The Black Coats(75)
A quiet girl from Swallowtail pulled off her coat. “I knew it,” she whispered to her teammate. “I knew something was weird.”
Thea smiled and stepped forward. “Then fight with us. Fight with . . .”
The crack of a gunshot shattered the moment. Stalking out from the house with a gun raised in her hand, President McKinley was walking toward Team Banner, her black coat blowing around her.
“Grab Team Banner!” she screamed at the two other teams, but it was too late. Thea had sown the seeds of doubt, and they had taken root. Chaos erupted, with girls scattering in all different directions. Team Emperor flew at Team Banner. Some members of Swallowtail turned against Emperor to join with Banner. Two smart girls were running for the edges of the property, done with this whole thing. Everything was a blur, everyone fighting.
What have we done? thought Thea, but beneath that thought drummed a single word. Drew. Drew. Drew.
Louise spun near her, her rapidly moving fists taking down a member of Team Emperor. “Thea, go! Find him!”
“I can’t leave you guys!” shouted Thea, grabbing a girl who reached for Casey and forcing her to the ground.
Mirabelle easily swatted away a girl from Swallowtail. “We’ll find you! Go! We’re fine!” Someone punched Mirabelle in the chest and she staggered backward.
Thea looked at the house and then back at her team. Casey met her eyes, blood pouring from her nose as she grabbed Thea’s shoulder. “Find Drew, but look for Bea, too. I haven’t gotten ahold of her for days. I’m pretty sure . . .” She looked at the house. “She’s in there.”
Thea didn’t need to be told twice; before Casey even finished, Thea was sprinting for the house, darting back and forth between the ongoing fights. McKinley saw her and started sprinting after her, her gun out in front of her. “Thea, stop!”
But Thea couldn’t; she wouldn’t. She weaved through the girls, knowing—no, hoping—that McKinley wouldn’t risk shooting anyone else. She ducked under punches as she flew toward the house, clearing the fray momentarily. Another gunshot cracked through the air, and the black wood balcony behind Thea exploded into splinters, a hail of black pebbles showering around her as her feet pounded the brick paving stones. Behind her she could hear the sounds of fighting, the sounds of girls crying and shouting. A glass lantern next to her shattered as McKinley’s bullet traced over her head. The shots were a warning; McKinley wasn’t trying to kill her, she was trying to stop her. At least, she hoped so. Thea covered her ears from the ringing as another lantern exploded, but her feet kept moving, almost to the top of the stairs now. Her hand closed around the iron door knocker, and her momentum pushed it forward. The heavy door swung open easily, much too easily. The door opened, and a boy’s face stared down at her. Her body froze. “Sahil?”
“I am sorry, Thea.” Then something hard hit her chest and she flew backward, arching in the air before she was tumbling down the stairs, feeling each step knock her body as she hit it. She rolled over twice, her legs and arms hitting the rough wood before she landed hard on the ground below. She blinked. Get up. With a painful groan, she crawled to her knees and then her feet, her body begging her for rest. Instead, she pushed herself up, one hand holding her bruised ribs. Sahil was making his way slowly down the steps to her, white linen fluttering in the wind. He was almost to her now, but what could she do?
She heard Natalie’s voice in her head.
Run.
Thea shot away from the house, her quick movements catching Sahil off guard. “Thea!” he called, a strange disappointment in his voice. His voice dropped menacingly as she plunged into the woods on the side of the house. “I guess I will have to catch you then.”
Branches slapped at her face as she flew through the dense oak trees, her feet pounding frantically. This wasn’t the rhythmic running that she loved so well; this was running for her life, Terror, rather than a quest for speed, propelled her. She didn’t want to win. She wanted to live. She could hear Sahil behind her, twice as fast with swift, determined steps.
Thea was thrashing around, bursting her way through overgrown clumps of kudzu, through bushes and gnarled branches that tangled over the ground, each one threatening to trip her. She veered right, hoping to throw him off, but she could hear him turn behind her, ever closer.
“Thea!” God, he wasn’t even winded. The cut on her ankle courtesy of Valentina was bleeding more now, and each step sent a tiny sliver of pain up her shin. Her ribs ached from the fall down the stairs and something wasn’t right there, but she kept moving. Just run, she thought.
“Thea! Why don’t we just stop and talk?” called Sahil from too close behind her.
“You lied to me!” she screamed. Everything hurts. She was slowing. The woods flew past her in a blur of brown and mottled green. Thea tripped and stumbled, catching herself on the fall, bursting forward again. With a jagged breath, she reached inside of herself, hoping to find a well of strength, something that would push her forward; but instead she found something unexpected: herself. She had to be enough.
Twenty-Nine
The tangled woods spanned out in front of her, more difficult to navigate than before. Sahil was behind her now and closing fast. She couldn’t beat him. She couldn’t lose him. This chase could end when she was winded and outrun, or she could end it here on her own terms. You have to decide to act, she heard Nixon say in her mind. Don’t let him hunt you down like some weak animal, because you’re not. You have to be enough. Her steps slowed as she burst out into a shady glen about a half mile from Mademoiselle Corday. How ironic that even now she also heard Sahil’s voice in her mind. Look around. What weapons do you have? Her eyes darted side to side as her steps fell out of rhythm. Tree trunks, branches, and an overturned, rotted wood bench.