Riley nodded and turned to a small girl. She took off like a shot. Riley smiled at Breakfast. “She’s my fastest,” he said.
Riley led Lily and her coven down the branching subway tunnels. Lily limped along, propped up between Rowan and Tristan, but she refused to let them carry her the whole way.
Lily, you’re being impossible.
I know, Tristan. But you and Rowan are tired, too. I can make it.
They went deeper into the subway line, and the walls shrank around them.
“We can’t stay on these tracks,” Una said, looking askance at the close walls. They could hear trains on other tracks now, rumbling down other tunnels, and there was no place for them to duck into if a train came.
“Don’t worry. I know the train schedule better ’en my own mum’s birthday,” Riley said confidently, and then continued on his way.
Rowan picked up Lily and followed. She was going to complain, but realized that would be ridiculous. She couldn’t stand if she tried.
Rowan? What was all that about me blowing up?
It’s not going to happen. You’re not dangerously overheated yet. Don’t worry.
Something about the way Rowan phrased that didn’t put her at ease.
“I’ll take her if you get tired,” Tristan offered. Rowan nodded, but Lily could tell by the way his arms tightened around her that there was no way he was going to pass her off to Tristan.
Rowan carried her up the rungs of a metal ladder to another one of the smaller service tunnels above the track, and Lily could tell they were almost there. Every step brought them closer to the sound of people, milling around nearby platforms. Lily could even hear music being played, probably by street musicians hoping for tips. It wasn’t all that different from the T in her Boston. She heard the sound of a train squealing on the tracks as it slowed and went around a long bend. Beneath them, a hole had been dug right through the concrete.
The runner had not caught up with them. Lily had no salt, and she felt too weak to even consider the acrobatics it would take to jump that train. She couldn’t fuel her mechanics to make up for her weakness, either—that would require even more salt that her system didn’t have.
“We can’t go,” Rowan said, shouting over the sound of the train speeding under them.
“This is the last train. It’s your only chance for the rest of the night,” Riley said.
“Can’t we wait until tomorrow?” Breakfast asked.
Riley shrugged. “We’re out of my gang’s territory. I can’t promise you’ll be safe.”
Lily could sense her mechanics communicating rapidly in mindspeak, but they didn’t want her to hear what they were discussing. A decision was made.
“How do we jump this train?” Una asked Riley, her tone determined.
“Drop through this hole while it slows to go ’round the bend, and you should be able to keep your footing,” Riley answered. “Try not to make too much noise when you land or they’ll set the conductor on you. Hurry, or you’re going to run out of cars.”
Breakfast clasped hands with Riley, and then kissed Una quickly before saying, “Here goes,” and disappearing down the hole. Una went next, silent and graceful as a cat, and then Tristan.
Rowan and Lily went last. They held hands going through the hole and landed at the same time, but as soon as Lily’s feet touched down her wobbly legs gave out. She lost Rowan’s hand and rolled away from him with a desperate cry.
Rowan scrambled on his knees after her, his hands reaching out to grab hers as she grasped frantically for anything. Her legs swung off the side of the car, caught in the draft, and she slid over the edge.
Her free fall stopped short with a joint-popping jerk. Rowan had managed to get a hold of her wrist, and she dangled painfully off the side of the train from her right arm. The train picked up speed as it cleared the bend, and Rowan strained with all his might just to hold on to Lily while the drag of the wind pulled on her hanging body. Lily heard Tristan shout and then she saw his face as he leaned over the side next to Rowan.
“Give me your hand,” Tristan pleaded as he reached frantically for her.
Lily swung her body from her burning shoulder, biting her lip to keep herself from screaming. On the third try she managed to haul herself up enough to reach Tristan’s outstretched hand.
Rowan and Tristan pulled her up on top of the train, both of them holding her in a tight huddle. Una and Breakfast had started running down the length of the train when they saw Lily fall and finally reached them, their faces panicked.
“Her shoulder’s dislocated,” Rowan snarled over the sound of the wind. “I should have insisted we wait until she was strong enough.”
“We had no choice,” Una replied, trying to calm R