Catwoman: Soulstealer (DC Icons #3)(87)

Off the machines, Maggie’s lungs might not be able to last long. It was forty-five minutes to the old factory atop the ley line and the Pit she’d built beneath it.

“Hold on,” Selina breathed over the shouting in the stairwell. “Hold on.”

The seven Leopards there were wide-eyed as she came barreling out the back door into the alley. The street beyond was filled with smoke and darting figures. There was already blood dripping off the bat of one of the Leopards at the door—an unconscious man in Arkham white sprawled on the pavement a few feet away.

The Leopards sized up Selina, Maggie draped over her shoulder, and one of them pointed to the street in the opposite direction. “We kept it quiet that way for you.”

Gratitude crushing her chest, squeezing the breath from her, Selina could only manage a nod.

The Leopards would remain, guarding the hospital, until the GCPD had the city under control again. Mika had sworn it.

She didn’t have the words to voice her gratitude for that, either. For the remnant of home that had come when asked.

Selina started for the clear street beyond, keeping her jog as even as possible to avoid disturbing Maggie. She’d stashed her Mercedes a few blocks away days ago, waiting for this.

No one stopped her as she crossed the wild street, cars honking at each other, some people abandoning them completely to flee. Not that way, then.

Selina hit another alley, sprint turning into a run. She could see it—the black Mercedes parked along the street, covered in a day’s worth of tickets. The hidden keys taped to the chassis, just under the trunk.

“Hold on,” she repeated to her sister.

Fifty feet. Forty. Thirty.

“Selina.”

She had not heard her own name in over two years.

It rang through her, foreign and heavy. She didn’t care how Harley had figured it out.

Selina. She almost mouthed her name, just to taste it. Hear it again.

Nyssa and Talia hadn’t used it. The other assassins had called her kitty-cat or variations on it.

But there was Harley Quinn, striding from around a corner, her bleeding, swollen lips twisted in a sneer.

Aiming two throwing knives at her.

“Stop.” Harley’s order was a rough snarl. Blood covered her knees, her arm. “I said stop!”

Selina kept walking for the car.

“I SAID STOP!”

Selina paused, looking over a shoulder just as Ivy arrived at Harley’s side. Blood leaked from Ivy’s temple, her knuckles were raw, her vine-whip in shreds at her wrist. Her pallid skin saying enough about the depleted stocks of her toxins.

Harley kept the knives cocked toward her. “You lied. You are a liar.”

Selina said nothing. Maggie’s breathing was a soft rasp in her ear.

“You’re in the League,” Harley said. Those were tears streaking down her pale makeup. “And you used me, used us to get to him.” The Joker. “You manipulated us into fighting for you—into doing this for you.” She gestured with her free hand to the city in chaos.

Ivy was glancing between them, face ashen with pain.

“We rushed for Arkham when we saw the explosion. To get you out,” Harley spat. “We went by the Statue of Saint Nicholas. Or tried to. And you know what we saw?”

Selina refused to speak. Maggie’s raspy breathing rattled in her ear.

Harley was shaking—with rage. Utter and complete rage.

“We saw my man arrive, waiting for you. We saw the GCPD show up instead.”

Selina had placed a second call on her way over here. Straight to Commissioner Gordon. Warned him who would be arriving at the statue.

Harley kept the knives trained on Selina. “They hurt him. His top men are dead. And they dragged him back to Arkham. They dragged him back after you set him up, you liar!”

The last words were screamed. Maggie stirred, a phlegm-filled inhale sounding, and Selina’s temper went razor-sharp. At the words, at the delay, at Harley’s twisted obsession with the Joker. At the pain and fear on Ivy’s face.

It built and built, until it was a wave, a tsunami, cresting and crashing within her. Until she didn’t bother to stop it. Not anymore.

“Then let them drag him away!” Selina snapped, her shout cutting through the chaos. “Let him stay in there! Do something for yourself and your family. Get out while you can—before it’s too late, Harley!”

“You don’t know shit,” Harley spat. “You don’t know anything, about me, or what I’ve been through—”

“You think I don’t?” Selina pointed to the Leopard spot just visible on her wrist. “You think I don’t know what it’s like to feel like there are no options, no choices, no help coming to protect who I love?” She gripped Maggie harder, adjusting her slight weight on her shoulder.

Ivy spoke up, her voice steady. “She’s right, Harley. You and me—let’s walk away. Let’s help her. Can’t you see that little girl is sick?” She pointed to Maggie. “Let’s help her. Then you and me, we can figure something out, get you some help—”

“Shutupshutupshutup!” Harley screamed. Ivy cringed, stepping back. Harley kept the knives aimed on Selina. “I don’t need any”—her voice broke—“help!”

She did. Perhaps they all did.