by Ally Carter
He looked into the binoculars and scanned the camp. “Yes. The Wolf would never leave home with fewer than two. Two extras make sense under the circumstances.”
Smoke rose from a big fire that someone had built between the two tents. Three of the armed guards were positioned on the perimeter, scanning the trees. Waiting. For Stefan or Uri. For trouble.
Maddie looked up at the overcast sky.
“What is it?” Stefan asked her.
“There has to be a satellite looking for Logan. Drones, too. Someone’s going to see that fire and come asking questions.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Yeah,” Maddie admitted. “I think so. Logan will have called in the cavalry by now. Help could be just over that ridge.”
Stefan looked at her. “Or not.”
Maddie nodded. “Or not.”
“So what do we do now?” Stefan was actually asking. She wasn’t some tagalong, some annoying girl. She was the person with home court advantage, and he was smart enough to see it. She liked him for it. Even if she also still kind of hated him for trying to kill her and messing up her hair and all.
Maddie pushed up onto her knees in the snow. She started to stand.
It took her a moment to register that Stefan was standing behind her, and Uri’s gun was in his hand. Maybe it was the way the sun was getting lower, the sky darker, but everything seemed to change as the ice bled through the denim of Maddie’s jeans and the world got very dark and very cold.
“Uri was right, you know. You are the only child of the man who took the Wolf’s only child.” Stefan stared down the sight of the gun. “You would be more than enough to trade for my sister.”
Logan was going to kill Maddie. As soon as he was certain she was safe, of course.
The metal cuff felt tighter, colder, when she was the one to put it on him, so he pulled against the limb again and growled and cursed under his breath.
Only the sound of the laughter made him stop.
“Your woman is either very smart. Or very stupid,” the Russian said.
“Don’t kid yourself, comrade,” Logan told him. “She’s both.”
The yellow sat phone was lying in the snow. Waterproof, freeze-proof … idiot-proof. He just had to reach it. He just had to stretch. Sinking down, Logan stuck out one of his too-long legs, finally grateful for the extra inches as he eased the phone close enough to grab.
“They will kill him, you know,” Uri said as if they were just making conversation. As if Logan actually cared about his opinion.
“Your new friend Stefan. The Wolf will shoot him dead.” For some reason, when the silence came, Logan had to look at the man. He saw the look in Uri’s eyes when he said, “The girl will not be so lucky.”
Logan lunged for the man, but the cuff held and jerked him back, shaking snow and ice from the tree, raining down on top of him like fire.
“And you wonder why she left you,” the man said with a laugh.
Logan turned back to the tree, looking at the icy branches, calculating the weight of the snow and the circumference of the limb. Then he started to climb, carefully, balancing himself on the icy length, edging farther and farther from the base of the tree until the limb snapped, crashing into the snow and taking Logan with it.
“Nicely done,” the Russian mocked. “You’re smarter than a tree. Your father must be so proud.”
Logan’s father was probably worried sick. For the first time, Logan let himself admit that much. The most powerful man in the world was probably frozen with grief. Logan couldn’t even think about what his mother was probably feeling.
And Maddie …
Would they have reached the camp yet? Would she have seen her father?
How many rounds of ammo were there in the two guns? And did she get her other knife back—the little one that Stefan had taken? Maddie wasn’t the kind of girl to be content with just one knife, after all.
But most of all, Logan wanted to know that she was going to be okay.
“They probably aren’t dead yet,” Uri told him. “If you leave now, you can catch them. Stop them.”
“Stop them from what?”
“Walking into a trap.”
“Those are big words for a man who got knocked unconscious and tied to a tree by a teenage girl,” Logan reminded him.
“The girl’s going to die, President’s Son. And so is your new friend Stefan. If he thought the Wolf would honor his bargain, he is a fool. The Wolf lost everything six years ago. And before he dies, he is going to take all of his enemies down with him.”
Logan was on his feet. He was reaching for the phone and wiping away the snow that covered the keys. It was cold in his hand, but it felt like life itself as he looked down at the screen and began to dial a number he knew by heart.
When he heard the beeping he thought it might have been the phone finding a signal, maybe it was the White House switchboard, connecting him to a line.
But then Logan pulled the phone from his ear and looked down at the little flashing battery. When the screen went blank it felt like the part of him that had faith, that believed deep down that everything might be okay, turned off, too.
For a long time, he just stood, staring at the blank screen. The battery wasn’t low. It was dead. The phone was a useless weight in his hands. And suddenly it was all too much.
He roared and almost threw it off the cliff, into the icy river below, before he remembered the charger.
Logan raced to the big, flat rock where the remnants of the packs were laid out. Maddie and Stefan must have taken Maddie’s father’s phone, so Logan grabbed Stefan’s solar phone charger like it was a lifeline in a stormy sea. But the sky was so overcast that the phone didn’t even register a charge. Not yet.
Logan looked around the big, flat rock at their collection of gear, but the map was gone, and Logan swore again to kill Maddie Manchester. Just as soon as he got her back.
“Having trouble?” Uri asked. Logan didn’t think twice, lunging toward him.
“Where did they go?” he yelled.
