Nightfall

by Douglas, Penelope

  Alex, Rika, Michael, and I halted, seeing another one step into the path of our escape. I didn’t think they knew where the entrance to Coldfield was because they wouldn’t have been so keen to stop us if they knew where we were going and could follow, but there were a lot of them outside before, and probably more I didn’t see.

  “Let’s go!” I yelled.

  Twisting around, I raced between the houses, down a tunnel, and up the rickety stairwell, Alex and Rika jogging after me, and Michael keeping an eye on the rear.

  I raced across the top floor and pushed through the door, stumbling onto the warehouse roof. Fog machines and strobe lights worked, pouring down on the party below while decorations, reapers, and evil angels blew in the wind, casting their foreboding doom over the courtyard.

  Tall tents stood, protecting supplies from the rain, and I grabbed Alex’s hand, Rika and Michael following as I bolted across the roof to the other side. If we could get back down the fire escape quickly enough, we could lose the tail and make it down to Coldfield.

  I looked left, though, and immediately halted, breathing hard as I inched to the edge and peered into the dark expanse below.

  “Emmy!” Michael barked. “What are you doing?”

  I couldn’t help but smile as I looked into the forest maze beyond, wolves howling and owls hooting over the speakers as a bus sat in the middle of all the activity behind the warehouse, a spooky red light glowing from inside.

  Our bus. He’d been telling the truth. He had kept it.

  My heart ached that he’d thought of it.

  “Emory!” Michael growled again, and I startled, looking over to see him and Rika already at the fire escape, her descending first and then him climbing on after.

  Alex ran over and took my hand, pulling me along, but then a dark figure swept around the tents, shoved me in the chest, and I flew back onto the ground, landing on my ass.

  The world jumbled in my view, and it took a moment to draw in a breath. But then I blinked and found him struggling with Alex as he fisted her neck.

  “Hey!” I heard Michael bellow.

  But I was already shooting off the ground as Alex whipped off his devil mask and Taylor faced her, her leg hooking around his and sweeping his leg out from underneath him, sending them both plummeting to the roof.

  Taylor landed on his back, her body crashing down on top of his, and he grunted, rearing his hand back and slapping her across the face.

  She gasped, tumbling to the side, but before he could climb on top of her, I shot my foot right between his legs.

  He cried out, curling up, and I dropped down on him, his sweaty hair sticking to his forehead as I hit his face. He winced, trying to shield himself, and I bashed so hard, pain shot through my wrist and up my arm.

  Someone lifted me off him, my breath filling my ears as I breathed inside my mask, and I almost took it off, but I knew the whole place was wired with cameras for security, so I obeyed Will and kept it on.

  “Come on,” Michael snapped, taking my hand and pulling me.

  We all ran, heading over the side of the building, down the fire escape, and back onto the ground.

  People rushed past, heading toward the stage as the announcer started the show, as “Devil Inside” boomed from the speakers.

  I lifted my eyes, seeing masked devils heading over the side of the building, following us.

  “Go!” I shouted.

  But then my eyes caught something, and I stopped, spotting Martin.

  He stood at the entrance, across the food court, dressed in jeans, a black pullover, and his dark hair perfectly coiffed.

  He stared at me with his hand in his pocket. A smile reaching his eyes that he didn’t give away across his lips.

  My spine tingled, seeing the challenge in his gaze.

  “Emmy!” Rika called. “Emmy, let’s go!”

  He stared at me.

  I couldn’t move.

  My lungs constricted, one foot ready to retreat, and another wanting to charge over and beat him until my hands were bloody.

  A cry lodged in my throat.

  I can’t move.

  And then, a small hand slipped inside mine, the cold skin rough with dirt and grime.

  I looked down, swallowing as I saw a little girl looking up at me.

  Who…?

  “Let’s go,” she whispered.

