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A narrow alleyway appears on my left. It’s blocked by a tall wooden gate.
Skidding to a halt, I slam shoulder first into the gate, throwing my entire weight against it.
It flies open.
I dart forward, into the alley.
And nearly smack right into a stone wall.
Dread crashes over me like a cold wave as I skid to a halt in front of the wall. It’s a dead end.
Car doors are being slammed and footsteps are pounding against the ground just a short distance from me. Racing back to the tall wooden gate, I throw it shut and press myself against it to stop them from following me in here.
“Kayla!”
It takes another second for me to even recognize that it’s my name being called. Recognize who is calling it. And where it’s coming from.
While still bracing my back against the wooden gate, I stare down at the phone still in my hand.
Jace. Jace is trying to talk to me. How long has he been trying to talk to me? What is he saying? I can barely hear anything over the blaring panic in my head.
Yanking my hand up, I press the phone to my ear again.
“I’m trapped,” I gasp into the phone. “I’m trapped in a dead end and?—”
A weight crashes into the wooden gate from the other side hard enough to make it rattle in its hinges. My shoes slide across the ground. Fear grips my heart like an iron fist, but I throw my body back against the gate, slamming it closed again.
“They’re here!” My voice doesn’t even sound like my own. “They’ve found me. I can’t get out. I can’t?—”
“Listen to me!” Jace screams on the other end of the line, and I realize that he has been trying to say something but I’ve kept talking over him. “Are you wearing your watch?”
My panicked mind can’t process his strange question. “What?”
The weight slams into the gate again, and I skid forward another inch.
“Answer the question,” Jace snaps. “Are you wearing your watch?”
While digging my heels into the ground, I press my back against the wood behind me, desperately trying to push the gate fully shut again. My gaze darts down to the watch I’m always wearing. The watch that was supposed to have been my brother’s.
“Yes,” I blurt out.
Another weight slams into the gate.
“Good,” Jace says. He sounds calm. Collected. In control. “No matter what happens, you must never take off your watch. Do you understand?”
“Yes—”
The gate is forced open almost an entire foot. Straining my legs, I try to stop it from moving but it’s impossible.
“Jace,” I gasp. “Jace, they’re coming in!”
“Kayla.”
His voice is so steady. So full of power and confidence and promises. I try to use his calm, his control, to force my own mind to stop panicking. To force my heart to stop beating like a battle drum in my chest.
“Listen to me very carefully,” Jace says in that steady tone. “Don’t fight them.”
Two weights slam into the gate at the same time.
