Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(40)

I didn’t know how much farther any of us could go.

We needed shelter. Now.

I could only pray that the wolves would somehow lead us to a safer area of the forest. An area where the Authority wouldn’t think to look.

Ahead of me, I noticed the wolves starting to increase their pace, and the trees growing thicker and taller as we went. I realized then that we’d entered some sort of large gorge situation. We seemed to be running down a path that led us between large, sheer rock walls, and although the walls were twenty feet to the left and twenty feet to the right at this point, they were getting closer together. Which meant, I feared, that we were running toward a dead end. This was also an older part of the forest—a part I’d never ventured into—and the underbrush was thinning out with the increased tree population. Not as much light for things to grow down here, I thought. At least it made running easier.

“If they speed up any more, we won’t be able to keep up with them,” Jace huffed from beside me, and I gulped, realizing he was right.

The wolves were better equipped for running than we were, and they weren’t going to slow down to allow the two-legged beings behind them to catch up.

Behind us, I could still hear the shouts of the agents from the Authority, though they seemed to be calling instructions to each other now, rather than trying to talk us into doing anything cooperative. Maybe they were working on another trap, or maybe they’d somehow seen the wolves and decided that caution was better than rushing right in. Whatever the case, they seemed to be a bit farther behind us than they had been.

But we couldn’t count on that lasting.

“What are we doing?” Kory asked, appearing on Jace’s right side, his arms loaded with boxes. “We can’t just keep running! What’s the plan?!”

“No plan but to follow the wolves,” Jace replied between pants. “They’re running from the same thing we are. If we’re lucky, they’ll know a way through the forest that the agents behind us don’t… Perhaps a way those men won’t be able to find on their own.”

Kory grew quiet at that, and I cast a glance at his face as he considered it, compared it to his background experience, and then nodded.

“Solid reasoning,” he confirmed. “I’ve known enough wolves in my time to know they’ll head for safety. It might work, but only if we can manage whatever path they’re about to take.”

Jace grimaced. “Either we manage it, or we fall prey to the Authority.”

My chest grew tighter. If only I’d tried following the animals before, so I knew what to expect! But we were far outside of my realm of experience now. I had known there were hills—or mountains, depending on how you wanted to label them—within this forest. I’d seen them from Trenton, when I was driving toward my home, but I’d never been near them. I’d never bothered to come this deep into the forest because I never in a million years would have thought that I’d need to!

Which meant I had no idea how to get there or whether they would offer us any true shelter.

But my gut was telling me that those mountains were where we were going. It made sense for the wolves to make for high ground.

I just hoped we would find something there. Hoped we could be safe for at least an hour or two, to give us time to get back on our feet and figure out our next step. I was incredibly tired of running for my life from people who were after us for reasons I still didn’t entirely understand—and even more tired of not knowing where we were supposed to go or what we were supposed to do. Before, when we’d been breaking into a warehouse or a jail, the guards and bullets had been expected. We’d been engaged in something entirely illegal, and though I hadn’t enjoyed the experience of being shot at, at least I’d understood it as a consequence for what we were doing. Anyone who had broken into a government jail would have been shot at. It was nothing personal.

But now they’d come right to the doorstep of my home, shot at my friends, and blown me into the sky with some kind of explosive weapon. That was personal. They were after us by name, and they were destroying our houses. Our lives.

They hadn’t been after us specifically before. Now they were.

The thought drove fear right into my very bones, in a way I’d never realized was even possible.

“Robin,” Jace suddenly hissed.

I jerked my focus back to the scene in front of us to see that the wolves had come to a complete stop. They were now milling about in front of a piece of rock that jutted sharply up out of the soil and rose at an angle, up and up and up, into the canopy of the trees… and from there into the sky, I assumed.

The rock was also completely blocking our path.

I cast a glance to the left of our group, and then the right. The chute had narrowed since the last time I’d looked, the rock walls much closer on either side. Which meant we were effectively trapped against a dead end. Just as I’d feared we would be.

Jace halted, and a second later Ant, Abe, Jackie, Nelson, and Kory were all standing around us as well, their mouths hanging open in awe.

“They’re climbing,” Jace suddenly said.

I turned back toward where the wolves were standing, confused, and then saw it. I’d looked at the piece of rock so quickly before that I hadn’t taken in any details except for its size and general angle into the sky. Now that I was paying attention, I realized that there was a ledge, less than three feet in width, and the wolves had started using it to pick their way up the rock, still in single file. The ledge didn’t seem to turn at all, but moved steeply up the rock’s face, climbing up into the trees and beyond.