Chapter 60
“I’ll distract them,” Marlow said as they slipped around another corner into a small alleyway.
“Absolutely not,” Felix answered, stubborn as always.
She rolled her eyes. They didn’t have time for this argument. August looked like he’d drop at any minute, and the footfalls were getting closer. “I’ll be fine. I know Copperhill like the back of my hand. Plus, I wasn’t asking.” She held out her hand. “Gimme one of your guns.”
“Marlow—”
“Solach,” she snapped, tugging a pistol from his cross holster. “You’re getting on my nerves.”
Felix opened his mouth to respond, but she cast him a sharpened glare, and he shut it again.
“Go!” she urged with a sweeping gesture. “You’re wasting time. I’ll meet you at the storehouse.”
He’d know which one she meant. It had been empty for as long as she could remember, and they had used it to practice fighting when they were younger. It was the place they used to meet when they needed to lie low.
She didn’t wait for him to agree. She turned a corner and stopped. There were two more ministry officers now.
She waited a moment, assuring they recognized her before she turned and ran, leading them down a street away from the others.
A gust of wind nearly knocked her off her feet, and she cursed Ciaran and his elixir as she pushed through the front door of a narrow home.
A startled shriek as she weaved around a woman with a baby in her arms.
Marlow burst out the back door into the dirty alley.
That would give her some breathing room, but she needed to make sure they followed.
Which was why she’d taken the gun. She fired into the air as she ran.
The sound carried and panicked screams went out around her, the commotion pointing out her location.
A moment later, the officers were behind her again.
When she was sure they had gone far enough that Felix and August were out of range, she changed course.
Losing them was easy. She slipped through an open metal gate, beneath an archway, past a building with a worn-out ad for some ale company painted on the side, following a route she’d taken dozens of times.
She ducked through an abandoned dress factory and slowly made her way back toward the Laughen & Son’s storehouse where she’d meet the others.
Footsteps—too close—sent her pulse soaring again.
Marlow spun and pressed her hand to the man’s shoulder, ready to call her magic, but she stopped when she saw his face.
“Gideon?” Her arms were around him in an instant. “How’d you make it out? How’d you find me?”
“You got a whole load of trouble on your tail,” he said. “Hard to miss. We need to get off the streets. Where’re the others?”
She let go and nodded. “Right, yeah. Come on.”
When Gideon let out a sharp whistle, Lark and Niall joined them, along with two others she recognized, but didn’t know by name. Marlow beamed, dizzy with relief, but kept herself on course, leading them to the storehouse, where Felix and August were waiting outside.
When Felix saw Gideon, his eyes went round.
Before he could ask the questions Marlow herself was dying to ask, Gideon held up a hand to stop him, then motioned to the door.
Felix nodded, smiling. He pulled open the heavy door and stepped inside, then she and the others followed. Felix used the dim light from the open door to light a lantern mounted on the wall.
Marlow strode across the wide room. It was just as she remembered it.
Pipes crawled up the brick walls, and the air smelled of lumber.
She could almost see her and Felix sparring in the centre of the worn wooden floor, him rushing his moves, and her chiding him for his lack of patience.
It felt like home. Gods, she missed her city.
As the door fell shut and the sounds from outside faded, a new noise caught her attention. An odd shuffling. She stilled, listening. The place should’ve been empty.
Before she could warn the others, something crashed into her, sending her off her feet.