“How could you let me leave in this?” I hissed at Tristan as he checked the stalls to make sure we were alone.
He’d brought us to this particular bathroom because it was only used by employees, so it was often empty. And now I had to sneak out of it dressed as a gladiator-slut from the 1300s—I still wore the traditional Amadis dress. We could only flash with what could fit in Tristan’s pockets—passports, a cell phone, and money—so I couldn’t change.
“Thought you were keeping it on for a reason,” Tristan said with a shrug. “You could get your way with any warm-blooded male wearing that. Although . . . you could probably do the same wearing sweats and a T.”
I rolled my eyes. “This is so not cool. I need normal clothes. At least you look normal!”
He was also still dressed for the ceremony-that-never-happened. Though I wished our escape from that mortifying event wasn’t because of these more terrifying circumstances, the timing couldn’t have been more in my favor. Of course, here I was in this scanty dress about to be seen by a lot more people than would fit on the Amadis Island. And they’d be staring more because they wouldn’t be bowing their heads. Who wears a gladiator costume on an airplane?
Tristan sighed. “Stay here. I’ll go find something. Lock the door behind me and be ready for anything.”
I nodded and held my hands up, palms out, ready to fire electric bolts and move objects. “Thank you.”
Tristan wasn’t gone five seconds when musical laughter rang somewhere nearby. I froze. Vanessa. I bent my knees, kept my hands in position, and waited for her appearance, my heart pounding against my chest. If she was alone, I could beat her, but I might have to kill her, and Amadis weren’t supposed to kill if there was hope for the soul . . . unless it was our lives or theirs. And between Vanessa and me, it would always be to the death. Even if she knew she couldn’t beat me, she’d die trying. Only Tristan could scare her away, and I didn’t know how long he’d be.
I wondered how she found us. It’d been three months since she’d ingested my blood, so she had to have burned through it already, severing our connection. I dissolved my wall and felt for her mind signature. Two signatures came at me—two females, both Norman. I relaxed and blew out a breath of relief, and then the door rattled in its jam, making me jump. The two women simply needed to use the bathroom. Crap. I couldn’t open it for them, as much as I wanted to.
“We have to get out of here.”
I jumped again at the sound in my ear, though I knew the lovely voice better than anyone’s. Tristan stood next to me, empty-handed. The two women gave up and left—or heard the male voice and went for security.
“Too many Daemoni here,” Tristan said. “They prepared for us to try to fly out of here.”
“But surely they wouldn’t attack in the middle of a busy international airport?”
“They don’t usually attack Norman towns or our villages, either. Come on, I’ll lead.” He held his hand out, and I took it, needing the touch to follow his flash.
We flashed our way to the Skopje Airport in Macedonia, roughly one hundred miles at a time, pressing the distance limits of our flashing abilities. This time, before letting Tristan leave the hidden area he had brought us to, I probed outwards, carefully but quickly roaming through the mind signatures, searching for danger. When I gave him the all-clear, Tristan disappeared again, still on the hunt for clothes. He returned with a white, wool sweater. I raised my eyebrows. There was nothing wrong with the sweater—I just hoped to change into jeans, too.
“It’s all I could find. It’s a tiny airport, and they don’t have boutiques, only a couple of duty-free and souvenir shops. Unless, you want me to raid someone’s luggage?”
I sighed. “No, we’re not stealing someone else’s clothes.”
Since I wasn’t wearing a bra under the leather bodice, I kept it on and pulled the sweater over my head. At least the white didn’t clash with the lavender skirt. And at least I didn’t feel as though I wore smexy lingerie in public.
Three flights, two days, and nearly five thousand dollars later, we arrived in Sydney, Australia, all as a show for whoever might have been following us . .