Court the Fire (Son of Rain #3)

by Michelle Irwin

  “Whatever happens next, just drive,” I said. “Don’t stop the car for anything. Okay?”

  “I wasn’t planning on it!” she snapped. I almost laughed at her ability to give me such sweet attitude during a race for her life.

  I unbuckled my seatbelt and reached for my bag, grabbed my recently purchased HK45 from within, and then set myself up so that I was leaning back against the dash and facing the car behind. With Evie’s safety as my primary objective, I wound down the window giving myself a clear line to fire some warning shots at the Dodge.

  As I loaded the gun, Evie touched my shoulder.

  “Be careful,” she begged in a whisper.

  “It’s okay.” I tried to infuse my voice with as much confidence as I could. “Just keep the car steady.” The car went around a small curve, and I almost lost my hold on the seat. “And warn me if you need to turn.”

  When I was certain Evie understood my intention and would let me know if there were any upcoming bends in the road, I anchored myself to the chair with my elbow through the hole in the headrest and leaned as far out of the car as I dared. I lined up my first shot and was just about to pull the trigger.

  “Hold on!” Evie screamed just as the car veered sharply to the right, sending me crashing headfirst into the seat.

  I fought to keep hold of the gun, being mindful not to squeeze the trigger in my struggle.

  “Want to give me a little more warning next time!” I growled as I worked to right myself again.

  “Sorry, you were distracting me.”

  If the situation had been a little less dangerous, I might have chuckled. As it was, I risked a quick second to lean across to the driver’s seat and kiss her inflamed cheek. “There. Now, focus.”

  I climbed back into my precarious perch, once more anchoring myself as best as I could against the seat. Despite the initial misstep, I trusted Evie to warn me before any other major twists or turns appeared.

  Lining up my shot, I aimed for the tires of the Dodge and squeezed the trigger. The crack of the gun filled the cabin an instant before the car twitched slightly. I held on tight, ready to admonish Evie again for not warning me, but one glance at her stressed appearance—at the state of the steering wheel where her heated hands twisted the plastic into impossible shapes—made me bite my tongue. The gunfire had clearly pushed her that much closer to the edge.

  I sucked in a calming breath. She’s doing what she can.

  Once more, I thought of the way she’d run from Eth back in Charlotte. At the time, I’d thought her so wonderful and brave for getting away, but looking back, it was probable that what she’d done then was borne out of fear and not bravery. I hated myself for forcing her into both situations.

  Evie called out a “Left” and a “Right” and then an “Oh crap, left!”

  I held on through each one but didn’t have enough time between corners to get off any decent shots.

  “They’re getting closer,” she hissed.

  “I know!” I shouted over the roar of the wind rushing past my ears. “We’ll get out of this though, okay?”

  I fired my third shot. I’d hoped to have taken out one of the tires already, but between the twisty road and the nervous driver, my shots weren’t really lining up as well as they would have if I’d been able to aim properly.

  “Left!” Evie shouted back at me.

  The wheels screeched beneath us, skittering across the road in a series of bumps as the tail of the car lost grip and swung wide. Clenching my teeth tight to stop myself from swearing, I held on desperately. The heat echoing out of the car was palpable, and I thought about the fire that had caused Lou’s death and sent Evie to the hospital.

  Maybe Eth was right. Maybe Evie did start it.

  I pushed the thought away as quickly as it came. It served no purpose. Even if Evie had set the fire, it had to have been an accident. Pushed to the breaking point, the flames would have erupted from her uncontrollably. It was happening right in front of my eyes within the cabin of the car, and I didn’t know how to stop it.

  “Evie? Are you okay?” I asked, trying to distract her from the stress of the moment.

  “Just get them off our tail, and I’ll be perfect,” she hissed through gritted teeth.

  The Dodge was getting closer still. Unable to see the tires any longer, I aimed for the grill and squeezed off another shot. The bullet slammed into the radiator, and I looked up to meet the eyes of the driver, hoping to see who it was and take a moment to gloat that I’d disabled their car.

