Unstoppable (Their Shifter Academy #6) - May Dawson Page 0,22

not a good sign for us?”

Silas rolled out of bed and dropped lightly to his feet. Sometimes I had to wonder if he ever really slept, or if he just kind of paused. He might be less human than the rest of us were as shifters.

Rafe’s hands went to my hips as I rose, and Jensen dropped down from the bunk, the four of us standing together, ready for any threat that came through the door.

“Let me,” Silas said. He still wore Echo’s face, and he ran his fingers through his now-dark hair, tousling it.

“Of course,” Rafe said drily. He raised his hand toward the door, inviting Silas to take the lead.

When Silas opened the door, there was another mechanical man standing there, his hand raised to knock. He wore the same face as the one in the shop above the gambling den. For a second, I thought he’d found us again to exact revenge. Then I realized it was just an identical robot to the one who had offered us cake and then murder.

“Good evening. There are high traces of residual magic in this car,” the robot said. “You are reminded that magical modifications of physical appearance are not allowed due to the rebel magicians.”

“Right,” Silas said sympathetically. “Those rebel magicians ruin everything.”

“Please remove all magical physical enhancements and prepare for scanning.”

Instead, Silas glanced down the hall. “Where is your police escort?”

“That’s a peculiar question,” the robot said, just before his eyes began to whirr.

Silas muttered a word to activate his spell, just as he reached out and grabbed the robot. The robot threw up a protective limb, but Silas was so quick that he’d already slipped behind it.

He forced the robot into our room. Magic shimmered around Silas’s arm, then he wrenched the robot’s head off. Warm oil splattered across my face.

I winced as I wiped it off with my sleeve. Robot blood.

Silas dug in the back of the robot’s head and produced a card, which he dropped on the floor to crush under his heel. “Windows, please.”

I knelt on Rafe’s seat and threw open the window. Cold, damp air flooded into the room, and the hard breeze fluttered the curtain. It felt as if we were moving fast. Silas pitched the memory card out, then threw the head after.

“You are really hard on electronics,” Jensen said. “Now I know why my laptop always froze if you borrowed it. It was probably terrified of you. And here I’d assumed it was because you were looking at porn.”

“Disgusting,” Silas pronounced, and Jensen shrugged. Silas went on, “Get the packs. Time for us to exit the train.”

Jensen pulled them out from under the seats. He twisted with mine and helped me slip it over my shoulders. I yanked my straps, tightening them, and before I could reach for his, Rafe helped him on with it.

Silas threw his own pack lazily over one shoulder. Magic sparked at his fingertips.

“Any plans on how we get off the train when it’s traveling eighty miles per hour?” Rafe demanded.

“My plan is that we’re going to jump,” Silas told him, “and your plan should be that you trust me.”

Rafe scoffed at that, but the four of us still rushed out into the hall together.

Chapter Ten

Lex

* * *

I thought that by the time I reached Kierney pack lands, my father Rand and the alpha might already be on the road with the pack toward the academy. That would’ve made it easier to find my sister and get out of there, even though it made me feel worse about leaving the academy behind.

“I’m not sure what we’re heading into,” I told Penn, my hands taut on the steering wheel as we crossed the border into pack lands.

“I know,” he said. “I’m here whatever it is. You know a fight doesn’t bother me.”

Penn always looked so relaxed, even now, with his elbow resting on the windowsill, exposing the colorful tattoos across his forearms. When I was a complete ball of nerves, Penn’s laidback air made me feel better.

But then, it wasn’t his sister who was in trouble.

“Mel still planning on going to college in California?”

“Yep.”

“You’re going to let her go?”

He gave me a baleful look. “I can’t stop her.”

“Yeah, you can.” He was his pack’s alpha. He could stop her if he wanted to.

“Fine.” He didn’t pretend not to take my meaning. “I won’t.”

“You’re a better man than I am,” I said.

Penn snorted. “That is doubtful.”

“This time,” I said, “I don’t care if she wants to leave or