“This isn’t right,” I said.
“Of course it is. Look at all the lives Sage has destroyed—including four of yours. Don’t you think he should pay? Don’t bother answering—it doesn’t matter what you think. Sage knows the truth, and I take great pleasure in knowing he’ll make the right choice.” Magda turned her eyes to Sage, and for just a moment I saw a hint of youthful innocence in them.
“Good-bye, my love … it’s time for me to rest.” Her mouth spread in a wicked grin, and any innocence in her eyes was blotted out. “The kind of rest you’ll never know.
” With an impossible burst of strength, she whipped up her arm, ripped the chain from her neck, and hurled it to the ground, where the glass charm shattered.
Magda’s paper-thin body dissolved into dust and disappeared.
“CLEA, SAGE…,” Ben began, struggling for words. “I …”
Before he could finish, we heard loud scuffling above our heads.
“What is that?” I asked.
The noise grew, like a stampede. Sage looked grim. “Someone knows we’re here.”
“Then we should stay where we are,” I said. “They won’t find us here.”
“They’ll check the stairwells,” Sage said. “And if they see the door, they’ll come in. We’d be cornered.”
“But if we leave, we could walk right into them,” I countered.
“It’s a big building. If we leave, we have a chance to escape,” Sage said.
“Ben?” I asked.
Ben looked like he was a million miles away.
“Ben!”
“Clea …”
He looked pained. I got it; we’d both seen the same things, but we didn’t have time to dwell on that right now.
“Snap out of it, Ben. We need you here.”
The pounding was directly above us, and now I heard voices. I couldn’t make out words, but it seemed like they might be in the stairwell and on their way down.
I turned to Sage. “You’re right. We need to go.”
We raced down the hall and climbed out the little door. The pounding feet and voices were getting closer. We ducked into the mall, anxiously falling in step with a crowd of shoppers. It was ten at night, so there weren’t many, but there were enough. We walked quickly, trying to be cool and blend in until we could reach the doors.
“HEY!”
I looked up to see a man leaning over the escalator well two floors up. He started running after us as he reached for his walkie-talkie and shouted into it, “Targets spotted! Targets spotted! Heading for the exit!”
We broke into a run as several more men leaped out of stores and stairwells to join in the chase. They seemed to come from everywhere. They didn’t wear uniforms, and they were a rainbow of nationalities, but it wasn’t hard to pick them out. Every one of them looked hardened—hard muscles and hard souls, like unrepentant prisoners who’d had nothing to do for decades except lift weights and plan their revenge.
“Oh my God, they have guns!” Ben warned.
“Weave!” Sage shouted. “They’re less likely to shoot if they can’t get good aim!”
We ran side to side as we raced for the exit. I screamed as the first shot rang out and a store window shattered.
The few people left in the mall were in full panic mode now, screaming and diving for cover.
I heard two more shots before we made it outside. Sage raced for the curb, trying car door after car door until one opened.
“Get in!” he hollered. “And duck down!”
Ben slipped into the backseat, and Sage and I took the front. We all ducked moments before we heard the riot of noise that had to mean our pursuers had emerged.
“What are we going to do, just hide here?” I whispered to Sage. “We might as well have stayed behind the little door!”
Sage didn’t answer me. He was fidgeting with something under the dash. A second later the car roared to life. He clambered into the seat and drove off at top speed.
“You know how to hot-wire a car?” I asked.
“You learn a lot of things when you’re around for five hundred years,” he replied.
I climbed off the car floor and into my seat, scrambling for my seat belt. Behind me Ben did the same. I thought we’d gotten away … and then I heard a gunshot. I screamed and ducked down again.
“Shit!” Sage grimaced. “They’re trying to shoot out our tires.”
He pushed harder on the accelerator. There were too many cars and no room to move. He swerved into oncoming traffic.
Horns blasted.
“What are you doing?” I screamed.
“Hold on!” Sage cried. He swerved back into the proper lane, avoiding a head-on collision by a nanosecond.
I closed my eyes, only for an instant. If I was going to die, I at least wanted to be aware of my last moments.
Sage maneuvered through a network of small and large streets, constantly weaving to dodge traffic. He laid on his horn as he raced through crosswalks and onto sidewalks, scattering pedestrians before he blew past.
“Ben, are you okay?” I looked back to check. He’d gone white. He couldn’t even handle the teacups ride at Disney World. I could only hope he wouldn’t lose it now.
He shook his head and curled tighter in his seat.
I lifted myself up to check behind us, but Sage pushed me back down. “Don’t do that.”
“I just want to know how many there are.”
“Too many.” Sage pushed the car to a breakneck pace, then screeched a U-ie and started twisting wildly through alleys, one hairpin turn after another.