Anomaly (Causal Enchantment #4)(21)

“They must be on a train,” Galen said, leaning over to check the tunnel in both directions.

“Then we go after the train.” I hopped onto the tracks, earning gasps from the unsuspecting humans. I ignored them. “Avoid that one unless you want to find out what six hundred volts of electricity feels like,” I hollered back, pointing to the third rail as the rest of the group followed.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Mage hissed as she ran alongside me. “Stick together so we leave together when the time comes.”

Footsteps trailed behind me as we tore through the tunnels, the purple glow the only light within the darkness, until finally, the back of a moving subway train came into sight ahead. “They must have reached the driver already,” Kait hollered as the train whizzed past the platform. Confused scowls dressed the faces of waiting patrons, all of them completely unaware how lucky they were to not be boarding this train.

We ran for it, easily hopping onto the back. I pushed through the doors to enter the last car.

The fledglings had been here all right.

“Come on.” I charged forward through the car with grim determination, doing my best to ignore the carnage left on the seats and the floor. Car after car, the scene was the same; the fledglings had swept through like locusts. Not a single heartbeat pounded.

The only thing I could be thankful for at this point was that it was late at night and therefore not as busy.

We finally found the fledglings in the last train car. Dozens of them, still finishing off the last few passengers. They’d be easy to kill. But many others stood in the aisle, their eyes glued to the windows.

Waiting.

Those wouldn’t be as easy to kill.

They turned as one, their hideous crimson eyes locking on me. Assessing me. They couldn’t possibly mistake me for human. But would they realize that they were in danger before I killed them all?

“That’s the one,” someone hissed, his reedy finger jabbing the air at me. “That’s her.”

“Me?” I touched my chest in mock concern as flames shot to my fingers. I now knew that someone was dispensing instructions regarding a redhead who wasn’t afraid of them. The question was, who? “Get back, all of you!” I ordered behind me as the closest fledglings leapt forward. Spurts of fire shot out from my fingers, engulfing the vampires.

The flames sparked instant chaos, the fledglings’ shrill screams piercing. Several farther back in the car crashed through the windows of the speeding train.

In my haste, I hadn’t thought to build a shield around myself and now they were pushing closer in an act of defiance. If I wasn’t careful, I’d burn with them.

“Sofie!” An arm around my waist pulled me through the door and into the car behind us. Mortimer shoved a metal bar through the sliding mechanism, keeping them from following us.

I unleashed as much fire as I could, cloaking the outside of the last car to keep the remaining fledglings inside as I forced the flames in through the broken windows, reaching like tentacles. I could hear their screams but I closed my eyes. They all needed to die.

Behind me, Amelie yelled about something up ahead. I opened my eyes in time to see the tunnel open up into a dimly lit station. The platform was crawling with fledglings, most likely the ones who’d escaped from the car ahead.

Amelie and Galen crashed through the window, as the fledglings had, to land on the platform just before we were plunged back into the tunnel’s darkness.

I counted how many of us remained in the car. Seven. “Where’s Kait?”

“She went after the first fledglings that jumped,” Lilly said.

“What happened to staying together?” I yelled in disbelief just as a purple glow bloomed on my arm—a tracking bracelet igniting, followed quickly by a second.

And then a third.

I stared at my wrist with dismay. How many hordes were there?

“Let’s go,” Mage said, tugging at my arm.

“Are you nuts? We need to stop this train!” On fire, with no driver, moving at high speeds, the train was a missile. “I can slow it down.” I reached forward with long magic tendrils, intent on seizing the brakes.

“We don’t have time!” Mage barked, her sudden acidity breaking my concentration. My magic evaporated. “That will drain your magic. You can’t waste your reserves on the nonessential.”

“Mage!” I argued, my hand flying out ahead of us. “This will kill a lot of people.”

“That was another sizeable horde of fledglings and Jonah was not there.” Her black eyes flashed. “I think the fledglings are already evolving. And if that’s the case, then we cannot save these people anyway,” she said, unwavering. “We must go now.”

Three more bracelets lit up, as if to emphasize her point.

With great reluctance, I followed them down the length of the train and onto the tracks, running back toward the platform where Galen and Amelie jumped off, leaving the speeding train to its destruction.

Just as we reached the platform, an explosion rattled through the tunnel. The train must’ve plowed into the one ahead. The ground shook with the magnitude of a mild earthquake. Bits of dirt and concrete rained down as the underground tunnels struggled to hold. The terrible, high-pitch screeches of metal dragged on for an eternity.

I winced at the horrific images that filled my mind.