Page 25 of Hunted
I reached him quickly, turning the corner and spilling into this new part of the department store at great speed. I tried to stop myself, but I went skidding across the shiny, slippery floor, coming to a sliding halt just shy of a group of mannequins which had a moment ago appeared to be trying to get to us.
The mannequins animated suddenly, their limbs cracking and creaking as they tried to reach for me. Valerian rushed toward me, helped me up, and pulled me away from them. When I was up and running again, I did my best to follow Evie’s scent. It was getting stronger, but in another sixty seconds or so, and Valerian was going to lose the ability to see entirely.
It wasn’t just the darkness that was encroaching on us, but an enormous feeling of dread, too. The Fate monster was here, it was setting the stage for an attack, and if we didn’t find our way out before it was ready, we were both dead because neither of us had the means of dealing with it.
But Evie’s scent was getting stronger.
The more I ran, the more I thought I could hear her calling out to me, her voice distant, and ethereal—as if she were yelling at me from across a window. “This way,” I said to Valerian, and I took a left turn, away from the creeping darkness that was rolling over the department store.
There, up ahead, I saw a light in the distance. It wasn’t yellow or white, like the lights in the store, but green, and pink, and purple. They swirled, and danced, and spun around each other, creating a kind of rift… ora portal.
“There!” I yelled. “There she is!”
“Are you sure?!” Valerian asked.
“There’s only one way to find out.”
I accelerated, bounding on all fours as fast as my limbs could carry me. As I neared the rift, I thought I could see the world on the other side of it. Evie was there, her arms outstretched, tendrils of green light stretching from her fingertips. Her eyes brightened when she saw me.
“Over here!” she yelled, her voice coming through more clearly.
I dove through the rift, crashing through it at speed and collapsing on the other side. I went skidding again, as I had done a moment ago, only this time I crashed into a wall instead of a bunch of mannequins. Already everything felt different. The air was fresh, the lights were bright, and I could hear people around us, even if it looked like we were in a quiet, empty part of the store.
Looking up, I saw Valerian running toward us. He was still on the other side of the magic rift Evie had opened, only a few feet away from it, but it was what I saw behind him that made my blood run cold.
It was the monster.
It wasn’t running—it didn’t have to. It only walked, inexorably, inevitably, toward its target: Valerian. All that remained now was this creature’s impression against the void. I screamed for Valerian to hurry. He dove the last few feet, throwing himself through the portal and tucking his body into a forward roll as he landed.
Evie seemed fixed for a moment, as she stared at the creature on the other side of the rift. When she snapped out of it, she clasped her hands tightly together, and the rift sealed. The lights dispersed in an instant, becoming swirling, colorful dust that lingered in the air.
Panting, Valerian stood upright. “It’s gone?” he asked.
“For now,” Evie said, turning around to look at us both. “Was that—?”
“—the thing that was chasing us through the woods?” I asked. “Yes. What I want to know is how the hell it followed us here.”
“Fate knows nothing of portals and worlds,” Valerian said. “We were fools to think it wouldn’t get to us here.”
“Great. So, I’ve just put my own family in danger for nothing.”
Evie shook her head. “Not for nothing,” she said. “Come. Let’s get out of this store and regroup with the others.”
“We can’t. I can’t risk that thing coming after us and hurting you.”
“From where I’m standing, my magic is the only reason we’re having this conversation right now. Don’t turn your back on us yet. Let us help you.”
“Your grandmother is right,” Valerian said. “We would not have survived if not for her. Maybe they have defenses against its power.”
“I still don’t like this.”
“I know,” Evie said. “But we’ll have more luck sorting this out with Helen and Pepper than by ourselves.”
I didn’t like it, I was shaken to my core, but there was nothing more to be done about it. After taking my Fae form again, the three of us made a quick and quiet exit from the store, hoping the creature wasn’t still lurking around and waiting for us.
CHAPTERNINE
Ididn’t want to go back to my grandmothers’ house. Every step I took brought me closer to the Magic Shop, when in reality, I needed to be heading in the opposite direction.Away. Far, far away. There was nowhere for me to go, I knew that, but the last thing I wanted to do was bring the monster to my grandmothers’ doorstep.