I yanked Zeph by his arm, taking off in the direction of the nearest parking lot.
I still had no plan, just the urge to put as much distance as possible between us and the bracks.
“This way.” Zeph’s voice held much more certainty than I felt.
Grabbing my hand, he ran between two buildings to the promenade, leaving me no choice but to follow.
“Stop right there!” Trez’s voice sounded behind us.
How was he still alive?
A loud popping sound was followed by a bullet hitting the wall of the building on our left, narrowly missing my shoulder.
“Holly fuck, Zeph!” I yelled, speeding up. “These are real bullets.”
Death had threatened me enough times in Madame’s menagerie for me to believe they would be serious in their intentions to murder me. Yet the fact that we were shot at, with the intent to kill, still shook me to the core.
“Run,” he said sharply, not looking back.
Once we reached the promenade, with still a fair number of pedestrians on it, the shooting thankfully ceased. Zeph wouldn’t slow down the pace, though, and I did my best to keep up.
People stopped and gaped at us. Those who were closer scrambled out of our way under Zeph’s warning glare. Some grabbed cell phones, either to snap pictures or possibly to call the police.
I ventured a glance over my shoulder and wished I hadn’t. Bracks, at least six of them, sprinted after us. Their size didn’t seem to affect their speed as they wove through the thinning evening crowds. Trez, covered in blood, murder on his face, had a gun in his hand. So did a couple of the others, not hiding the weapons from view.
The world around me turned to a blur as we ran past more buildings, shoving people out of the way, then through a park and across a street.
The noise of massive amounts of rushing water grew stronger until the horseshoe of Niagara Falls came into view on our right.
Zeph had made a mistake by coming this way, I realized with a bolt of panic. Here, we were in the open, backed up against the river and the Falls, with hardly any options left.
With another glance behind my shoulder, I saw the bracks crossing the street, weaving between the few cars passing by.
“Come.” Zeph ran south, along the fence that separated the viewing areas from the river.
“Here.” He leaped on top of a short rock pillar of the railing in the spot where the water was right under it, the enormous horseshoe of the raging Falls just a few feet farther down the stream. “Come.” He tugged at my hand, urging me to join him.
“What?” I froze in my spot. “What are you doing?”
“We need to jump.”
Jump into Niagara Falls?
My stomach hollowed with dread, and my feet wouldn’t move, as if cemented into the pavement.
“You can’t be serious.” I shook my head, wondering if his mental abilities had been permanently impaired since he had spent so much time in the water tank. “It’s suicide.”
“Not with me. Trust me, please.”
“Trust you? We’ll die!” I wildly gestured at the enormous mass of water crashing over the edge, just feet away from us. “It’s insane. Don’t you understand?”
“Stop him!” Someone screamed, not a brack, this time. People were rushing our way, ready to pull Zeph back to safety. “Don’t do it!”
A bullet chipped a piece of rock next to Zeph’s foot.
“Quick!” He grabbed me under my arms, lifting me onto the railing next to him.
Horror engulfed me. I gasped, grasping his arms for balance.
“I can’t swim,” I whimpered.
It was a stupid thing to say. A swimming ability had nothing to do with surviving the plunge into the massive wall of water that crashed onto the rocks below with unbelievable power.
“I’ll swim for both of us.” He wrapped his arms around me. “Just don’t touch the spines.”
“What spines?” I croaked, terror lodging in my throat along with my heart.
“Get down!” someone yelled, but I could no longer tell if it was a brack or a human.
Hand on the back of my head, Zeph put his mouth over mine and jumped off the railing, taking me with him.
Freezing cold water closed over us, knocking air out of my lungs.
Then the world turned to hell.
Chapter 18
A DEAFENING ROAR THUNDERED in my ears. The sound seemed to come from everywhere at once, as if I were inside a raging beast. Everything shook and churned. I kept my eyes tightly shut, sensations overwhelming my senses beyond comprehension. I was no longer sure whether