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“Grey, get off the damn bike, and I’ll only shoot to harm your wretched little friend instead of killing him.”
The sudden, rough pull of his jacket, and a quiet wince from Grey stopped Noel’s heart. He glanced down to the zipper track to find streaks of blood and red-stained palms. “Grey—” he choked out in a panic, right as he caught Cavan swaying on his feet, and the gun dropping from his hand.
“Go!” Grey snapped.
Arms folded around him again, no longer attached to his jacket as he shot the bike through the woods, weaving past trees and thorns with another engine roaring somewhere behind them. Every extra push of gas sent his mind tumbling through all the horrible possibilities—possibilities in which Grey would be ripped from him and he’d be left for dead. The irony that Grey had just saved his life while in the midst of Noel saving his wasn’t lost on him, but he desperately wished he had the ability to make all these problems go away on his own.
He gritted his teeth and pressed forward until the worst possible noise carried over the sound of the van: caw.
Caw. Caw. Caw.
A chorus of screeches broke out in the trees, nearly drowning out Grey’s panicked, “Oh, no. No, no, no?—”
Forms swooped down in a cascade of nightmarish shadows. Black birds shot in front of them, around them—talons dug into Noel’s scalp and beaks nipped at his fingers. He batted them away and tried to wave to where Grey pressed further into his back.
The van swerved in his cracked mirrors, nearly consumed by the cauldron of ravens. Noel peeled off to the left and zipped through the narrow path. Only then did the birds fly away, drifting higher in the sky. Noel panted and tensed at the echo of two screams before the sharp smash of metal colliding with earth. Noel slowed, feeling Grey’s head lift away from his back as he peered into the dark beyond the row of trees at their side.
He wove the bike through and slammed on the breaks. Rocks from the edge of the cliff slipped free as he gently rolled the motorcycle backward, and his stomach clenched at the sight of the van at the bottom of the ravine.
“Oh, fuck,” he whispered.
Grey’s shuddering sob of relief almost cracked his heart in half as he turned the bike back onto the narrow path. The grinding of dirt against the wheels became the sweetest melody as Noel spirited them away from Cavan, Daz, and the terrifying creatures lurking on the edge of the Otherworld.
30
GREY
Grey’s arms shook by the time they stopped in the early-morning shadow of crumbling brick duplexes and stripped cables dangling from glass-less window frames.
No gates.
No corrugated walls.
No chain-link fences.
The slow roll through an alleyway stacked with debris along the edges left every nerve on edge until Noel pulled up to a half-closed garage. It’s metal shutter glinting pink in the first gasp of light. He got off, and Grey stumbled after him, the two ducking inside while Noel wheeled the bike in.
Grey’s eyes adjusted to the dim, dusty box. Peg boards were half-torn off the walls and trash sat crumpled in the corners. “Do you think it’s safe to rest here?” he asked, ringing his hands and scraping off the dried blood from his palms.
“Not sure, but we need to rest.” Noel paced along the garage door and tried to pull it closer to the cracked pavement. The thing groaned like something straight from the Otherworld until it finally dropped down a little further. “Close enough,” he grumbled, dusting off his hands on his pants.
Grey laid his bag on the floor and collapsed to rifle through it. He pulled out a bunched up spare shirt to turn into a makeshift pillow as Noel sat down next to him. Worn, familiar fabric rubbed against his cheek, his body finally relaxing while Noel sifted through his own bag.
“I’m fucking starving,” he mumbled.
Grey nudged his bag closer to him. “I still have some rations.”
Noel scowled. “Those are yours.”
“But you need them,” he said with a tired sigh. “Take it as a thank you for saving me, especially after all the trouble I’ve caused.”
“You’re not?—”
“I know. I’m not because I’m your friend. I just… feel like I am.”
Noel’s bag buckle clanged against the concrete and scraped as he shimmied closer and laid down next to Grey. “You’re not.” His leafy green eyes pierced through him, prying into his soul. It made Grey squirm until Noel turned his face up to the bag again.
“Thank you,” Grey whispered through the rustling of Noel hunting down his trade-snack.