  The sight was impossible.

  Platinum blonde hair hung loosely around angular cheekbones that were as similar to my own as they were different.

  Steel-blue eyes filled with hatred met my muddy brown gaze.

  I was staring at the face of a ghost. She couldn’t possibly still be alive and breathing. I thought I said something, maybe even my sister’s name, but the words disappeared from my mind the moment they left my tongue.

  The world disappeared as I watched the Dodge carrying my sister fall away steadily in the darkness.

  CHAPTER THREE

  I HAD TO be seeing things.

  It wasn’t possible . . . was it?

  My hands shook, and it was all I could do to drag myself back into the car and rest on the seat. Evie may have spoken; I may have responded. I had no clue. The real world fell away, replaced by memories and lies.

  All I could hear was the echoes of the speech I’d had to give at Lou’s memorial.

  All I could see was my sister’s face.

  The face of the dead suddenly thrust back to life.

  It was impossible to reanimate a corpse. There were ghosts and revenants—specters that could cause injury to living, breathing humans—but although they could become solid when they needed to, they didn’t drive trucks. Only two possible solutions existed; either what I’d seen was a doppelganger or she’d never died. One thing was clear: I needed to find out more.

  Almost as soon as I’d allowed the possibility that she might not be dead into my mind, evidence of that fact flooded through me. Eth’s need for me to return home to sort things out because it was “all a big mess” and he didn’t think I’d be gone for so long echoed in my mind. His uncertainty when I’d relayed Dad’s words about Lou’s death. So many little things that in hindsight might have proven to have greater meaning than I allowed them to have.

  Unless I’m wrong.

  The familiar pull in the center of my stomach, a tug on my emotions that came from a place deeper than I’d ever been able to understand, confirmed the one thing that my brain refused to believe. It was her.

  I closed my eyes and saw the image again—the hatred-filled gaze locked onto me.

  “It was her,” I whispered, the words cementing the connections my mind was just beginning to make. “I know my own sister. I just . . . don’t understand. Why would they let me think that she was dead? Why would they make me give that stupid fucking speech?”

  I could tell I was becoming hysterical, but there was nothing I could do about it. I’d lost control of my mouth and was barely holding on to my sanity.

  “Was all of it meaningless?”

  “I don’t know,” Evie murmured. She sounded as lost as I felt, but I couldn’t offer her any comfort. Couldn’t offer her anything.

  I turned to look at her and met her wide-eyed and terrified gaze. I was frightening her as much as the car chase had, and yet I couldn’t calm myself enough to even make an attempt at calming her. “I was at her memorial when you left. If she isn’t dead . . . why would they make me do that? Why?”

  How different would that time have been if Lou hadn’t been dead? Would I have agreed to leave Evie’s side?

  My mind skipped ahead, jumping from scenario to scenario before stumbling as I recalled that I’d shot at Lou. I’d been aiming for the tires, and then for the radiator, but that didn’t mean one of my bullets couldn’t have gone astray and hit her, especially with the way the car had swerved a
nd twisted as I’d fired each shot.

  I sank into my own mind and was lost. The car continued to move, and logically I knew we were continuing to get away, but my stomach was back with the stricken Dodge. My mind was lost in the past where my family had lied to me without remorse. To a time when they’d convinced me of a terrible loss for their own benefit.

  Evie spoke again, but I couldn’t understand the words, couldn’t make sense of anything—not even my own thoughts.

  “Clay.” The desperation in Evie’s voice finally broke through the fog in my mind. “I need you,” she begged.

  I turned to stare at her, but couldn’t focus without feeling an ache echoing through every inch of me. I looked back down at my hands and watched them shake violently. Forcing my fingers into tight fists, I hoped that would be enough to stop the quivering.

  “I’m going to stop the car up here, and then we need to run. They’re right behind us.”

