Wilder Girls - Rory Power Page 0,81

clamps down over my mouth, but it’s too late.

The bear’s head swings up and around to look right at me. I let out a muffled scream. One half of its face is bare to the bone.

Make noise, Mr. Harker told us. Fight. But this is the Tox, and I don’t think those rules are true anymore.

“The shot didn’t scare him off,” Reese says. “But Gun Shift could still hit him.”

Next to me Lindsay is trembling. Pressed in against the other girls, my body feels like a live wire. Tension running so strong you could snap me in half, my heart racing.

“Give them one more chance,” I whisper.

Another shot, and the bear roars. I think maybe they hit it, but it’s still coming toward us.

“We’re going to move backward,” Reese continues, her voice even and low. “Slowly, on three.”

I grab Cat’s hand as Reese starts to count. We’re all of us linked, and I feel somebody shiver as the bear snorts and shifts its weight. It’s not far to the house, but if we run, it’s sure to catch at least one of us.

Our first step takes us back enough that I can’t smell the hot stink of its breath. It watches us, and I’m trying not to blink, trying not to break eye contact, but my blind eye is aching, the strain and the dark and I’m so, so tired.

“And again,” Reese says. Together, another step. Shivering nerves, clenched fists.

For a second everything is quiet, and I feel my shoulders relax. And then a growl, rumbling up out of the ground, so loud it shakes me to my core.

“Okay,” Reese says. “It’s time to run.”

Cat breaks first, pushes away from us and takes off. I crash onto my hands and knees, dirt rough against my palms, cold scrape tearing skin. Shadow thickening, and when I look up it’s coming, bone glistening, mouth open and wet. A calm settles over me. All I have is my knife tucked in my belt, not good for much in a fight like this, but I can buy the others time. I’m the one who let it in. I’ll die keeping it out.

But Reese hooks her silver hand under my arm and hauls me to my feet, eyes wild, a flush high on her cheeks.

“Move.”

Feet pounding, air whipping against my face, blood pumping, and I can hear it—the bear, steps shaking the earth as it sprints after us. The crack of a gun, but it misses in the dark, and I can’t look back, can’t look back. Cat waiting at the door, Lindsay just ahead of me. Past her, and into the open. Every breath harder and harder, the cold closing my lungs.

“Hurry!” Cat yells. Reese hits the door and disappears inside. Cat reaches out to me, and the control leaves my limbs, breaks my stride as I crash into her, let her shove me into the main hall.

“Come on, Lindsay,” she calls. And Lindsay was right behind me, I swear she was, but I hear her cry out and then a scream, fractured and hoarse. The sound rakes down my back, terrible and scraping. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.

Cat braces the front door, and Reese fumbles with the lock, throws the deadbolt across. Over it all, wet snarls and pops of bone. Lindsay whimpers once, and never again.

“You okay?” I say to Cat.

She’s got no color left in her, and her eyes are bright, but she nods. Stoic and strong, the way they teach Navy daughters to be. “For now.”

We wait—thank God the room has no windows—and pray the bear won’t try to break through the door. The lock is strong, but it won’t hold for long against something like that.

“Let’s go,” Reese says, “while we can. We have to warn Headmistress.”

Ali comes dashing down the stairs, the two Gun Shift girls at her heels. “Shit,” she says. “Where’s Lindsay?”

“Where’s Lindsay?” Cat pushes past Ali and grabs the nearest Gun Shift girl. It’s Lauren, the one who took my vacant spot. “Where the hell were you?”

“I’m sorry,” Lauren says, stumbling over her words, and the other girl, Claire, steps between Cat and Lauren.

“It’s not her fault.” She swallows, a blush visible on her cheeks even in the dim light. “We were taking shifts and it was my turn. I fell asleep.”

Cat releases Lauren’s jacket. “You fell asleep?”

Claire won’t look at her. “It was an accident.”

“Tell that to Lindsay,” Cat snarls.

Light, then, showing at the mouth of the north