Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(39)

“There’s a pretty tightly packed group of trees ahead and to the right, with lots of underbrush,” Abe’s voice said from ahead of us. “If we get in there and cover our tracks, it might give us a chance to catch our breath, at least.”

“That works,” Jace returned. “Lead the way.”

We turned sharply to the right, and within moments I was trying to hide my face between Jace’s duffel bags to escape the whip of bushes and leaves rushing past me. I’d just found the ideal position to do so when we came to a sudden stop.

Jace pulled me up over his shoulder and set me on the ground, and though I wobbled a bit when he let go, I managed to keep my balance and look around me. We were in deep, deep cover, the canopy above us so full that almost no sunlight filtered in, and I couldn’t see back to where I thought the Authority agents were.

I hoped that lack of visibility went both ways, because I could hear them as they stomped through the forest, talking quietly among themselves.

They were also getting closer to where we were hiding. I didn’t think they realized we were there, but I also knew that we hadn’t been careful enough with how we got into the trees. We had almost certainly broken branches and plants as we ran in this direction, leaving a trail a mile wide for those soldiers to follow.

Which would lead them directly to us.

I held my breath and stared at my friends, seeing them come to the exact same conclusion.

Then a snap sounded out from several feet to my left, and I jumped and turned, then grew abruptly still, trying to take back any gasp or sound I might have made. If the Authority soldiers had already gotten that close to us, we were in big trouble. We wouldn’t have time to get away if they found us—not when they had more guns than we did.

But when a head poked through the underbrush, startling me so I nearly screamed, it was, to my utmost shock, not human at all. It was canine.

It was a wolf. One that I recognized immediately. I’d spent a lot of time feeding this particular wolf any of the Nurmeal I had left over, when he and his friends came around.

I gave a hoarse laugh, relieved, and went toward him. I heard a choked sound behind me and turned to see my friends looking at me like I was completely crazy. I grinned at them and tried to figure out how to indicate through signs only that this wolf was my friend, and when I turned back around, I was stunned to see that the entire pack had somehow melted out of the shadows and surrounded us.

Ant took a deep, panicked breath and started backing up quickly, only to run into the wolf that had come up behind him. He came to an abrupt halt and stared at me, his eyes bugging.

Another sharp spurt of muttering from the Agency soldiers in the forest, about ten feet away from us now. At my sudden movement the wolves grew tense as well, and whirled—as one, in the way that only wild animals seemed to be capable of—and dashed into the forest. Away from the Authority agents.

They started running, weaving through the trees as quickly and silently as shadows, and I realized that they would do everything they could to avoid the agents, whom they must have mistaken for hunters, due to the guns. And within a split second, I knew exactly what we were going to do.

“I think we’ve got some direction, at least for the moment,” I hissed at my team. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Where are we going?” Jace asked, already striding toward me to take my hand.

I grasped it gladly, thankful for the support, and shook my head. “I don’t think it matters, for now,” I replied. “The wolves are running from the soldiers, and that’s exactly what we need to do. They know this forest better than anyone, even me. Our best shot at safety is to follow them to wherever they’re going.”

Everyone gaped at me, except Jace and Kory, who turned without a word, understanding my logic immediately. The rest were forced to follow as we raced into the forest, after the wolves and away from the Authority soldiers, who were still bellowing for us to give ourselves up.





16





We rushed after the wolves, my body tucked as tight against Jace’s as I could manage without our legs getting tangled, my eyes dead ahead, on the forest. The wolves clearly knew where they were going, but they weren’t exactly intent on waiting for us.

That said, they quickly fell into a single-file line, as I’d seen them do in the past, which meant they were at least moving more slowly now as they wove between the trees.

Jace dropped my hand and pulled ahead of me to take the lead, and the rest of our group silently fell into single file as well, mimicking the wolves running in front of us. We all stayed deadly silent, hyper aware that there were Authority agents behind us. They might not have known which way we went, but all it would take was one wrong move or too-abrupt step on a branch to alert them.

Which was the one thing we absolutely couldn’t afford. Several of us were operating at less than full power by this point, and I still hadn’t had a chance to ask Jace what had happened to him back there in that meadow. He seemed to be moving well enough, but we’d both been thrown into the air by something, and I wasn’t stupid enough to think he’d come through it without any damage. Some of us were also carrying extra weight, thanks to the boxes and bags we had brought. Nelson, I suspected, was holding her own, but she’d been weakened by her time in the prison, and I didn’t know how much farther she could go.