26. Chapter 26
Raz’s claws released their painful grip on Kate’s torso.
She tucked, rolling into a somersault on the ground.
Brush pricked at her head and spine. A sharp sting ripened on her shoulder.
The fall was farther than she’d anticipated.
She halted in a crouch, breathing hard and fighting through the ache in her back.
Icy rain poured over her, seeping into her clothes.
A blinding light flashed around her as Raz transformed back into a fully clothed human.
The mystification of the moment was lost to the severity of the situation.
“Lewis. I need you. Now.” Raz’s ravaged words tore through her like the image of Caige’s comatose body had.
Her stomach churned. Why? Why did you hurt him, Naomi?
“He’s already on his way,” Sid’s voice crackled in her Micron Ear.
It’s too late. She raised her head, a tear stinging her eyes. No one could have survived that fall. Except Naomi had, which could only mean that Caige had saved her somehow, but why would he do that?
Something white drifted in the breeze.
A feather.
Kate dashed forward and grabbed it. A green rachis lined the middle, blood tinging the white. Naomi?
Feathers lay before her, catching in the brush and trunks of trees.
Did she…heal Caige?
Kate whipped around to where Raz’s hunched form lay over Caige.
A powerful gust of rain knocked Kate onto her backside.
A dragon, glistening like obsidian from scaled snout to feathered wingtip, had slowed its descent and landed next to the lake.
Its claw-tipped wings dug into the ground as it landed on its hind legs.
Even from its smaller size, the dragon’s spiked tail sliced straight through a fully grown tree. It careened over into the water.
Kate couldn’t breathe.
In a flash of light, a fully clothed Lewis ran toward their fallen comrade.
“He’s breathing,” Raz said.
Kate exhaled a shaky breath. He’ll be okay.
She climbed to her feet, needing to find Naomi.
A break in the surrounding foliage caught her attention. A trail appeared as if someone had dragged something through the shrubs. She sprinted, following the path. The rain softened to a light drizzle.
There’s still hope for her.
From the words Naomi had said on the plane, she wished for death, but it seemed she hadn’t wanted to kill Caige in the process.
Kate’s boots pounded faster over the forest floor as she ran, jumping over logs.
How long could someone stay under another’s torturous thumb, murdering, before they lost themselves?
Naomi wasn’t an Archfiend, but Kate didn’t know what was left of the person she used to know.
Kate didn’t blame Naomi for wanting to kill her and herself.
I failed you. But if Naomi chose death now all this would have been for nothing.
Tires screeched to a halt ahead. Kate sprinted in that direction. Through the trees, Kate spotted a green car stopped on the highway. Naomi was at the front door, dragging a woman from her seat. She threw the woman to the ground.
“Naomi,” Kate screamed.
Kate broke through the treeline as Naomi lifted her unconscious body into the car’s backseat, Naomi’s arm bent at an odd angle. In spirit form, she slid into the driver’s seat and shut the door in Kate’s face.
“Stop!” Kate slammed her hand against the window. “Stop. Please. We need your help.”
The engine revved. Squealing tires filled the air with smoke. Kate covered her nose against the assaulting stench of burning rubber.
Naomi tossed something black out the window as the car faded around a curve.
Fuck.
Kate jogged and picked up a leather purse. Damnit, that’s right…
She searched through the purse for a phone as she rushed to the woman. After getting the phone, she swiped for the emergency number.
“911, what’s your emergency?” the operator asked.
“Ping this phone. A woman is hurt on the side of the highway. Send an ambulance.” She hung up.
Kate reached the middle-aged, willowy woman sitting on the shoulder, legs out in front of her, dazed eyes staring ahead. Her arm bled from scraping against the pavement.
“Ma’am, are you okay?” Kate asked, squatting down.
Her gaze focused on Kate. “Why…?”
“It’s going to be okay. I called the police. Here is your purse.” Kate handed the item over.
Echoing helicopter blades whooped.
The black mass lowered behind the trees, landing in the clearing. She swallowed, wanting to return to the team. I need to know if Caige is okay.
She rubbed her face to stop the stinging in her eyes and stood. “Stay here. Don’t accept help until the police arrive.”
Kate ran back to the lake. The helicopter hadn’t turned off its engine. Air pushed against her as she arrived. The helicopter faced her, and she lifted her arm to fend off flying limbs and leaves.
In the window, she met Raz’s gaze. His expression was bleak. The link lay silent between them. Iced over.
