The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis

Author:Charlotte Nicole Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

13

“Where the hell is he?” Aster demanded, running to the edge of the woods. The moon was high in the sky by now, painting the trees with silver light. They couldn’t wait around for Zee here; the Scarcliff raveners would be on them any minute.

“I don’t know,” Clementine said, her voice raw and broken. “He wouldn’t have abandoned us unless it was an emergency. You know he wouldn’t.”

Aster exchanged glances with Violet. What if he had abandoned them? What if he had finally decided they were too much trouble for their worth, and left them here to die?

Or what if Clementine’s right, and he’s in some kind of trouble?

On the other side of the wall, the roar of horse hooves grew louder. The lawmen had arrived.

“We’ll go back to camp, see if he’s there,” Aster decided.

“But we already packed it up—” Tansy began.

“Well, where else would you have us go?” Aster asked roughly. “Those lawmen are at the wall, and their ravener friends will have no trouble getting over it. We can’t stay here. That old campsite is one other spot Zee would know where to meet us. We’ll see if he’s there and then figure out what to do.”

“All right, but Aster, we don’t have the theomite ring,” Violet said.

Shit.

The realization knocked the last of the fight out of Aster. She became suddenly, singularly aware of the rising and falling cries of the vengeants just beyond the tree line. You got used to the sound of them, growing up in the Scab. You learned to ignore them like you learned to ignore the rush of your own blood in your ears. But pretending the vengeants didn’t exist didn’t make them go away.

If Aster led everyone into that forest unprotected, they’d be torn apart.

“To hell with it,” Mallow swore then, plunging into the trees before Aster could stop her. “I’d rather let the dead have me than those bastards back there. Camp’s only half a mile away, we can make it.”

“Wait!” Tansy cried, running after her.

Clementine looked at Aster in shock. “Aster, I—I have to go with them,” she stammered. “They won’t be able to see the vengeants coming. And Zee—”

Aster nodded. She motioned for Violet to follow them. “Come on!”

Violet hesitated, as if weighing another option. Clearly, though, there wasn’t one.

They dove into the black teeth of the forest.

It was much harder running through woodland than it had been running through Scarcliff. The rocky, uneven ground threatened to throw them off balance with every step, and the thorny branches of the low-lying scrub bush clawed at their arms and legs. The moonlight was only just bright enough to see by. Aster tried her best to keep up with the others, though her hard landing had shaken her. They were still close enough to the deadwall that they hadn’t been swarmed by vengeants yet, but any moment now—

And then, there they were. Their attention surrounded Aster, cold and craving. It crawled over her skin like a voltric current. The temperature dropped.

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