His eyes meet mine, and a slow, cold smile spreads across his face. It’s not friendly, it’s filled with recognition.
“Miss Lockwood,” he says, his voice flat. “Fancy meeting you here.”
My throat goes dry as my eyes dart toward Cassie. She mouths something to me that I can’t quite make out, but as my eyes trail to her side, I see the metal of a gun barrel being pressed into her hip.
“Any sudden movements and we’ll make a bigger scene than you ever could on stage, Songbird.”
I want to try something. Anything. But I can’t risk Cassie’s life. I can’t risk my own. There has to be a way out of this.
There is a blur of movement from my other side. A strong, sweet chemical smell fills my nose and mouth as a thick cloth is clamped over my face from behind.
I thrash, my hands coming up to claw at the arm locked around my neck, but my limbs are already growing heavy. The world tilts on its axis, and the last thing I see is the Aethegard logo, swimming in my vision. Cassie’s horrified face, her mouth in a perfect ‘O’ of shock, reaching for me as her mouth is covered, being dragged down the vacant alley by the cafe building.
Then, the pale Milan sun blinks out as everything goes dark.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Skye
I balance my phone against my water bottle in the hotel room. The FaceTime screen wobbles for a second before settling as it rings.
It’s two in the morning back in Boston, but my aunt’s nurse reached out and said she wouldn’t sleep unless she talked with me. My knee-jerk reaction was that something was wrong, but when Nora left a voicemail, she said that Keisha wanted to hear my voice.
My heart filled, and I knew I had to call back.
The familiar room of Aunt Keisha’s care facility comes into focus. Pale yellow walls, a window with half-open blinds, and Keisha sitting upright in bed like she’s waiting impatiently for our video to connect.
“Skye,” Keisha’s face lights up, her dark eyes bright in the camera. “There she is. My Olympian.”
I grin automatically. Hearing that still feels weird. A good weird, but weird.
“Hi, Keish.”
“Are you at the rink right now?”
“Not anymore,” I tell her. “Just back in my room. We had practice a few hours ago.”
Keisha leans forward like she’s trying to see around me through the phone. “It must be freezing there. You better be wearing layers.”
I laugh softly. “I promise I’m not walking around the Olympics in a t-shirt.”
A nurse passes behind the bed and pauses when she sees the phone. The same nurse as always, Nora. She gives a little wave.
“Hey, Skye. Big day tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah.” I give a polite smile.
Normally, I’d toss something playful her way. Harmless and easy flirting, but it was fun. The thought of Violet pops into my head immediately. and the words I’d normally say stick firmly to my tongue.
Keisha turns to the nurse. “Nora, tell her she needs to score a goal for me.”
“Oh, absolutely.” Nora leans closer to the camera. “You better. Your aunt has been bragging about you all day.”
I rub the back of my neck. “No pressure, huh?”
Nora smiles again, lingering a second longer than necessary, but then disappears from the room.
Keisha watches her go and turns back to the phone.