But Uri shrugged, indifferent. “To their deaths, of course.”
The map was still locked away in Logan’s memory—locked inside his mind. But he didn’t trust his bearings. There was too much at stake and the light was getting too low, and Logan knew that if he got turned around—if he missed a single landmark—he might never make it in time.
Logan grabbed the man and shook him, pounding his head into the tree. “Tell me where the camp is,” he growled out.
“Why?” the Russian asked. “If I tell you where to find the girl, you’re going to do what? Save the day? Let me go? Or maybe you will just kill me if I refuse.”
“No.” Logan let go and backed off. Angry as he was, he wasn’t a killer. “You can either take me to the camp or stay here, tied to that tree, and wait for the bears to get hungry. It’s your call.”
Maddie’s hands were starting to tingle. Maybe it was nerves. Or the cold. Or maybe it was just what happened when you had to walk down a mountain and across a wide, snow-covered beach toward a wolf, all while keeping your hands on top of your head. All without trying to look back at the man who had the gun pointed directly at your spine.
She felt silly, really, in spite of everything. Sure, Stefan was taller and stronger and older. And he had a gun. But Maddie should have been able to take him. She would have been embarrassed if this ever got back to her friends.
But that was the upside to not having friends, Maddie realized. There wasn’t a soul around to judge her, so Maddie walked on.
“Don’t stop.”
Stefan poked her in the back with the gun, pushing her slightly. She stumbled a little. Holding her hands that way made her shoulder ache and messed with her balance, but she absolutely refused to fall.
Stefan spoke again, but this time the words were in Russian and under his breath.
Logan could have interpreted, if he’d been there. But he wasn’t. Logan was safe o
n the other side of the mountain. The Secret Service might have even found him already. She liked the thought of him in a helicopter with a heavy blanket over his shoulders, a hot drink in his hands.
Maddie would have given anything for a hot drink. But it was enough for her, the idea that maybe one of them might have already made it out of this ordeal alive.
Her arms dropped a little, fatigue settling in.
“Keep them up!” Stefan shouted with another push at her back. She took two large steps, stumbling forward and struggling to right herself.
And that was when she saw them.
The men appeared on the edges of her vision, assault rifles in their hands.
Stefan leveled his gun at her, but she stopped, looked back.
Something like pride glistened in his eyes as he said, “Tell the Wolf I’ve brought him something.”
Not someone, Maddie realized. She was a thing, a piece of leverage.
One of the men laughed and the other joined in. When the second man spoke, it was in Russian, but Stefan sneered at the words. Then he answered, in English.
“She’s better than the boy. Trust me. The Wolf will want to see this for himself.”
The two guards must have been convinced because they gestured them toward the center of the camp.
“My sister?” Stefan asked.
One of the men nodded. “Alive” was his reply.
The two men fell into step on either side of Stefan. They kept their rifles pointed at the ground, but ready. Like one gunman might not be enough against a teenage girl. Maddie might have smiled, told herself that her reputation preceded her, but her shoulder hurt and her stomach growled. And she really had to go to the bathroom.
When they neared the tents, there was a rustling, and a moment later a man was standing before them, silhouetted by the smoke.
He was taller than she’d thought he’d be. Younger. Stronger. But when Maddie was finally close enough to see his eyes, she knew the mistake she’d just made.
“Where’s the Wolf?” Stefan snapped at the man.
“Behind you,” came a voice.
Slowly, Maddie turned. And she knew. It wasn’t just that he was older. No. His eyes were cold and gray, but there was a fire inside of them. With one glance, Maddie feared she might get burned. They were the eyes of an animal, one dangerous and trapped. And right then Maddie understood the rumors and the nickname. She could believe that this man had been abandoned in a forest and raised by the wolves. He wasn’t a man. He was a feral beast, and Maddie shivered a little in spite of herself.
For a moment, she stood in the cold wind, hands fisted overhead, letting the man look his fill. Then he glanced at one of the guards. “Take his sister to the woods and shoot her.”
The man turned for one of the tents, but Stefan was lunging forward.
“No! Wait!”
“We had a deal, Stefan,” the Wolf told him. “Your sister for the boy. This is no boy.”
“She’s better,” Stefan shouted, but the Wolf spun. It was like no one had dared to raise their voice to him in sixty years. And no one had, Maddie was certain.
“Kill him, too,” the Wolf told the gunmen.
Stefan raised his gun, but he was too slow. The butt of an assault rifle was already slicing through the air, clipping him on the back of the head.
He went down hard and Maddie jerked free. She dropped her arms and started to run, but the second guard had already taken hold of her. He spat something in Russian, and the Wolf looked her over once again.
“Kill them all.”
He turned and started toward the tent like he hadn’t just ordered the deaths of three people. Like this was just another day, and nothing could surprise him—not anymore.
Well … nothing except the small, female voice behind him, saying, “Well, that would just be silly.”
When the Wolf turned back to Maddie, it was like he was surprised she could speak. Or at the very least, like she’d have the good sense to sound terrified. But she didn’t. If anything, she sounded … bored.
