“Keen,” I huff.
“Told you to hold on,” Jasper says, cackling to himself.
The scent of rubber continues to burn my nose as we skid again and fly into another alley. Jasper’s laughter has a maniacal edge to it.
“Stop taking turns like that, you godfucking psycho,” Gray growls at him.
“Why should I? This is fun.”
I hear more tires screech, not ours. It’s the Command truck in pursuit of us. I peer past Gray’s shoulders toward the windshield, my heart stopping when I notice a narrow gap in the distance between two factories. I don’t think it’s meant for vehicles, but Jasper is driving directly toward it.
“We won’t fit,” Gray warns.
“We’ll fit.”
I brace myself against the back of Jasper’s seat. Xavier does the same. We both anticipate smashing into that wall, or—if we domanage to make it through the gap—getting stuck in there like lambs for the slaughter.
Jasper hits the gas harder. The tires slide for a moment against the asphalt, but we stay on course. In the mirror I see the headlights of the Command truck, and suddenly the loud report of gunfire rises over my thundering heartbeat. They’re shooting at us with heavy-duty artillery.
“Down,” Jasper orders.
Xavier and I flatten ourselves onto the floor of the van.
“Not going to make it through that,” Gray is shouting.
“Would you stop being such a pussy?” Jasper says, hooting happily as he drives directly through the gap.
I hold my breath waiting for the crunch. The jolt, the explosion as our gas tank is ignited. But all that happens is an earsplitting shriek of metal against both sides of the van as it scrapes down the alleyway. We actually made it through.
An explosion booms in the night.
“Shamus detonated the warehouse,” Jasper says, nodding in approval. “Command must have just breached it.”
“What about the truck behind us?” I ask.
“They’re going to reroute, try to catch us somewhere else. It’ll be too late, though,” he says, and we speed away into the dark night.
We’ve been driving for nearly thirty minutes before Jasper abruptly veers off the paved road in Ward E and onto a narrow dirt path leading into the woods. Almost immediately, the moon disappears. With our headlights off, that moon was guiding our path. Now it’s pitch black, and I’m reminded of flying with Gray in that black void and landing with a prayer. The trees are so thick that it feels like the forest is closing in around us. The only light comes from the glow of the dashboard, the only sounds the hum of the engine and the ground crunching beneath our tires.
“Where are we going?” I ask Jasper.
His gaze remains on the windshield. He’s not scanning thelandscape, trying to figure out where he is, which tells me he’s made this drive many times before.
“Somewhere safe,” is his response. “Don’t worry, they’re expecting us.”
That raises my hackles. Who’stheyand how are they expecting us?
He drives deeper into the wilderness. Like me, Xavier squints out the window trying to make out anything in the darkness. All I can see are silhouettes of trees stretching endlessly into the night.
Gray turns from the passenger seat. “Are you okay?”
He’s looking at me, but Xavier responds before I can. “I am, thanks for asking.”
A flash of light suddenly illuminates the car. Jasper flicked the headlights on. At first, I still see nothing but trees and shadows, but then the pale beams catch a shape, and I suck in a breath.
A massive rock formation looms up ahead, what appears to be a wall of stone directly in the middle of the forest.
Once again, I glimpse only a slight gap. And once again, Jasper doesn’t hesitate before driving straight toward it.
