Chapter 294: She Was Taking the Keys, Too

Dove crossed the yard with her torn shirt under one arm and her stomach trying to climb out through her throat.

She didn’t run until Alden shouted her name.

Then she ran like every horrible gym class she’d ever attended had finally developed a point.

The orange truck’s passenger door was closest. She grabbed the handle, hauled herself onto the step, and scrambled across the bench seat. Her tail caught beneath her thigh. She freed it with a sharp breath and slammed the door before the driver reached it.

He hit the window with his palm.

"Get out!"

Dove found the lock and shoved it down. "Busy!"

The key was in the ignition. The engine was running. The gear lever showed the letters she needed instead of presenting her with a clutch she didn’t have time to learn. For once, something in this place had the decency to be helpful.

She pressed the brake, pulled the lever into drive, and checked the gap ahead.

The main gate was only partly open. Wide enough for the truck if she lined it up, not wide enough for guessing. A pile of cones sat too close to the left side. Lyle was already running back toward them.

Do not give me a quest right now, she told Sprout.

I was going to suggest the seat belt.

She snatched it across her chest. Fine. Be useful smugly.

The truck lurched when she touched the gas. She eased off, hands tight on the wheel. Bigger than the van. Heavier. Still a vehicle, not a dragon she had to sweet-talk into cooperating.

Alden appeared in front of the hood, arms spread.

"Dove, be wise! Think of the men outside!"

She hit the brake hard enough to rock against the belt. Her mouth went dry. She could threaten plenty of things. Driving straight over a man who stood still and looked at her was different.

He saw her hesitate and stepped closer.

"There. Think before you go. There’s nowhere safe, you know."

Dove stared at him through the windshield. He thought the rhyme would calm her. He thought telling her she had nowhere else to go would make her choose him.

She put the truck in reverse.

Alden’s expression changed. Dove backed three feet, enough to turn the wheel around the cones, then shifted into drive again. She could go beside him. The space was tight, but he wasn’t a wall.

He reached for the hood as the truck moved. Dove leaned on the horn and kept the wheels turning.

"Get out of the way!"

The blast made Lyle flinch. Alden jumped aside when the truck’s front corner came toward him, dropping his cigar into the dirt. Dove didn’t look to see whether he was offended. She had spent enough time considering his feelings for one lifetime.

The driver clung to the passenger handle for two steps, then let go. Rusk ran toward the gate instead of the truck. Smart enough to block the thing she needed rather than chase the thing she had.

He caught the sliding barrier and heaved it shut.

The opening narrowed.

Dove’s foot hovered. Hit the gate, maybe get trapped. Stop, definitely get trapped. Her thoughts came fast and ugly, but one of them was useful: the cones were loose, the gap on the right was wider, and Rusk had both hands on metal rather than a weapon.

She touched the small empty lunch cooler on the seat beside her, stored it, and cleared the space where it had been knocking against her arm. Then she leaned across just enough to see through the passenger window without anything in the way.

She could fit. Barely. If he stopped moving the gate.

A shout came from the drainage strip.

Rusk looked over his shoulder. Dove followed the movement with the corner of her eye and saw a huge man step out beside the shed.

Black hair. A face she knew. Rage held so tightly it looked almost calm.

Ash had found the yard.

Her heart kicked. She couldn’t stop to believe it. She had a truck, a closing gate, and a man with a shotgun turning toward her.

Shield, she told Sprout.

The familiar protection settled close around her body. Thirty seconds. Not the truck. Not the windows. She ducked lower behind the wheel and drove.

The shotgun cracked. Glass burst at the passenger side, scattering across the seat. Dove cried out before she could stop herself, but her hands stayed on the wheel.

Ash hit Lyle before a second shot came. She didn’t see what happened after the first impact. She saw Rusk let go of the gate and run, and that was enough.

The truck’s side scraped metal with a sound that went straight through her teeth. Its mirror folded. The front cleared, then the rear wheel bounced over a broken edge of pavement.

The rear tire bounced once more, and a carton shifted behind the cab. Dove held the wheel straight instead of jerking it away from the noise. She had no idea what was in the cargo bed. She could find out after she stopped being chased. For now, the truck moved when she asked, the brakes had worked, and the road ahead was empty enough to use.

She was outside.

Dove kept driving until the yard disappeared behind the bend. She didn’t pull over just because she wanted to shake. She found a gravel turnout beside an abandoned bus shelter, checked both directions, and stopped with the truck facing the road.

Her hands wouldn’t release the wheel.

Shield expired, Sprout said quietly.

"Great timing," she whispered.

Behind her, the road was empty for one breath, then two. No truck following yet. No husband in the passenger seat. Ash was still back there, and she didn’t know whether leaving him had been the right thing.

She knew going back through that gate wasn’t.

Dove took the key from the ignition and held it so tightly the teeth hurt her palm. Nobody was taking this ride from her.

A shadow moved across the bus shelter.

She looked up as a dragon’s wings blocked the sun.