“I’m sorry about that,” Rika told her. “We didn’t know you lived there.”
“I had already left my hiding spot when you got there,” she explained. “When the men came through the tunnel from the sea a couple of hours before.”
My eyes shot to Michael, seeing Micah, Rory, and everyone else join us.
“The men?” Rika asked.
The girl nodded.
“What did they look like?” Rory asked her.
“One looked like him.” The kid pointed to Michael. “But with darker hair.”
Darker hair and hazel eyes.
Aydin.
“The other one was hurt,” she said. “His hand.”
Taylor.
“What’s your name?” Rika asked.
But the kid took one more look around at all of us hovering over her and whipped out of Rika’s hold, slipping between Alex and Em and diving into the crowd.
“Wait, no!” Rika called as Banks lunged for the kid.
But she was gone.
No matter.
I looked to Micah, Rory, and then Em. “Aydin and Taylor,” I said.
They nodded.
The train went under Deadlow Island. I didn’t know how they’d gotten that far, or if they had help, but the tunnel could’ve certainly connected to Coldfield and the Cove tunnels, as well.
Michael shook his head. “Two nights ago…”
They’d been here for two days.
Motherfucker.
“And they just announced their presence,” Kai said, staring off at the black cloud dissipating into the air off the coast.
The town swarmed around us, people hopping into their cars, while others chatted wildly.
“Get out of your dresses,” Michael told the girls. “Everyone meets at Coldfield in thirty minutes! Go!”
Emory
Present
Lev and David carted everyone home in the SUVs, and after we’d scrambled into new clothes, and the kids and grandmas were secure at Kai’s parents’ estate, safely under the care of Katsu and Vittoria, we raced down the black highway, pulling on jackets. I slipped on a pair of black leather gloves Banks lent to me, since it was chilly.
But I was pretty sure it was because she didn’t want me leaving fingerprints.
I didn’t argue. She’d had more experience in this. The girls had filled me in last night on everything I’d missed over the years—Delcour, the Pope, Pithom, Evans Crist, Gabriel Torrance, and everything the guys did wrong—and right—in their quests for vengeance.