral grin pasted on their face grew deadlier the closer they drew.
Grey sucked in a sharp breath and turned back around, searching up ahead through the forest with a single word lingering on the tip of his tongue: Reign. Would he even be able to call them off if they were the fair folk pursuing him and Noel? Or would it toss them further into a frenzy? A coppery tang started to spread in his mouth, followed by a pressure threatening to pop his skull.
Come now, little finch.
The cackle that loosed behind them forced him further against Noel’s body. He gritted his teeth and fought against the clashing sounds of Reign pushing into his thoughts and the more feminine shriek tearing from the fair folk giving chase.
Decidedly not Reign, then.
“Leave me alone,” Grey hissed, his voice drowned out by the roar of the engine.
A lilting, husky chuckle echoed in response. Surrender yourself to my fellow hunter, and I’ll ensure she brings you to me unharmed.
