Page 113 of Riot Rules
“Fucking mutt.” Fitz rocks forward, the point of his weapon aimed right at Rasputin’s chest, but the sly wolf has life in him yet. He dances out of way and strikes quicker than a cobra, sinking dripping teeth around Fitz’s shoulder.
I don’t know how long I can stay and watch this. I’m still so stunned that movement of any kind feels impossible, but I have togo. Fitz cries out in agony as the wolf bites down, wrenching his head from side to side, gaining better purchase. His lupine, beautiful yellow eyes meet mine, and no magical silent message passes between us.
He is a hungry wolf, and I am one lucky ass motherfucker.
I run.
53
DASH
Riot House is closest.
I sprint through the forest, faster than I have ever run before. I have no idea where Carrie and the others are. I have no fucking clue who was even with her. Mercy, and Elodie, most likely. But who else? They could be back at the house. They could be up at the academy. They could still be in the fucking forest, walking around in circles in the dark. Carrie could really be dead, laid out on the ground—fuck, no, stop that. It doesn’t help to panic. My body isscreamingby the time I tear up to the house.
Yet again, Lady Luck is on my side: Pax is sitting on the steps by the front door, smoking a cigarette. He’s absolutely wasted, but he answers me immediately when I holler at him. “Where are they? Are they here? Carrie? Is Carrie here?”
“No?”
“Give me your keys!”
“What?”
“GIVE ME YOUR FUCKING KEYS!”
He throws them into the air, and I catch them without missing a beat. In three seconds flat, I’m behind the wheel of the Charger and I’m burning away from Riot House, doing seventy. Pax can ream me out later. He’ll probably knock out a couple of teeth, actually, given my reckless driving in his pride and joy, but so fucking what. He can knock them all out for all I care.
Please be at the academy. Please be fine. Please be at the academy. Please be fine. Please be at the academy. Please be fine. Please be at the academy. Please be fine. Please be at the academy. Please be fine. Please be at the academy. Please be fine…
I cling to the hope that I’ll find Wren and the girl I love, safe and whole at the top of the mountain, standing on the steps that lead up to Wolf Hall, arguing over something pointless…
That isn’t where I find them, though. I see them in the distance—three figures running along the side of the road. One of them is ahead of the other two, moving awkwardly but stillrunningas fast as the wind.
Seven hundred feet out.
Five hundred.
Four.
Two.
The Charger’s headlights illuminate the figures properly at last and my heart does a triple backflip. Elodie and Mercy turn and face the car, their faces pale and blank with what looks like shock. Their hands are gloved in red. And up ahead…Wren, exhausted and staggering…with Carina in his arms.
“No. No,fuck, no.” I jump on the brakes and race out of the car. In a millisecond, I have her inmyarms, and she’s ashen, her eyelids closed, her lips a ghastly shade of blue. She looksdead.
I’m too late.
I’m too fucking late.
But then her hand twitches, and my own death sentence is commuted, for right now at least. However weak she is, she’s still alive for now. And I’m not going to let her fucking die. No way, no how. I lay her on the back seat of the Charger, hating that I have to put her down.
“Get in the car, Wren! Right fucking now!”
“I’m okay. Just take her. Don’t wait for the ambulance. Go!” He tries to wave me off, but I’ve done a brief assessment of my friend and it’s very clear that he’s hurt, too. He drops down on one knee, his strength failing, and I see the awful wounds on his forearms—deep, yawning lacerations, oozing far too much blood. I slam the door closed on the Charger, cursing through my teeth. “Get in the fucking car this instant, Jacobi. You’re on death’s door.”
“I’m—right—I’m—ffffine.”
I already have him by the arms, so he doesn’t fall far when he passes out. He’s in the passenger seat, and I’ve left Mercy and Elodie by the side of the road two seconds later. Not very gentlemanly of me, I realize, as I speed down the mountain, given the fact that Fitz is still out there. But I have faith that the bastard will be fending off Rasputin for some time to come. With all the blood on the hot night air, it’ll only be a matter of time before the others show up, too—Smoke, Shadow, Snow and Ink—prowling through the night in search of whatever smells so sweet and vulnerable.
