do.
Should I go to Philidelphia with Atlas and start a new life there? Should I carry on with my plan to run away from them all?
Gabe doesn’t say a word to either of us, clearly he’s already heard someone’s version of what happened last night, and instead he walks back out to his motorbike and shoves his helmet on.
Atlas grabs my hand and leads me out to his car, opening the door for me and helping me in like the perfect gentleman. My head is a jumbled mess and I really don’t have it in me to make small talk with him this morning.
We listen to music on the way over, neither of us speaking, and it’s only when we get to the campus and find roadworks blocking the entrance that Atlas curses softly under his breath. “Do you know where else I can park that’s close?”
I direct him over to the other side of campus and we find Gabe already waiting there for us, as well as a dozen other cars.
The next hour is a special type of torture.
Atlas makes it his mission to beat Gabe at everything, the two of them snarking scathing remarks to each other the entire time, and I’ve never wished for headphones and loud pop music so badly in my life.
When Sage messages me to meet her for breakfast in the dining hall, I’m ready to kill them both and just take off by myself. They both follow me out, flanking me like my own scowling guard, but I don’t have it in me to attempt to lighten the mood.
Hopefully Sawyer is with Sage and he can pick up the slack.
We’re halfway over to the main building when my gift starts squirming in my gut, the early warning from within me that something is very, very goddamned wrong here. Both of the guys stop, grabbing my arms to get me to halt with them.
Atlas raises an eyebrow at me but Gabe’s eyes flash white as he looks around, using his shifting ability to enhance his eyesight, and then he curses viciously under his breath, his phone out in a second and his fingers flying across the screen.
“Run. We need to get to shelter right the fuck now.”
He doesn’t need to say it twice.
We take off for the main building, my sore legs unhappy at running again, but I’m much faster and more resilient now that we’ve been training for so long. I silently send Vivian a thank you for all of the time I’ve spent on the treadmill thanks to him. I can see Atlas forcing himself to keep pace with me, obviously he’s faster without me to watch out for, but Gabe is used to sticking with me. He grabs his phone out without missing a beat, tapping on it and then shoving it back in his pocket.
“North is on his way and Gryphon is already on the campus, we just need to get you to an evac point,” Gabe says, his voice pitched so only we can hear it over the pounding of our feet on the sidewalk.
Atlas nods at him, ready to follow his lead even after they’ve been at each other’s throats all morning because he knows more about this place than either of us do. As we make it to the dining hall, there’s an explosion on the east side of the campus, the sound so loud that my teeth rattle and Atlas immediately grabs me, pulling me off of my feet and curling around me like a human shield. I can’t breathe for a second and then Gabe is shoving us both off of the path and behind a building.
“Is this an evac point? I thought we had to get to the main building.?” Atlas snaps, but Gabe is barely listening.
“Dara? Fuck, I can’t see shit here, you must be around.”
He’s literally talking to a brick wall and I’m about to start checking his head for injuries when the air around us shimmers and then suddenly there’s a group of students standing there together, as white as sheets and murmuring amongst themselves about what the fuck is going on.
“Thank God! Ardern, where are Shore and the Dravens? We’ve seen at least eight groups of Resistance, there must be fifty or sixty of them here!”
Fuck me, I recognize the voice immediately and, sure enough, it’s fucking Martinez. I try to convince myself that now probably isn’t the best time to be holding onto grudges, but I also can’t help