Page 1035 of One More Kiss

She was frozen in place, clinging to the fence like a monkey with a death grip on the last banana.

Jett started up the fence, hand over handing it until he was beside her. Like me, his feet dangled uselessly. Unlike me, he made it look easy.

He stopped beside Clara, gripping the fence with both hands, feet loose. “I’ve got you.”

There wasn’t much he could do though. Not really.

“You can climb on my back, or up the fence to Liandra. Your choice.” He glanced up at me, and I could see the stress on his face. But his voice was steady. “Kicking myself, I should have done the piggy-back thing when we were on the ground.”

“You can do it, Clara.” I tried to mimic his tone. The yelling from a moment ago hadn’t helped.

Clara opened her eyes and focussed on me. I nodded. “Come on. Stretch up towards me. You can do it.”

I was leaning as far as I could, stretched precariously along the top of the fence. There wasn’t a lot of give in it, but I still felt like the whole thing could tilt forwards and dump me onto the ground on the wrong side if I leant too far.

Clara dug in her toes and stretched upwards, finding a higher spot on the fence to grab hold of.

“Move your foot next, the opposite one.” Jett’s voice was calm as he hung out beside her. Just two friends hanging around. A strangled laugh slipped out of my mouth and I’d have slapped a hand over my mouth if I could. I didn’t share the joke. Now was not the time.

Clara followed Jett’s instructions, moving her foot and then the opposite hand. Jett kept pace as she slowly made her way upwards.

Finally, she was close enough to reach my hand. She latched on, nearly dumping the both of us back to the ground as she put almost all of her weight onto me. Thank goodness for Jett. He lifted his leg to the side, getting his knee under Clara’s backside to take some of her weight.

“Hurry,” he said through gritted teeth.

I pulled as hard as I could, at the same time that Jett lifted and Clara kicked off. She popped up, managing to get one of her legs over the fence with her head close to mine. Momentum got hold of her and she kept going, sliding up and over and down the other side. She kept her death grip on my hand, taking me with her head first towards the ground.

Clara screamed. I didn’t. I was too busy seeing my life flash before my eyes.

I came to an abrupt stop as something grabbed onto my leg. I glanced back to see Jett. He was in the same position I’d been in before, except his feet were hooked over the top and he was stretched down to grab me.

So, actually, nothing like how I’d been.

I’m not sure how he’d got there so quickly. It looked like he’d flung himself up and over and used his feet as his anchor.

I swung back into the fence and grabbed on, my head still pointed at the ground. Clara’s feet had touched down and she was in a crumpled ball, hugging herself. Somehow she managed to fall feet first, and had used me to break her fall.

“Thanks,” I called to Jett. “You can let go now.”

He did, and I used gravity to pivot my feet downwards. I let go of the fence and landed lightly, my knees bent to absorb the impact. That had ended a lot better than I thought it would.

A shot rang out from the end of the alley. Jett grunted, and then began to slip. I looked up in time to try to catch him and both of us ended up in a tangled heap beside Clara. She was lucky we didn’t land on top of her.

Jett’s hand went to his hip and he pulled out a gun. In the time it took me to register the weapon he’d drawn and fired, hitting a trash can in the direction of the shooter.

“We’ve got to move.” He shoved himself up and reached down to help Clara. I rolled my eyes. Clara had had the most time to recover out of all of us. Although she wasn’t responding well to the gunfire.

“Were you shot?” There was blood on my chest, where Jett’s shoulder slammed into me.

“Just a scratch.” He grabbed Clara’s arm and thrust it towards me. “Take her. I’m right behind you.”

His eyes were scanning the direction we’d come from, the gun held relaxed at his side. I had no doubt he’d be able to react in a split second if the shooter reappeared.

I started Clara towards the side of the alley, drawing the shadows around us. I wasn’t sure what awaited at the far end and it felt like stealth was our best option.

I hadn’t been able to share my shadows with anyone else when my sister was taken. When our father came for us my shadow magic had kept me hidden, but not my twin.

Mom told me years later that he’d known she was pregnant but hadn’t known she had twins, so he hadn’t looked any further than Alyssia.

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