“You need better sources, Mr. Wolf Man,” she told the most dangerous man in Russia.
“Why is that?” he asked her, honestly curious.
Maddie looked up at the cloudy sky then back to him, like she had all the time in the world.
“Well, because, (A) the Secret Service agent you’ve been obsessed with for six years doesn’t have a dead daughter. He has an awesome daughter. And (B) I’m more than a little offended you didn’t recognize the grade A hostage material that you have in front of you. I mean, if you’re in the vengeance business I am a way better catch than Logan, who is an idiot, by the way.”
“And C?” The Wolf almost smiled.
Behind him, Maddie could see a guard dragging a girl from one of the tents. She was weak and filthy, her face puffy with too many tears. But she was still alive and that was all that mattered.
“Stefan!” the girl shouted, but her voice was weak.
“C is easy, Boris.” The Wolf turned back to Maddie, clearly confused by her smile. “You should have never let me get this close.”
When Maddie pulled back her fist, the men didn’t lunge, they didn’t stop her. How hard can she hit? they all seemed to think in unison, but Maddie wasn’t swinging at them. Instead, she was spinning, arm swirling through the air until she opened her fist and gray dust hurled toward the flames.
Stefan was diving toward his sister, tucking her into his arms and rolling away.
Maddie saw it, knew the girl was safe.
It was her last thought before the world caught fire.
As soon as Logan heard the explosion, he stopped running and ducked instinctively as the flames formed a pillar that looked like it might be holding up the sky. For a split second, bright light overpowered the dusk. Dark smoke followed, billowing upward and blocking out the sun that was setting on the cloud-filled horizon.
The whole world turned black in that instant, and when it cleared, absolutely no one was still standing.
That was the bad news.
But the good news was that any disaster that large could only mean one thing: Maddie was still alive.
Maddie was an idiot. Or so she thought as she forced herself up and away from the fire that still roared behind her.
She’d shaved the entire block of magnesium, kept it clutched in her hands. Even though she knew it burned at four thousand degrees—even though that was exactly why she’d done it—she was still afraid her skin might blister, her hair might catch fire. She’d jumped as far from the flames as possible, and then all she had to do was roll and kick and claw her way over the body of the man who had fallen beside her.
One of the men with the assault rifles.
Maddie didn’t think twice before picking up the weapon.
Through the smoke, Stefan stirred.
“The plane!” Maddie shouted. “Get to the plane. Now!”
Stefan didn’t have to be told twice. He stood and swooped his frail little sister into his arms and started running to where her father’s plane bobbed near the shore.
But Maddie couldn’t leave yet. She would never leave without her father.
She crawled to the second gunman. Blood streamed from his head and he didn’t move, so she grabbed his rifle and hurled it with all her might, sending it end over end into the icy water like she might be returning it to the Lady of the Lake.
Both of the men by the fire were unconscious, but Maddie knew there were two more guards out in the woods.
Two guards who would have no doubt heard the explosion.
Two guards who would be coming. Soon.
She forced herself to her feet. She was still wobbly, but there was no time to worry about a pesky little thing like balance, so she rushed toward the tent, hurled back the flap, and yelled “Dad?”
It was empty.
Maddie felt her legs start to give out. She was more tired, more hungry, more hopeless than she’d ever been in her life.
; But then she turned and saw her father—
—on his knees in the snow, the Wolf’s blade at his neck.
Maddie had left Logan the little knife. He thought he might have to thank her for that when this mess was over. Right after he killed her. Then kissed her. Then killed her again.
But the knife did come in handy. So did the rope.
Uri had struggled as Logan led him through the forest, but the man had stayed on his feet long enough to guide Logan to the camp. When the time came to tie Uri to another tree, the man’s wound had started to fester and the fight was leaving him bit by bit. He didn’t even try to struggle. He only smirked.
“Thanks for the tour,” Logan said. He crammed one of Stefan’s spare socks into the man’s mouth. “I think I can find my way from here.”
From that point, it was just a matter of waiting.
Of course, it didn’t take long for Uri to spit out the gag. Of course, he started yelling. Even his grunts sounded Russian as they filled the woods.
And when the perimeter guard recognized Uri, the man rushed right toward him.
It was easier than Logan thought to pull back the tree branch he’d leveraged, send it hurling right toward the guard, and knock him off his feet. Then Logan pounced, pulling back his fist the way Maddie’s dad had once taught him.
“You never know when you might meet a bully,” Mr. Manchester had said.
It was a lesson Logan would never, ever forget.
The Wolf really was dying. It wasn’t just the pallor of his skin, the way his clothes hung on his frame like he used to be a much larger man. It was also the desperation that seemed to be seeping from his pores. He was going to get his revenge. Even if it killed him.
Especially if it killed him. But that suited Maddie just fine.
“Drop the knife,” she told him.
The assault rifle was heavy in her hands. She’d never touched one before. The only thing a gun like this hunted was people, and Maddie felt a little sick just holding it. But she didn’t dare let it go.
The Wolf didn’t care, though. He just laughed and brought the knife closer to her father’s throat. A small drop of blood appeared on the edge of the blade, but her father didn’t even wince.