  Blonde hair and maybe eight or nine years old, she wore all black except for the white undershirt I saw poking out from the bottom of her sweater. A black cap on her head, and a braid hanging over her shoulder, she smiled and pulled me along. I followed, looking to Michael and Rika for an answer, but they just gaped at her, looking equally confused.

  She let me go and shot ahead, dipping down and diving through the tarp covering the crawl space underneath the warehouse. “Through here!” she called.

  We hesitated only a moment before following, Michael ushering us in her wake and then following us.

  We crawled, digging in our hands and knees, the cold earth seeping through my jeans as the kid led the way under the floor, all of us glancing over our shoulders to see who was following us.

  “You sure you know where you’re going?” Michael asked.

  “I own this town,” she fired back.

  He chuckled despite the rush we were in, but I had no time to wonder where the hell this kid came from, or if she was really leading us to safety.

  Right now, we had no choice.

  Stopping, she rose up and popped up a floorboard, all of us crawling up into the warehouse, and right into the Mad Scientist’s wing again.

  As soon as we were all inside and we knew where we were at, Michael picked up the kid, threw her over his shoulder, and ran, all of us following him.

  “Oh, my God, I can walk.” She raised up and held out her hands. “Dude!”

  But he wouldn’t stop as we raced into the lab, no one following us as we swung open the door and dived inside the room. Michael carried the kid down into the tunnel, followed by Rika and Alex, but I paused, sensing something.

  Looking back over my shoulder, through the doorway and into the chem lab, I locked eyes on a group of figures draped in white in the other room. They stood like statues, black holes for the eyes and all of them looking like they were watching me.

  Something crawled on my skin, fear snaking its way through me as my feet sprouted roots and dug into the ground.

  Frozen, I stared at their faces, knowing.

  I just knew.

  And then…one turned his head, and my heart leapt into my throat. I screamed, knowing it might not be one of them, but it could be. Shit.

  I slipped into the tunnel, closed the door, and raced after the others, tripping over a rock as I kept looking over my shoulder.

  I stumbled, catching myself, and rushed up to the tracks.

  Micah, Rory, and Lev were in the car ahead, already strapped in, and I barely had time to catch my breath before they sped off, their rail car zooming down the track.

  There were only two cars left, so hopefully that meant that everyone else had already gotten out.

  They got strapped in, Michael started the car, and I looked back, hearing the door creak open back down the tunnel.

  Will…

  But someone grabbed me and pushed me into the seat.

  “Will!” I cried, feeling the seatbelt strap onto me. “Michael, no!”

  “Hurry,” Rika yelled to him, the girl in her lap. “Go!”

  The car shot off, my neck jerking back, and I twisted in my seat, seeing the lights behind grow smaller and smaller.

  “No!” I cried.

  There was only one car left. If someone saw where we went—if that ghost wasn’t an actor and he saw where I was going—Will wouldn’t get to the Cove.

  I covered my face with my hands as the wind whipped across my body.

  We shouldn’t have split up.

  Tears filled my eyes.

  We coasted around a bend, and we must’ve gone under the
river, because droplets of water hit me from above as we raced back up again, lights periodically marking our way.

  Michael slowed, and I held on, seeing us approach a platform, and then he screeched to a stop, everyone ripping off their seatbelts.

  “Will,” I called to them, unbuckling myself. “We left Will! Aydin was back there!”

  I knew it was him in the lab.

  I followed them, climbing out of the car and onto the platform.

  “What if Will can’t get past him?” I asked. “We have to go back.”

  Michael pulled Rika and the girl up. “Will wanted you out of there. We stick together.”

  “No!”

  “He won’t fail,” Rika told me, looking at me dead-on. “He won’t fail, Em. He’ll be here.”

  I stilled, holding her eyes. I couldn’t not go back for him.

  I couldn’t…

  But the kid pulled my hand. “Come on!” she cried.

  I dug in my heels, but before I could argue, Michael grabbed her and twisted her around by the shoulders. “Not so fast,” he said. “Who are you? Tell me now and hurry.”

  She straightened, clamping her mouth shut.

