When the Sky Fell on Splendor(81)

Every time I needed them.

“Of course we trust you,” I answered for both of us.

Sofía nodded. “On the count of three, Franny’s going to take out the lights. As soon as that happens, we run. Follow me, okay? Unless they’re too close—then go wherever you can and hide. I’ll come back for you. I’ll find you. You don’t need to contact me.”

She waited a moment for me and Levi to nod, then she did too. She turned toward the shattered window, bracing her feet against the seat, cupping her hands against the fragmented edge of the window. “One.” She jogged herself, like she was warming her muscles for the jump.

A gunshot snapped through the cool night, but the cows didn’t disperse; they just became more agitated, frantically kicking at the car.

“Two,” Sofía said.

I closed my eyes, felt the hot thrumming cord through my center, the series of not-quite-muscles I’d found that night locked in the Jenkins House basement. I flexed them, felt the energy jittering as it surfaced, eager to be unleashed. I adjusted my crouch, getting my weight over my feet so I could spring out as soon as Sofía had cleared the car.

I focused on my heartbeat, on Sofía’s and Levi’s breathing. White unfurled across my mind, and when it faded, I saw the velvety darkness, felt the cold air batting against me, the glittery streaks rushing past on every side, singing as they went. The still pool waiting to swallow the light.

I finally understood what Bill had meant: what a shame it would be to lose this. How lonely my own body might feel when the being sharing it with me left, taking with it whole worlds I’d never know.

The power built. I could hear it singing through me.

The shouts and moos, the gunfire and crinkle of grass, and the distant barking of some farm dog all faded into a rush like tinnitus beneath the voice.

Soft, warm, massive.

Pushing against my confines and then—

“Three!”

—breaking out.

The console, the headlights, the streetlamps, the radios, and cell phones, the lamps on yellow laminate tables in kitchens blocks away, the low-slung wires dancing through the rolling fields on silver towers.

I felt myself—or Molly?—touch them all, felt them light up under contact. My eyes snapped open on all-encompassing light, light so bright no images came through it.

And just as my eyes began to adjust on Sofía’s tennis shoes scrambling out of the car, everything went black again.

A haze of colored pixels exploded across my eyes, afterimage burning on my retinas, but I didn’t wait for it to clear. I hoisted myself upward, palms meeting rubber, metal, and glass.

Shoulders hitting fur and muscle. Wet tongue on my cheek, breathy snort on my neck as I scrambled, unseeing, into the night. My ankle raged as I dropped beside the car, collapsing on the street.

I rolled sideways as fast as I could, slamming into hooves that danced near my head. I pushed myself off the ground, batted back and forth by the sea of bodies as my eyes adjusted to the velvety night, latching on to fragments of moon-streaked fog.

I tried to run but my footing was unsure, my legs unsteady.

It wasn’t just the darkness or my ankle, or that every shambling step I took brought me into another haunch or snout or tail.

My whole body ached. Pain seared behind my eyes, and nausea wriggled through my abdomen like it was looking for an exit. The cord of energy in me felt strong, like it was close to the surface and my body couldn’t handle it.

Bent in half, I shoved off the side of a cow and stumbled forward through the pitch-black street.

I couldn’t see the soldiers or Agent Rothstadt. I couldn’t see anything but flashes of fur, shimmers of starlight fluttering across pale branches.

Where was Sofía?

Where was Levi?

A spasm of pain rocked me off balance again, sent me doubling over just to catch my breath.

What was happening to me?

I reached out—grabbed for anything—and caught a tree trunk, pushing myself upright, turning in a circle as I searched for the glint of the overturned car. The current of cow bodies had carried me farther than I’d realized. I was a yard into the woods on the far side of the street from the field. The road itself was still in chaos, soldiers and cows crashing into one another, blocking each other’s way. Three cows peeled off from the writhing mass and thundered toward me.

I dragged myself along branches, gritting my teeth to keep from screaming in pain as I ran. I glanced over my shoulder. The cows were closing in on me, the white rings around their eyes suddenly visible as they hit a patch of moonlight.

They were scared, I realized. Not running at me but running from something.

Two veered left around a thick spruce and the third cut to the right, revealing the thing bounding after them, leading them toward me.

Long white fur turned silver by the moonlight, ears wicked back, and tail juddering anxiously side to side.

Droog?

A bark snapped out of her as she came toward me. I expected her to come to me, but she barked again as she ran past, leaving me to stare, confused, after her.

I couldn’t get my bearings, couldn’t understand anything really, except that she’d been herding the cows that had rushed our car.

I jumped as someone grabbed my shoulder from behind, spun toward the panting person in a panic. “Sofía!”

“Follow her,” she got out between breaths, hitting my back between the shoulder blades to get me moving.