The Dark Between Dreams | ✔️

Chapter 16 🔻 Red Eyes

If I still had any breath in me, Webb's vice-grip around my ribs would have squeezed it all out.

We left the desolate sector of After in our dust. I twisted around in the seat to observe the chaos in our wake. Reynard barked orders at his underlings as they darted off into off-shooting streets and alleys behind us. But there was no way they could catch up to—

More engines rumbled to life, parked far enough away that we hadn't heard them arrive. The entire gang stormed into the ash-covered road after us on motorbikes, because of-freaking-course. "Shit!" I hissed. We powered through teeming streets now. The citizens of After hollered and leaped out of our way. Unlike Blackburne's followers in the alley, Vale took special care to avoid them. In front of us loomed the wall, its massive maw of a gate closed. The wall guards certainly weren't about to open it for us now.

I could hear Blackburne's followers yelling as they gained on us. "Running away again, Vale!" one of them taunted over the roar of lux-infused engines. "Just like you did with that brainless idiot with you!"

"Eat me, Clyde!" was Vale's retort.

"Yeah, eat her, Clyde!" added Webb.

From a congested intersection up ahead, another motorcycle pulled out sidelong and blocked our path. Its rider, Inky, nocked an arrow and aimed it straight at Vale. Our driver hissed through her teeth and brought our ride to a sliding stop.

Behind us, the rest of our pursuers caged us in.

"Dismount," the archer said, one eye shut. The other glared down the length of his arrow at the three of us. "And surrender. You have nowhere to run, and we wouldn't want to make more of a scene, would we?"

Vale dipped her head and raised her palms. I felt Webb raise his arms in surrender behind me. The archer aimed his arrow at me.

"Move yer stupid bikes!" came the ornery shout of one Orville Dover. The burly bull of a man sidled up in between Inky and the three of us. "How am I supposed to git any business done with y'all blockin' the fuckin' road?"

"Fuck!" parroted the child clinging to his trench coat.

"Don't say 'fuck,' Aluki," Orville said to her.

Hollow passersby stopped in their tracks or peered out of windows to watch the commotion. Reynard, face all puffed up in anger, shoved past them to confront the forge master. But before he could even get a word in, Orville lumbered up to him until they were chest to chest and continued, "First, yew idiots closed all thuh damn gates on us. Next, there was all the violence in the streets. Now, whatever the hell this ruckus is!"

"Move aside, Dover," Reynard growled through his teeth. "Or we'll throw you down the Pit when this is over."

"Yeah? Yew'll never take me alive!" said Orville. He nudged the toddler beside him. "Heh. Git it, hon?" Aluki giggled at him. "She gits it."

Pinky stepped forward and shouted, "We'll throw that little Spanish brat down, too!"

"She's Inuit, yew dumb, boot-licking fuck." Orville said. The old man's beady eyes practically glowed in the luxlight. When he snarled, very much sounding like a grizzly, I could see every one of his teeth. "I swear, yew people are worse than thuh damn shadows, and I am fed up to thuh back teeth!"

Reynard's face reddened even more. But he took a step backward.

Murmurs of agreement arose from the onlookers that swarmed us. Orville cast a sly half-smile at the gathering crowd. The old man knew what he was doing.

"Easy..." Reynard insisted. He held out a hand to the crowd as the jeers grew more fervent. "We're just carrying out the king's orders—"

A rock hit him square in the face, cracking his goggles.