Scarlet

Wolf held out his hand and Scarlet took it instinctively, starting when his hot fingers enclosed hers. After a heartbeat, his hold relaxed as he stepped out onto the tree trunk.

Scarlet angled her portscreen toward their treacherous footings and struggled to find her train of thought over the pounding in her ears. “There must be someone else he had contact with on Earth. The trail can’t end with my grandma. According to my dad, she hadn’t told them anything, after weeks of … of who knows what they’ve been doing to her. They must realize they’ve got the wrong person!”

There was a peculiar restraint when Wolf responded. “Are you sure they have?”

She glared. The Lunar heir was a myth, a conspiracy, a legend … how could her diligent, proud grandmother, living in small-town Rieux, possibly be involved?

But she couldn’t be entirely sure of anything anymore. Not if her grandmother had kept something so big from her already.

A faint hum cut through the forest’s whispers. The magnets waking up.

A squeeze of her fingers sent a shock up Scarlet’s spine.

“Scarlet,” said Wolf, “it’s in her best interest, and yours, to give them something. Please, think. If you know anything at all, we may be able to use it to our advantage.”

“About Princess Selene.”

He nodded.

“I don’t know anything.” Scarlet shrugged, helpless. “I don’t know anything.”

She felt captured beneath his stare, until, with a deep frown, he released her. His hand slipped away, hanging at his sides. “It’s all right. We’ll figure out something else.”

Scarlet knew he was wrong. It wasn’t all right. These monsters were chasing a ghost, and her grandma was caught in the middle of it, all because of some fling that had allegedly happened forty years ago … and there was nothing Scarlet could do.

She glanced down—her stomach flipped at seeing how high up they were. With the encroaching darkness, it felt like she was standing at the edge of an abyss.

“We have maybe thirty seconds,” said Wolf. “Once it’s here, we’ll need to act fast. No hesitation. Can you do that?”

Scarlet tried to wet her parched tongue, but it was as dry as the crackled bark beneath her. She tried to calm her heartbeat. Seconds were counting off in her head. Going by too fast. The magnets were growing louder. She heard the whistle of air down the tracks.

“You’re going to let me jump on my own this time?” she asked, spotting a bright glow around the nearest bend. Lights blared across the treetops, echoing endlessly through the gathered trunks. The magnets directly beneath them crackled.

“Do you want to jump on your own?” He set the bag between them.

Scarlet studied the tracks, imagining a racing train beneath them. Subtle vibrations tickled her feet. Her knees seized up.

She tossed the portscreen into the bag and stepped onto a knot that protruded from the trunk. “Turn around.”

He started to grin, but there was still a crease between his eyebrows, a lingering distraction. He let her climb onto his back, hitching her legs higher until she had a firm grip around him.

Tying her arms around Wolf’s shoulders, it occurred to Scarlet that she had every right to despise him. He’d had the chance to rescue her grandmother, but he’d run away instead. He’d lied to her and kept these enormous secrets that she had every right to know.…

But that didn’t change the fact that he was still here. Still risking his life and facing his own tormenters to help her. Still taking her to find her grandmother.

Biting her lip, she leaned forward. “I’m glad you told me everything.”

His body seemed to deflate beneath her. “I should have told you sooner.”

“Yes, you should have.” She tilted her head, temple to temple. “But I still don’t despise you.” She swept a kiss against his cheek and felt his body lock up. His heartbeat thundered against her wrist as she clasped her hands together.

The train rounded the corner, smooth as a snake. Its glossy white body rushed toward them, the vacuum creating a gust of wind that buffeted the trees to either side of the gully.

Peeling her head off Wolf’s shoulder, Scarlet glanced aside at him, noticed yet another scar, this one on his neck. Unlike the others, it was small and perfectly straight—more the work of a scalpel than a brawl.

Then Wolf was crouching and her heart jumped, tearing her attention back to the train. Wolf braced his hands on the bag. His muscles were still rigid, his pulse galloping, and she couldn’t help but contrast it with the uncanny calm he’d had when they’d jumped out of the train window before.

Then the train was beneath them, shaking the log and rattling Scarlet’s teeth.

Wolf shoved the bag off the trunk, and leaped. Digging her nails into Wolf’s shirt, Scarlet clenched her jaw against a scream.

They landed heavily on the glass-smooth roof, the levitating train barely dipping from the impact, and Scarlet felt it instantly. The wrongness. Wolf slipped, his shoulders tilting too heavy to the left, his balance rocking beneath her weight.