  “And why are you living here at the Cove?” he pressed.

  She jerked, trying to run, but he caught her and held her tight.

  I glanced down the tunnel, but I still didn’t hear any other rail cars approaching.

  I’d never seen her before, but it seemed like they had.

  “Athos,” she finally answered. “My name is Athos.”

  Like the musketeer?

  “And your last name?” Michael demanded.

  “I don’t have one.”

  He frowned. “You have one. You weren’t born here, kid.”

  “Maybe I was beamed down to study your species.”

  Alex snorted, and we watched as the little girl took Rika’s hand and backed up, hovering close to the woman and away from Michael with a scowl on her face.

  He rose, scowling right back. “What?”

  “I’ve seen what your species likes to do to women down at that cave on the beach,” she told him.

  Rika gasped, covering her mouth, but I caught the smile underneath as Alex laughed out loud.

  “You saw that?” he asked, wide-eyed.

  The little girl gave Michael a once up and down. “Hmph.”

  He shook his head and grabbed her, swinging her up and over his shoulder again. “Let’s go!”

  “Afraid I’ll get away again?” she griped.

  We ran through the dark tunnel, this one concrete with rooms and doors. Racing up the stairs, we came into an old shop, long since closed down with the Cove, and ran outside into the park with the Ferris wheel looming in the distance.

  “We’ll fight our way out of here,” Michael told me as we ran, “search for my father, and take care of both him and Scott.”

  Take care of?

  “You good with that?” he asked me.

  I breathed hard, realizing I was going to have to take Alex up on her offer to train at Kai’s dojo at some point to get in shape. “Like murder him?”

  He smiled. “I was thinking an island only accessible by train.”

  Blackchurch. He wanted to send my brother and his father to Blackchurch.

  I grinned back. “I can live with that.”

  Damon, Winter, and everyone else jetted out from behind a game booth with a couple of other masked figures—extra security, I assumed—waiting for us, and I looked back to see both Damon and Banks holding Winter’s hands as she ran with them.

  “I got you, baby,” he said.

  “Where’s Will?” Misha asked, looking around.

  Not here, I knew that. I dug out my phone and unlocked the screen, ready to dial him, but then I noticed people ahead and slowed, seeing Martin and a team of men and women walking into the park, their eyes already on us.

  Oh, no.

  We all stopped as they blocked our way out, and I scanned the area again, still not finding Will among us. How did Martin get here so fast? How did he know where we were going?

  “Move,” I heard Michael tell him.

  We were prepared to fight our way through Aydin and Taylor, but this?

  Shit.

  Michael stepped forward, everyone else behind him as he confronted Martin. I joined him, refusing to hide.

  Martin gazed at me. “We never had to see each other again,” he said, stepping toward me, a shoulder holster strapped around him and everyone in his ranks armed and dressed to run.

  Memories washed over me, hearing almost the same words he last said to me all those years ago at the police station.

  It seemed like yesterday.

  He reached down and took my hand, Michael jerking and ready to pounce if he hurt me.

  I clenched my teeth, the slime of his skin seeping into mine.

  The eye of the storm. I remembered Aydin’s words over and over.

  Martin looked at my ring. “I wasn’t invited.”

  I curled my fist and gently pulled away. “No, you weren’t.”

  The eye of the storm…

  “They know.” I tipped my chin up. “It’s too late.”

  Everyone here knew about our lie and his involvement in sending them to prison.

  But he just broke into a smile and chuckled, a chill rising up my spine. “You think that scares me?” he asked. “That was small potatoes compared to the decisions I’ve made since. And I’m not the only one with shit to lose if I go down.”

  What did that mean? My gaze flashed behind him. The cops? I recognized a few of them.

  “These officers know us,” I said. “You think they’ll really do this? All of them?”

  Hurt Michael Crist, Kai Mori, Damon Torrance, and Will Grayson, not to mention Erika Fane?

  He just tsked. “They’re not officers at this hour, Emmy.”

