The Glass Arrow(96)

“If she’s masquerading as a Driver like he said, they’ll kill her. Not in the city, mind you, but out here they would. They don’t take well to folks interfering with their kind,” says one of the mounted Trackers.

I’m frozen, holding my breath. I wish I’d never met Amir Ryker in that candy shop at the auction. I wish he didn’t exist. Mr. Greer too, and the mayor, and all these Trackers. If I’m glad for nothing else in my life, it’s that we didn’t follow Lorcan home right away.

“It would be a waste if they disposed of her.” Greer’s voice is rougher than before, like sand blowing against metal.

“Right, because then she can’t hang,” another Tracker laughs. He spits on the ground and wipes his mouth on his sleeve.

“If she’s alive, she won’t hang,” assures Mr. Greer. “We paid a considerable sum for her.”

“Waste to give her to a boy, then,” says the Tracker on the ground. “Should save her for a man.” He rises and puffs out his chest. The others laugh, Mr. Greer along with them.

Greer adjusts his scarf. “She’ll pay her dues, not to worry.”

The Tracker, now strutting back to his horse, stops short. “I’d think tangling with the mayor’s favorite girl would have made an impression. You’ve still got one pretty cheek, Greer. Don’t lose the other one.”

Mr. Greer shoots him in the chest, with a gun I didn’t even see in his hand.

A cry bursts from my throat as I topple backwards. The three remaining faces turn my way.

There’s no hiding now. I get up and I run.

*

KIRAN DOESN’T WASTE TIME asking questions. The moment he sees me sprinting his way he swings atop Dell and swoops down to grasp my upper arm. She’s already running by the time I’m all the way on her back.

I hang on as tightly as I can, arms latched around Kiran’s lean waist, feeling the sweat that dampens his shirt on my cheek.

Something crashes in the bushes behind us, big enough to be a horse and rider. Whether or not it’s Mr. Greer, I don’t know. I don’t look back. Not this time.

Kiran aims Dell through the woods and we stay low, avoiding the branches that threaten to scoop us right off her back. To our right is a crowded cropping of squat, green brush, and Dell gallops straight for it. I think she’s about to turn, so I brace to slide, but she jumps and lands in a pool of stagnant water.

The water splashes our legs, soaking my boots. Dell makes her way out, her strong neck heaving. When we’re free, Kiran whispers something in her ear and we’re off again. Flying. He rides like she’s a part of him, an extension of his legs. And I bump along the back with the rest of the gear.

We keep going until there isn’t a single human sound for miles, and even when we pull up, we’re careful to keep our weapons ready.

“Greer,” I heave between breaths. “The mayor’s brother. Three…” I shake my head, ridding the murder from my mind. “No, two … more Trackers. I heard them talking. They’re not going to stop until they find me.”

Now that we’re stopped, the words that had been exchanged between Mr. Greer and his men slam into me. I think of Daphne, forced to lay down with a buyer in a private room. Salma’s words echo in my head: “We’re just women.”

If I’m caught, it’s the end of me.

“They’re not going to find us,” Kiran says, but there’s worry in his voice.

“You have to go,” I say. “They’ll take me alive. But they’ll kill you, Kiran.”

I can’t believe I’m saying this. I don’t want Kiran to leave. I need him and he needs me. But I can’t have his death on my conscience. I can’t dig another hole in the ground with nothing but a rock in my hand, and lay him inside as we did Brax. I refuse.

Dell’s spinning in a tight circle, ready to run again. Kiran calms her with a soothing hum.

“We’ll go back towards the city. They won’t think we’d do that,” he says. It’s desperate. We both know it, but Kiran has a point. The closer to the city we go, the farther we lead them away from Lorcan, Daphne, and the twins.

“You head towards the city,” I say. “I’ll keep going on foot. They’re not looking for us to be together anyway. They said a real Driver would probably kill me out here for masquerading as one of them.”

A grimace tightens his mouth. “They’re right.”

We both grow quiet, thinking of Aran, his lifeless body stuffed beneath the bushes not far from here.

I try to dismount, but Kiran grabs my arm. I succeed in swinging my leg back over Dell’s haunches, but somehow he goes over the horse’s neck and hits the ground before me. He’s attempting to wrestle me back into the saddle and I’m struggling to get away from him, but the harder I breathe, the more I can smell the leather and sweat and wood smoke on his skin.

“Let go!” I ram my foot down on his in frustration and he grunts in pain.

“Don’t be crazy,” he says. “There’s another way.”

I twist out of his arms at the same time as he clamps down, which results in his elbow knocking me hard in the chin. He lets go then, and I topple onto my backside.

“Yeah.” I move my jaw from side to side. “I guess you could always kill me!”