  I wasn’t sure why we were stopping or getting out of the car, but one thing was clear.

  Evie needed me.

  She needs me.

  She wouldn’t lie to me.

  She needs me.

  The words ran through my mind on a constant loop, the only thing connecting me to the here and now. Even that connection was tenuous at best.

  “Let’s go!” It sounded like Evie was talking to me through a tunnel.

  Clouds of doubt enveloped my instincts and threatened to endanger her life. I tried to shake them off, but it was hopeless. The discovery that my sister wasn’t dead left me reeling and I couldn’t recover.

  It was one lie too many.

  My family, the people I’d once trusted more than anyone else in the world, had lied to me. The speech I’d had to stand and deliver while still deep in mourning for my twin ran through my head again and smashed against my heart like a boat tossed around in a storm.

  “Run!” For a split second, Evie’s voice and her hand in mine dragged me back to the present and out of the car. My feet followed her instruction, racing as quickly as I could beside her. The warmth of her fingers entwined around mine kept me as anchored in reality as I could hope to be. We ran for countless seconds, racing through the darkness. I followed wherever Evie led.

  The instant she stopped running, the moment her hand left mine, I fell to the ground, broken by the willing lies of the people I’d cared about.

  “Are you okay?” Evie sat beside me, a dangerous move given the pursuit that was sure to be right behind us, but I couldn’t tell her to leave, to run and save herself, because I was relying on her presence too much. Looking up at her, I couldn’t find the words I needed to explain the mist that had enveloped me and strangled me so tightly, it stole my breath and forced my heart to race.

  Instead of demanding an explanation or telling me to suck it up, to get up, and get back into the fight, just like I’d heard so many times from my family, Evie shifted closer to me and guided my head to her shoulder. That small permission that she granted, the ability to take the time I needed to recover, caused an avalanche of emotion inside me that released in a loud sob.

  Not since my quiet counseling sessions with Zarita had I experienced anywhere near the level of peace I experienced when Evie took on the burden of my grief—even then, what Zarita had been able to offer wasn’t nearly as powerful. With Evie, I felt relief down into the very core of me. I worried I was holding her too tightly, pulling her too close, but instead of fighting free, she held me in return.

  Time seemed to suspend indefinitely as I sat in her embrace. Eventually, my mind returned to the present, and my emotions returned to their safe little bottle somewhere deep inside of me. When Evie loosened her hold and went to stand, I clutched onto her.

  She fought my hold and stood.

  “We need to keep moving,” she said, her tone apologetic as she offered me her hand. Her fingers trailed through my hair, and I closed my eyes as the feeling of it overwhelmed me.

  The sound of the apology in her voice proved I was an ass.

  I was risking her life by having a fucking breakdown, and yet she was trying to make me feel better.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, placing the blame squarely back where it belonged. “I shouldn’t have lost it like that.”

  She was so understanding and gentle that I wanted nothing more than to take her back into my arms and pour the rest of my emotions into her in a way that was absolutely not healthy but would feel fantastic. The only thing that stopped me was the certainty that the end result of that course of action would be my family stumbling across us while we were in a compromised position and my bare ass was on display.

  Evie seemed so full of confidence—in stark contrast to the girl behind the wheel of the car less than a half hour earlier—as she forgave me for being stupid and dropping the gun before reminding me that, with her around, we had another defensive weapon.

  “So what’s the plan?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. I do know that you need to tell me how things have changed now we’ve discovered it’s Louise who’s been hunting me.” The shift in her voice proved she understood I was returning to the present—to her.

  “It doesn’t really change anything, except I know that she will never give up.” I stood as my training and instinct took control. I thought of Lou and her behavior in the same way I would have once assessed the monsters I used to hunt. “If she was willing to let me believe that she was dead just so the Rain could get the chance to take you . . .”

  I couldn’t voice the words. It was deplorable that each member of my family let me believe that Lou was dead. Whether it was her idea or Dad’s didn’t matter, all three of them had gone along with it. And they’d obviously roped others into the plot.