  And I looked again, taking in the weapons and street clothes, not a badge in sight.

  Footfalls hit the pavement behind us, and I whipped my head around, seeing Aydin coming through the park from where we entered. He looked at us, followed by a crew of people in devil masks, his black sweater zipped up to his chin, and his hair smooth and laying over his forehead.

  Fire flashed in his gaze as he blocked us in from the back, and Martin blocked us in from the front.

  “And I have so much more with me,” Martin cooed and then called out. “Evans?”

  I jerked back around, my eyes shooting from Martin to the figure coming through his crowd, seeing Evans Crist step forward in a three-piece navy suit, with his gray hair styled to the side.

  Evans. Martin used to call him Mr. Crist, but since he was coming into power himself, it seemed he fancied himself his equal.

  “Son of a bitch,” Michael bit out.

  Damon chimed in from behind. “We’re ready whenever you are,” he assured Michael.

  Michael nodded, still facing his father, both men the same height.

  Evans gazed at his oldest son, and I couldn’t imagine what was going through Michael’s head right now.

  He’d killed Trevor. Was he going to kill his father, too?

  “I didn’t tell Trevor to post those videos when he found that phone,” Evans told Michael. “But he told me after he did it. He knew it would serve me if Katsu, Gabriel, and the Graysons lost credibility with some orchestrated familial troubles.” He smiled to himself. “Some of it worked in my favor, other things didn’t.”

  Katsu lost his positions on two bank boards for a time, and Gabriel lost deals. But Will’s grandfather remained senator, despite the bad press.

  “But then we got powerful,” Michael added.

  Evans nodded. “Rika became mayor, Kai’s been revitalizing Whitehall, Damon is Rika’s heir, not to mention he’s grooming Banks for national politics…” he listed off all of his concerns. “And Will discovered Coldfield, and now controls the underground transit system between Thunder Bay and Meridian City. I mean, if you had a playbook of how
to make me sweat, that would be it.” He chuckled. “I bow to you. You’ve impressed me, Michael. I wish I had you at my side.”

  “But that’s not what you and I were made for,” his son replied.

  Evans shook his head. “No, you’re right. But you are in over your head.”

  I took in the weapons and the sheer size of Aydin’s and Martin’s crew, knowing we were outmatched. We couldn’t fight them with a sword and our fists.

  This couldn’t get that far.

  I met Martin’s eyes. “He influenced your career and helped you fly up a few ladders, but he’s going down,” I told him. “Save yourself.”

  “He had my father murdered,” Rika pleaded, stepping in.

  He wasn’t getting away with it. Unless they killed us all, Martin was on the losing side.

  But then Evans started laughing, looking to Martin, a knowing look passing between them both.

  My stomach knotted.

  “Who do you think cut the brake lines?” Evans asked Rika. “Altered the police report? Destroyed the vehicle before it could be inspected?”

  She lunged for him, but Michael pulled her back, getting into his father’s face. One of the guards shifted behind them, ready to grab for his weapon.

  “I promise you,” Michael said. “I won’t tell my mother any of this after you’re gone. She’ll never have to know.”

  “It’s not for you to protect me, Michael,” someone spoke up.

  Slowly, we turned around, the two masked figures I didn’t recognize standing on both sides of Kai as they pulled off their masks and pushed down their hoods.

  Christiane Fane stood on the left, tears filling her eyes, as Delia Crist, Michael’s mother, stood on the right, her light brown bangs hanging in her eyes.

  Kai shrugged, looking apologetic. “The kids are safe,” he assured. “I couldn’t stop them. Sorry, man.”

  They must’ve cornered him at his mom and dad’s house, and he snuck them past Michael.

  Christiane stepped forward, not taking her eyes off of Evans as she walked straight for him, her blonde hair—like Rika’s—pulled back in a low ponytail and her frail, quiet form looking too skinny to pick up a peanut.

  She stopped in front of him, both of them locking eyes, and then…she whipped her hand across his face, sending him stumbling to the side.