Page 3 of Dark Reign

“Close the gate! I’ll make it!” I yelled, belting the command with zero fear of being heard. It didn’t matter at this point because we were no longer hiding, no longer flying under the radar. The chance to slip out like thieves in the night was off the table. With our cover blown, the only thing that mattered was survival.

We were running for our lives.

“Enter the code!” My voice trembled, staring ahead as the mechanical gate continued to open with an audible whir. Felix defied me and I didn’t question for even a second if it was intentional. It was.

As usual, he thought he knew best. If I had to guess what he was thinking, he felt it was too soon to close it, thought I wouldn’t have enough time to slip through before it sealed again. However, what hedidn’tknow, what he didn’tsee,was that fast-moving, hungry beasts were now flanking us.

“Is that barking?” he finally chimed in.

“Hellhounds,” I panted, only able to huff the nickname humans had coined for the huntsmen’s packs centuries ago. “We’re almost there and we’ll make it,” I assured him, “but you have to start reversing the gate now. Otherwise, they’ll slip through with us.”

What I didn’t say next was that I was running out of steam, sensing a familiar haze closing in on me. I hadn’t seized in a little over a month, so I was long overdue. Unfortunately, I feared that time was now, while I was in possibly the worst scenario ever, while someone other than myself depended on my ability to keep it together.

The nifty bracelet Felix fashioned from a smelted curtain rod he repurposed, and tech I didn’t evenbeginto understand, made episodes fewer and further between. However, we still hadn’t figured out a way to eliminate them for me completely. There was no option other than the unthinkable, something I would never consider.

Even before the mission, I was feeling under the weather, but alerting the team would have only made someone else feel obligated to make this trek in my place. The problem with that, there wasn’t another as quick or who could improvise on the fly like I could. We all had our parts to play, and extraction was mine.

“You’re too far away,” Felix panicked. “If I close it now, you’ll never make it.”

He always kept eyes on me from his monitor, following the small, yellow triangle that represented my position on the map. It had been carefully plotted and uploaded to our system weeks ahead of time.

“Now, Fe! You can’t wait! There’s no time!” I was sure he could tell by my labored breathing that things were getting tense, but he still wouldn’t cooperate.

I imagined Liv, our spritely stats geek, lurking over his shoulder, urging him to give it ‘just one more second’. Per her calculations, the likelihood of me making it through was probably slim to none, but it was the only way. If they didn’t initiate now, the hounds would be right behind me and I’d be done for anyway.

A pair of small, sweat-dampened palms squeezed the front of my neck again. There was no time to coddle her like a kid her age should have been when staring death in the eyes. But then again, she probably wasn’t used to being treated that way at all—held, soothed. If she was like most orphans, being nurtured or shown affection was not part of her upbringing whatsoever.

The soles of my shoes pressed deep into the soft earth. A heavy downpour around midnight made for less than ideal conditions, but once a mission was in place, there were too many moving pieces to make changes. My team had gotten used to making the best out of the worst circumstances.

A shiver raced down my spine as I watched the wrought iron gate I raced toward shudder to a stop, and then slowly—so, so slowly—begin to close. It was still too soon to breathe a sigh of relief, but at least I’d convinced my team to listen.

I pushed myself, harder than I should have, and it wasstillbarely enough. The sound of torn threads accompanied a tug to my sleeve. I’d caught a sharp edge when I passed through the gate. It sucked because I really liked that jacket, but a small tear was better than what I first assumed—that one of the hellhounds had caught me just as I bypassed the first obstacle on this journey toward freedom.

“Which way?” I called out through the com.

It was then, while I waited for Felix’s reply, that I glanced back. It was just in time to see a set of glowing, red eyes trained on me. A large body followed, passing through the sliver of space just before the gate hinged.

I faced ahead again, puffing air from my nostrils. My thoughts focused and I was no longer waiting on that reply. I was on my own now.

“Uh … there should be a small shed coming up in about an eighth of a mile. Hang left when you get there. Stay on a straight path. That should lead you back to the main road. Alex and O.C. are already waiting in the van.”

I heard him loud and clear, but I also heard the hellhound, andhewas coming up on my left side, meaning I’d have to push right.

“No can do, Fe. I’m going rogue.”

“R—rogue?” he stammered. “Cori, that’s insane! Just stick to the plan.”

“Can’t. I’ve got a hound on my heels.”

Instinct told me to turn, told me to see if I was about to be this thing’s dinner, but wisdom screamed for me to do the opposite. Turning would slow me down and that was thelastthing I needed.

The sound of rushing water to my right called out to me like a beacon. As if she knew what I was thinking, tonight’s transport began panting in my ear, anticipating my next move even before I veered that way, before I snatched her from my back and uttered two quick words.

“Trust me.”

That was it, all that time allowed. The very next second, as I took those final steps before the plunge, I pinched her nose and clasped the other hand over her mouth.

And then … we went under.

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