Firewalker (Worldwalker 2)

Don’t push him away.

Lily looked at Rowan, confused. She knew Rowan wasn’t the jealous type, and she appreciated that about him, but asking her to stay close to an ex-boyfriend seemed a bit much, even for him.

Rowan suddenly stopped dead, his body going rigid as he pushed Lily behind him.

“Everyone get back to the house,” he yelled. Lily peered around Rowan’s arm and saw a man’s shape standing under a streetlight across the street.

“He found me,” she whispered, panic buckling her knees. She didn’t need to see his face to know who he was. She could recognize the hunched shoulders and cocked head of Carrick’s crow-like silhouette anywhere—she’d seen it enough times looming over her in the dark oubliette.

Lily could hear Tristan and Breakfast asking what was wrong, but she couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying over the ringing in her ears. Carrick took a step toward them.

Give me strength, Lily.

She felt the pull of Rowan’s willstone, asking hers for power. Lily had no flame from which to gather energy, but she did have a belly full of food. She took the calories inside her body, changed them into force in her willstone, and poured as much of it as she could into Rowan. She saw a bright flash from his willstone, and then she saw Rowan charging after Carrick. Both of them were moving so quickly it almost looked as if they had disappeared.

“What the hell just happened?” Tristan shouted. Great trenches were dug in the snow, and deep tracks led into the darkness.

“Lily, are you okay?” Una said. Lily realized she’d collapsed, and Una and Juliet were trying to lift her off the ground. Una looked up at Tristan, Breakfast, and Samantha, standing over them. “Holy shit, did you see that?” she asked, breathless.

Juliet frowned, but said nothing.

“I saw it,” Breakfast said. “They were glowing.”

Tristan crouched down next to Lily, his face grim. “Where have you really been for the past three months?”

CHAPTER

6

The mug clanked against Lily’s teeth. Her hands were shaking so badly she had to use both of them to steady her tea.

“What aren’t you telling us?” Tristan demanded.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Juliet mumbled unconvincingly.

Rowan still wasn’t back yet. Lily had tried calling to him in mindspeak, but he hadn’t answered. She could feel him, though, so she knew he was alright. She could feel his rage and, behind that, his fear.

“Juliet, I’ve known you since I was five,” Tristan replied. “And you have to be the worst liar I’ve ever met. What. Happened.”

Juliet and Samantha shared a defeated look.

Should we just tell them, Lily?

Don’t say a word, Juliet.

“Look, we all know that whatever it was, it wasn’t normal,” Breakfast said, barely keeping hysteria in check. “Rowan and Lily were glowing, and then Rowan frigging disappeared into thin air!”

“And so did that spooky guy standing across the street,” Una added calmly.

“Something happened out there. We all know it. We felt something,” Tristan said, looking at Lily. His eyes turned inward and he touched the base of his throat, almost like he was reaching for a willstone. “Just tell us the truth.”

“And please don’t say it has anything to do with aliens,” Breakfast muttered.

“Stuart,” Una said, using Breakfast’s real name. “Not the time for a joke.”

“It wasn’t aliens,” Rowan said. They all jumped and turned to see that he had silently joined them. His jacket was torn, there were scratches on his forearms and face, and his jeans were stiff and smeared with half-frozen sand.

Did you get him, Rowan?