I’d blame me too, but please don’t leave me here. Don’t give up on me.
Raz said something to Sid and turned aside. The helicopter rose and flew away, ripping her heart out with it.
Please be here…Kate exited her Uber ride and headed for the Dusted Tuck.
The link in her mind sat stagnant, dark, and quiet, twisting her heart into a tight mass.
The bar’s lights were off, and the sign in the window said, “Closed.” In the middle of the afternoon, it wasn’t surprising for a bar, but it still gave her hope that the team was there.
She pounded her fist against the wooden frame and peeked through the glass. Empty. She hammered again.
“Come on,” she yelled at the door. I just need to know how Caige is doing. Raz wouldn’t answer her calls. All night while she rode a bus back to Chicago from Nebraska, she looked for him in hospital records, but the team hadn’t checked him in. So, she went to the next best place.
She knocked again.
A light flickered in the background. Yes.
Sid walked to the front door, expression remote. He opened the door, cracking it so she could barely see around him. A dark figure stood behind the bar—Lewis, perhaps?
“What do you want?” he asked.
“Is Caige going to be okay?”
His eyes darkened. “Go away, Kate.”
“Just tell me he’s okay.”
“I said, go away. We don’t want you here right now.”
Pain spread across her chest. Why can’t you fucking tell me? “You know I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“But it did.”
Movement over Sid’s left shoulder caught her gaze. Raz stopped walking toward the bar and pivoted away.
“Raz, please…” she said.
He continued walking.
She stumbled away from the door, the wind knocked out of her. “Right. Sorry I bothered.”
Metallic blood seeped across her tongue as she bit her lip.
The ache helped hold her tears at bay. But as Sid went to shut the door, cutting her out of their life, she was thrown back to the moment she abandoned Naomi.
That split second when she chose not to stay and fight for her, and she just—she couldn’t do it again.
The need to fight roared like an inferno in her chest. She yanked out her flat-edged lock-picking tool and before Sid could finish deadbolting the door, she jammed the pick between the frame and the lock, twisted the knob, and shoved.
Sid stumbled back a step as she burst into the entryway.
“Fucking hell…” Sid muttered, crowding close as if he wanted to push her back out.
Lewis gazed up from the glass he was drying, startled.
Squeezing the lock pick in a tight fist, she said, “If this is it—then fine. I’ll just say what I need to say.
” Her voice echoed in the chamberlike bar.
Raz stopped but didn’t turn toward her. “I fucked up. I should have trusted you all from the beginning, but I—“ The sting of her tears was too much to hold, and one streaked hotly down her cheek before she wiped it away. “That doesn’t matter. I’m sorry. I was a coward for not trusting you.” She gazed at Sid, Lewis, then at Raz’s back—wanting to convey that to all of them and wishing Caige was there as well.
“And because of me Matsuda still has the LRAD replica, Naomi is gone, and now Caige—” Her voice broke, unable to get his name out, but she took a deep breath and powered on, tears running down her face.
“That’s on me. And I understand if you can never forgive me.
But I wanted to say I’m sorry and thank you. ”
She hinged at the waist, bowing in respect the best way she knew how.
Then she backed out the door, not wanting to see their faces.
Her blurred gaze would have made that impossible anyway.
Fighting against the hitch in her breath, she turned and ran for the parking garage.
Pushing the grief aside, she jogged up the steps, knowing she had left her vehicle there.
Her motorcycle was parked where she remembered it to be. When she slid the helmet on, tears streaked down her cheeks. The bike’s metal seeped coldness into her clothing as she straddled it. With a turn of the key, the motorcycle revved to life, and she released a calming breath.
Get out of here. You can do it.
Her helmet was too hot against her face, the visor fogging with every breath. With a frustrated cry, she tore the helmet off and threw it. As the plastic cracked off the cement wall, she revved her engine. Anti-fog my ass. She drove to the gate of the parking garage and didn’t slow down.
“Hey,” the guard shouted as she jumped the bike onto the sidewalk beside the gate. Landing on the road, she peeled out into the busy intersection. A car horn blared behind her.
Fuck you, too.
She raced through the streets. In and out of vehicles. Splitting lanes and running red lights. With each desperate maneuver, her heart squeezed tighter and tighter until she could barely breathe.
After planning and waiting fifty years to rescue Naomi, Kate had lost her best friend, the only person she had considered family. It was worth it. It was supposed to be worth it, but—
Now I’ve lost you, too. Her blurred gaze kept swimming with tears.