  “We won’t be able to shake her by going to another city or even halfway around the world.”

  “What are you saying?”

  I could hear the horror in Evie’s voice, but I didn’t care. She needed to know the lengths I would go to in order to keep her safe. Her life was a deadly serious matter for me.

  “We’ll have to get rid of her,” I growled. Evie looked at me through horror-struck eyes; fear lurked in the depths of her lilac irises, which stung me as certainly as a physical blow. I didn’t want her to fear me. She needed to understand. “It’s kill or be killed, Evie. She’s had a vendetta against you ever since she found out what you are, and it seems she’s only grown more obsessed with time. If she’s been hunting you for this long, she’ll probably know your next choice better than you do.”

  I told Evie that whatever happened, I would keep her safe. The fact that Evie appeared to abhor the thought that I might destroy my family for the chance to keep her safe made me even more certain about the choices I’d made over the years. She was good. She wanted to preserve life, even the lives of those who wanted her dead. It made me want to draw her into my arms and thank her for being who she was.

  “Did you hear that?” Evie asked.

  The sound of feet rushing over concrete filled the air. I tried to recall whether we’d had to run over concrete, and when I found the memory deep in my addled mind, I calculated how long it had taken us to get to our current spot from there. The answer was not long enough.

  I bent and grabbed our bags. “Let’s get out of here.”

  It wasn’t long before I heard hunting calls that confirmed Lou had brought reinforcements in the form of my brother and father. Dad’s call was further away than the other two; it almost sounded like he was back on the road, and I realized he was probably waiting just in case we tried to circle around and escape back into one of the campers’ cars a little further up the road. The three of them were acting as though I was a threat that needed to be managed. Despite the situation, I couldn’t blame them—I had done the same thing to them.

  Evie and I fought against the foliage to head deeper into the forest, moving among thick shrubs and over large rocky sections. It was a hard trek, but I hoped it would offer us better cover than if we�
�d taken the easier paths.

  After I ducked underneath a particularly heavy bough, I caught sight of a set of grooves sliced into the trunk of a tree. I brushed my fingers across the surface. I didn’t like the look of them at all. They reminded me too much of the gash in my stomach and the cuts that the eviscerated the Evie look-alike dragged into Bayview during my retraining.

  The sight set my instincts on edge, but I didn’t want to give Evie more reasons to be afraid. It would be something to mention, something to worry about, after we’d escaped my family.

  The hunting calls of Eth and Lou grew louder and were closer than I would have hoped. Leaving Evie in the cover provided by a thicket, I crept forward to examine a cliff ahead of us to see whether we’d be able to scramble down it. The drop had to be at least sixty-five feet, although it was hard to tell in the darkness.

  I turned to warn Evie that it wasn’t an option for our escape and instead locked eyes with Eth. His lips turned up into a grin when he spotted me.

  Fucking hell.

  There was no way I could get Evie to safety with Eth so close. I had no real choice in my next decision—I would do whatever was necessary to keep her safe, even if that meant leaving her temporarily. I mouthed to her to trust me, and then I stood to give away my own position.

  Almost as soon as I’d stood up, Lou caught up with Eth and spotted me as well. The light was still low, but there was enough to show me scars twisting over her once pristine skin. The image was proof that, even though she hadn’t been killed in the Detroit apartment fire, she had been hurt. The scars were something Lou would’ve hated. Even if Evie hadn’t been something worthy of hunting just because of what she was, the damage to Lou’s body and face would have been a death sentence for her as far as my sister was concerned.

  Lou and Eth spent precious minutes doing all they could to convince me to turn my back on Evie, to once more declare her as the evil they believed her to be. Lou even showed me some newspaper article accusing Evie of murder.

  For me, it was no different than any of the other times she’d been accused of murder. Her father, the witches in Salem, the nurse, Louise—so many false accusations leveled in Evie’s direction.