have dwelt on this more, I’m sure, but I had another feeling, a familiar tingle beneath my skin, demanding my attention. Deception—and strong, too. But it wasn’t coming from any of the girls. Where was it coming from?
“I just hope they haven’t gotten to this place yet,” said Susanah.
“Don’t worry,” Cassandra said. “They haven’t found this lode yet. I’m sure of it.”
“I wish they would come,” said Mowse, pulling the corn-husk doll out of her pocket and making her dance up Susanah’s arm. “I could make them all fall asleep.”
Susanah reached out and ruffled her hair. “Hopefully it won’t come to that. Hopefully we won’t see them at all.”
Zo led us through the pass and the desert brush for another mile, until we reached a narrow crack in the earth, where the land had changed and a new ravine had opened at the bottom of the one we were in, like a wound within a wound. At the bottom were three automobiles: two pickup trucks and one sedan, falling apart at the hinges. The hole was big enough for two people to slip into. The sand around the hole was clean, save for Zo’s and Cassandra’s footprints from earlier.
The tingling under my skin was almost an unbearable itch now. Deception was coming from all around me, bleeding out into the air like ink in water.
“There’s something wrong,” I said. “I can feel it.”
“Oh, don’t be a scaredy-cat,” said Judith. “If Zo and Cass say they cased the place, they cased the place.”
“Let’s go,” said Olivia. “We don’t have that many bullets left after the last run, so we don’t want to end up having to use them.”
Judith nodded and jumped down into the hole. Susanah followed with her backpack full of tools.
“The rest of you, keep a lookout,” said Olivia. “And help them load the metal.”
There was a horrible rending sound as Judith and Susanah began tearing the doors off the vehicles, ripping the metal, taking off the handles and hood ornaments and mirrors. It echoed loudly off the cliffs and around the ravine. In a few moments, the seats themselves appeared on the lip of the ravine, and we moved them onto the sleigh, carefully stacking the other pieces of metal. To take the engines (Lord knew why Susanah wanted them), we fixed a rope to one of the car doors and made a second sleigh, which Susanah would pull herself.
I flexed my fingers close to my spell components belt. A bead of sweat rolled down my forehead. Couldn’t any of the other witches feel it? Then I saw a flash of movement on the cliffside.
“It’s a trap!” I shouted. “Everybody down!”
Gunshots rang out, echoing through the ravine as we ducked and ran for cover in every which direction. Bullets ricocheted off rocks, made holes in the truck and car parts. Olivia ducked behind a nearby rock and drew her guns. Judith picked up the car door, holding it like a shield by the rope we’d attached to it. It was so loud, so fast. Something went whistling by my ear. I balked at a flash of blood in the air as a bullet grazed Zo’s arm right in front of me. She shoved me past her, then turned and sent two shots of her own back.
“Quick! Over here!” Susanah grabbed me, and pulled me behind the mountain of parts with Cassandra and Mowse. Bullets rang all around us. My hands shook, and my nerves felt like they were full of fire. I screwed my eyes shut and tried to calm my breathing, to think clearly.
Somebody scrambled around the corner, and Zo ducked in next to me, out of breath and bleeding.
“Damn Laredo Boys,” Zo said. “There have got to be at least ten of them up there.”
“How many bullets do they have?” I heard myself ask. “Surely they can’t have that many out here?”
“In the desert, bullets are whatever you can melt down and shove in your gun barrel,” said Zo. She reached into her pack and began reloading her pistols. I saw then that her bullets were nothing more than little pellets cobbled together from different materials. “The Laredo Boys have most of the metal out here.” She clicked the bullets into their places. “But even they don’t have unlimited ammo. We have to wait them out, however long that takes.”
“Well, let’s see if I can make it faster, darling,” said Cassandra, looking somehow unflustered as the bullets whizzed by us.