Hummer let go of Felix and took several steps forward, his face red. He pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it at the fleeing riders.
‘If she gets away, I’ll kill you myself! Get back.’
The train blasted its warning again. The sound of its shrieking wheels filled the air.
‘The dragons!’ Tru hollered, clawing at her brother. ‘My babies!’
The retreating Bruces pulled up short, looked frantically between Hummer’s gun and the tunnel.
‘I will kill you!’ Hummer screamed again.
They dashed back, their faces drawn in abject fear. But even as they disappeared into its darkness, the train entered the mouth of the tunnel.
The sounds were horrible– the screech of the wheels, the ear-splitting blast of the train’s horn, Tru’s screaming, the horrible roaring of dragons– and then, from both ends of the tunnel at once, clouds of sparks and fire poured out. The Bruce cousins still outside of the tunnel shouted in horror. The explosion carried back the length of the train, car by car, and each one erupted into spiraling, glittering showers of light.
The illusion had been broken.
Asta shinned down Carmine’s back and took a few cautious steps forward. On the other side of Hummer, Felix stumbled to his feet, a self-satisfied grin on his face.
‘What the fuck?’ Hummer muttered, scratching his head under his hat. The gun hung loose in his other hand, half extended but no longer pointed at anything or anyone in particular.
Vulture locked her anxious gaze on the tunnel where Nat had disappeared.
Tru, who had staggered forward a few paces before the explosion, halted her advance. She took one look at Hummer’s stunned face and, dashing forward, snatched the gun from his hand. She leveled it on her brother.
A dragon and rider trotted from the near side of the tunnel. It was Nat, bloodied and disheveled but alive. The other riders followed her half-heartedly, not sure, it seemed, if they were chasing her or following her. They looked rather dazed from the light and the sound of the explosion.
‘Now you know,’ Nat called out to her cousins before they could decide what to do, her voice tight and chesty. ‘Now you have the proof. You tried telling yourselves that he does what he does for you. You are his family, after all. You are the Bruces. The baddest, smartest, bravest racers who ever lived. But now you know: you mean fuck all to Hummer Bruce. How many of us would be dead right now if that train had been as real as he thought it was? And he wouldn’t have shed a tear.’ Nat walked her dragon forward to where Hummer and Tru stood, flanked by Felix and Asta. ‘Didn’t I tell you, Tru? He didn’t hesitate.’
‘You monster,’ Tru spat. She rattled the gun at his head. ‘You would have killed my dragons. I ought to shoot you, you bastard.’
Hummer’s eyes were still locked on Nat. ‘This family falls apart without me.’
Nat pouted. ‘Oh, no. Don’t shoot him, Tru! He’s so important!’ She turned to address her cousins again. ‘What do you think? Shoot him? Don’t shoot him?’ A murmur of indecision ran through the Bruces. ‘But if we shoot him, who do we pin that track-tampering business on? Or the firework incident, for that matter?’
‘Try it,’ Hummer growled, ‘and I’ll take you all down with me.’
Nat wiped a fake tear from her eye. ‘The words of a true leader. Except that heisn’ta leader without us behind him. Without us, he’s just a rank old man in a stupid hat.’
There was a rustle of amusement from the cousins gathered on the tracks by the mouth of the tunnel. Nat fully turned her back on Hummer now and addressed her family directly.
‘The name of Bruce is your name as much as it is his. He has brought shame on us all, but we can make it a name worth speaking again. Let’s take back what is ours. Together, we are unstoppable! We can topple kings! The House of Bruce! The House of Bruce!’ Her chant was picked up by the riders on the tracks. There was whooping and cheering. A dragon bellowed.
‘Now somebody grab that bastard before Tru shoots him,’ Nat commanded. ‘We’re going to need him for leverage.’
The eyes of the cousins turned on Hummer. He started to back away, then made a break for it. The uneven ground tripped him up and he slid down the embankment.
A dragon and rider darted forward from the pack. It was Karol, bounding after the escapee. There was a scuffle and shouting, an when Karol turned, the crested blue dragon held Hummer, caught by the shoulder, tightly in her jaws. The Bruces sent up a cheer that echoed off the hill above them and rolled all the way down to the river.
As the cheering died away, they all heard the distant sound of a train horn. Nat looked down at Felix, who shook his head.
‘That one’s real, assholes. Get off the track.’
Asta, Felix, and Nat stood at the gate into the Horizons complex watching the procession of Bruces march by, their recalcitrant prisoner in tow. Carmine was with Yixin, getting his bite seen to, and Asta was free to enjoy the sight of Tru, gun jabbed roughly into Hummer’s ribs, chewing her brother out for every offense he’d committed against her since childhood.
‘Do you really think they’re going to let you blame it all on him?’ Felix asked Nat, his arms folded over his chest. That was the plan: surrender Hummer to the authorities and begin negotiations for the remaining Bruce family’s future in racing.
Nat shrugged. ‘Probably not. But it’s fine. Let them get their jollies, show how tough they are. Whatever those weenies can dole out, I can take it. It won’t last forever.’ She glanced after her aunt and uncle and the rest of her family, slinking toward the track. ‘We’ll be back. People are suckers for second chances.’ She tossed her head, her neon blue earrings banging against her neck. ‘In the meantime, the streets of Port Veracruz will be open for business. You’re always welcome, Ek.’
