Scarlet pressed her palms into the crate, trying to push through the plastic. “Say it.”
“No,” he murmured, shoulders sinking. “No, I don’t think they’ve killed her. Not yet.”
Scarlet shivered with relief. She covered her face with both hands, dizzy with the hurricane of emotions. “Thank the stars,” she whispered. “Thank you.”
His tone hardened. “Don’t thank me for telling the truth when it would have been mercy to lie to you.”
“Mercy? To tell me she’s dead? To break my heart?”
“Making you believe she was dead was the only chance I had to convince you not to go looking for her. We both know that. I should have lied.”
The hum of the tracks deepened as the train crawled into a station. Voices yelled. Machinery clanked and hissed.
“It’s not your decision to make,” she said, grabbing the portscreen and checking their location. They’d made it to Paris. “I have to go after her. But you don’t have to come with me.”
“Scarlet—”
“No, listen. I appreciate your help. How far you’ve brought me. But I can go on alone. Just tell me where to go and I’ll find it myself.”
“Maybe I won’t.”
Scarlet shoved the port into her pocket, anger burning in her cheeks. But then she met Wolf’s gaze and saw, not stubbornness, but panic. His fingers curling and uncurling, again and again.
She released her mounting resentment. Scooting toward Wolf, she cupped his face in her hands. He flinched, but didn’t pull away. “They’ll want this information, won’t they?”
His expression was stone.
“We’ll offer me as a trade. You and Grand-mère can go somewhere safe, take care of each other, and when they let me go, I’ll come find you. They can’t keep me forever.”
She smiled as warmly as she could, and waited for him to return it. When he didn’t, she rubbed her thumbs across his cheeks and kissed him. Though he instantly pulled her against him, he didn’t let the kiss linger.
“There’s no guarantee they’ll let you go. When they’re done with you, they might kill you. You’re sacrificing your life for hers.”
“It’s a chance I have to take.”
The train came to a steady stop and sank down onto the tracks.
Wolf’s eyes saddened. “I know. You’ll do what you have to do.” Peeling her hands off his shoulders, he placed a sweet kiss against her wrist, where the blood pulsed beneath her skin. “And so will I.”
Twenty-Six
The underground platform was well lit and filled with androids and hovering carts ready to unload the train’s cargo. Scarlet followed Wolf into the shadows of another freight train. They waited until an android turned away before crawling up onto the platform.
Wolf grabbed her wrist and pulled her across the platform, ducking behind a cart loaded with crates. A moment later Scarlet saw an android roll into the car she and Wolf had just abandoned, its blue light seeping back out the door.
“Be ready to run when that train leaves,” Wolf said, adjusting the bag on his shoulder. Not seconds later, the train lifted up off the tracks and began gliding back into the tunnel.
Scarlet sprang toward the tracks, only to find herself being pulled back by her hood. She let out a strangled cry and slammed back into Wolf.
“Wha—”
He placed a finger to his mouth.
Scarlet glared and ripped her hood from his grasp, but then she heard it too. The hum of an approaching train.
It was on the third track out and blew past them without any indication of slowing, vanishing into the darkness again as quickly as it had come.
Wolf grinned. “Now we can go.”