Wonder Woman: Warbringer (DC Icons #1)(80)

Diana didn’t ask. Without a sound, she turned and made her way back to the chapel. She lay down beside Alia and let herself fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.

—

Jason woke her sometime after midnight. He said nothing, and wordlessly, Diana left to take up the watch as he bedded down on the chapel floor.

The hours passed slowly with nothing but her thoughts and the ceaseless buzz of the cicadas to keep her company, but at last the sky began to brighten, and gray dawn light spilled across the grove below. Diana made her way back to the chapel, eager to begin the day’s journey. She pushed open the decaying door and saw Alia sleeping peacefully on her side, Jason on his back, brow creased as if expressing disapproval even in his dreams.

And Nim crouched on top of Theo, her hands locked around his throat. Theo was clawing at her arms, his face red with suffused blood.

“Nim!” she shouted.

The girl turned her head, but the thing looking back at her was not Nim. Her eyes were hollows, her hair a mane of star-strewn night, and from her back sprang the filthy black wings of a vulture. The image flickered and was gone.

Diana launched herself at Nim, knocking her off Theo and rolling with her over the chapel floor.

“What’s going on?” Jason said blearily as he and Alia came awake.

But Theo was already shoving to his feet, coughing and gasping. He roared and rushed at Diana and Nim.

In a heartbeat, Jason leapt up and seized Theo’s arms, holding him back. “Stop!” he commanded. “Stop it.”

Theo thrashed in his grip. “I’ll kill that little bitch—”

“You should have died in the crash!” shouted Nim, hissing and spitting as Diana attempted to restrain her without hurting her. “You shouldn’t even be here! You’re as worthless as your father says!”

Theo snarled. “Fat, ugly, stupid co—”

Jason snagged Theo’s jaw in his hands and clamped it shut, silencing him forcibly. “Shut your damned mouth, Theo.”

Diana hauled Nim off her feet and slung her over her shoulder, hearing the breath go out of the tiny girl in a disgruntled whuff. At least she couldn’t keep shouting insults. But Nim did not cease her snarling and struggling until they were several hundred yards away in a stand of cypress trees.

Diana dumped her onto the scraggly grass.

“Nim,” said Alia, coming up behind them. “What the hell?”

“I…” Nim panted. “I…” She unballed her fists, a look of horror dawning on her face. Her shoulders slumped, and she burst into tears. “I wanted to kill him. I tried to kill him.”

Alia met Diana’s gaze. “It’s getting worse, isn’t it?”

Diana nodded. Maybe the terror of the past few days had made Theo and Nim more susceptible to Alia’s power, or maybe it was simply the coming of the new moon. Only one thing was certain: They were running out of time.

“We have to find some way to keep them separated,” said Alia.

“You’re not leaving me here,” Nim said, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Alia offered her a hand. “That wasn’t what I was suggesting, you nerd. But we have to do something before you guys murder each other.”

“We’ll just have to try to keep them apart as much as possible,” said Diana.

“Being near you helps,” Nim said.

Alia’s brows rose. “Are you saying that because you enjoy being carried like a sack of flour by a cute girl?”

Nim planted her hands on her hips. “I’m serious. As soon as she separated me from Theo, I could feel my mind start to clear. It just took a little while for the rest of me to catch up.”

“It’s possible,” said Diana. “Remember how you were healthier when you were near me on the island?”

“Okay,” said Alia. “But we have to watch them. I’m not going to be responsible for my friends killing—”

Diana caught a flicker of movement from the olive grove below. “Silence,” she whispered.

There were dark shapes moving through the trees. They were still far enough away that Diana could just make them out, but they were drawing closer, and Diana could only whisper a prayer of thanks that they hadn’t overheard her conversation with Alia and Nim. She needed to be more cautious. They all did.

Diana gestured for Alia and Nim to follow, and as quietly as they could, they traced their steps back to the chapel.

“Maybe they’re not looking for us?” Nim murmured.

“Yeah,” whispered Alia. “They’re probably going to use those guns to shoot the olives off the trees.”

Theo and Jason were seated near the entry. Theo’s eyes narrowed as they drew closer, but Diana laid a hand on his shoulder and some of the tension in his body seemed to ease.

“There are armed men approaching the chapel,” she said.

Jason was on his feet instantly. “Damn it,” he said. “We need to get out of here.”

“We need a car,” said Alia.

Jason shook his head. “What if they’re watching the roads?”

“He’s right,” said Diana. “They may even have set up roadblocks. We’d be better off continuing on foot until we can get farther from the crash site.”

They did their best to hide the evidence of the night they’d spent in the chapel and hurried down the south slope of the hill, keeping away from the main highway, scurrying over fields that offered little cover, through orchards where they plucked their breakfast from the trees, and past a scrubby pasture where a scrawny goat bleated furiously at them as they passed. In a small backyard, they found a clothesline strung with damp laundry, and Nim and Theo exchanged their Keralis Labs shirts for a linen undershirt and a bright-blue button-down.