by Jadyn Chase
I crept out of my room to hide behind the door, desperately trying to keep myself hidden.
Abigail pouted. Her full lips and bright red hair was streaked with white and grey. Charlotte looked the same, but her hair was more white than red. You could barely tell they were twins until you looked into their eyes.
“Well, we ain’t ever antagonized a Black Sapphire and an Onyx Skull at the same time,” Abigail charged. “Word’s getting around that both Finch Skinner and Ashton Cane want her. We already know what Finch is capable of.”
She pulled down the collar of her tattered coat revealing a hideously long scar. It practically matched Jasper’s. He turned away rubbing the side of his own neck. The only thing I knew about either of those scars, was that I hadn’t been the only ward in Jasper’s care. They refused to speak about it.
“Which is why I’m going to take this thing out of here and be done with it all!” Jasper told them with finality.
“You need to take her with you and leave them both out in the dark,” Charlotte hissed. “You know what a battle in here will do! Ashton and Finch will tear this place apart looking for her! She’s done nothing but…”
Jasper walked away during her tirade, forcing the women to follow him out of the shop. Charlotte’s voice trailed off right behind him. I hated seeing Jasper having to defend me, when all I wanted to do was live out loud like, like we weren’t constantly being hunted. Now that I wanted to do something nice for him, he couldn’t even enjoy it. If they wanted me gone so badly, I wouldn’t fight them on it anymore.
I did them an even bigger favor and started wheeling the bike out of there too. I’d nearly made it back to the entrance when I heard the sound of small footsteps behind me. Turning around, the only thing I saw in the darkness of the tunnel was a pair of eyes drifting toward me.
They were soft and on the brink of tears. The tiny voice that came with them called out to me, “Whisper! Where are you going?! Don’t go back outside! It’s night time now, right?”
“Yes, it’s night time, Raven,” I told the little one. She had to be six or seven years old, jet black hair, and the biggest button eyes I had ever seen. She belonged to one of the women staying with us. I had a feeling this young one was a Scaler, but no one had the heart to tell her mother. Rumor had it she was the pet of an Imperial, but escaped. I don’t know. Everyone’s backstory had a hint of weirdness to it. But this little one, she was curious, and smart, and clingy.
I let the bike rest against the wall, giving myself a break before kneeling down to talk to her.
“You, you shouldn’t go out in the dark time,” she said with a whimper in her voice.
“I’m coming right back,” I lied. I just wanted her to get away from me long enough to get out of here before Jasper spotted me and tried to keep me inside.
“But the dragons,” she whispered, “They want to chain you up. I know that because that’s what Momma says about you. She says they want to hold you and keep you away from your family, but that’s not nice.”
“I know it isn’t,” I tried to console her, “But I promise I’m going to come back here as soon as I can.”
At least that didn’t sound like a lie.
“Okay,” she conceded. Turning around to head back toward the living quarters, she stuck her thumb in her mouth and dragged her feet the entire way back. I waited until silence returned before I made my way toward the dead end of the tunnel. It only looked that way, but after pushing a button masked as a brick, the square space overhead dropped down.
The angle was a lot steeper going up than I remember it from coming down. Suddenly, as the moonlight cast its beam down onto the chrome accents of the motorcycle, a wonderful idea popped into my head. With a smile beaming across my face, I tossed one leg over the side. Turning the key in the ignition and feeling it roar to life under me sent a chill down my body that I’d never felt before. I threw the kickstand back, revved the engine, shifted into gear and took off into the night.
The wind whipped through my hair faster than it ever had before. There was something different about riding into the night. I could hear the sound of wings slicing through the air behind me, but I told myself I could outride them. How fast could a Scaler fly? I hadn’t any idea but tonight wasn’t the night I wanted to find out.
I leaned to the left, banking around a large cement boulder. I was certain a building was attached to it at some point. I would give anything to see Black Harbor in its glory, before the fires, before they took over.
Turning to the right, I headed towards the outskirts of the city hoping that I could ride freely without being tracked or stopped. Unfortunately for me, that was wishful thinking. The more I rode around, the closer the sound got. The whirring noise of wings flapping through the air, but the scent of smoke was absent. My heart raced with the sound of the gravel and asphalt tripping under the wheels of the bike. I wanted to turn around but I was exposed. There was no way I’d make it back to The Gears now.
Hell, if I was going to get taken out by one of those ugly, scaly, fire-breathing beasts, then I’d at least do it riding with their flames at my back. Catch me if you can...
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