Page 64 of Chase Me

One of the demon dragons got wise to her protective barrier and jumped into the trail ahead of her, close enough that she didn't have fast enough reactions to veer away.

Right before her eyes, talons tackled the beast and tossed it aside. They didn't stick around long enough for her to see who it was.

All she knew was that it wasn't Jakob's green scales. The claws had been pitch black.

Were they fighting over her?

The tree line broke a few feet ahead and she barreled out and almost smacked into the metal side of the train. With her last bit of energy, she ran along the track and up to a Soviet era style cement train platform. She climbed up the three metal steps and into the train car, grabbing the sliding door's handle and pulling it shut. The whistle blew again and the train jerked, lurching forward. It took an interminably long time to move past the platform and away from whatever had been chasing and helping her escape. She stared out the small glass window in the door searching for any clue.

There. At the edge of the wood, a man crouched in the remnants of her plant and earth barrier. His clothes were tattered, and she could only just make out his black hair. But his jet-black eyes tracked her.

Who the hell was he?

Whoever he was, he remained in the woods, not following her.

Ciara was still breathing hard and tried her best to get her lungs under control before she entered the passenger car. She pushed the door open and found rows of bench seats, with only a few sleepy riders. She slipped into a seat and glanced around to see if she could figure out where this train was going.

A white placard was screwed into the wall above the windows. It showed a line with periodic dots labeled with words she did not understand. One dot was lit up. The labels appeared to be city names. The last dot on the line was labeledPraha Hlavni Nadrazi.

Prague.

But was she going in the right direction? There were only five stops between the dot that was lit up and the end of the line in the direction she hoped she was traveling.

Someone who she assumed must be a train conductor walked toward her down the aisle. Crap. He would want to see her ticket. He stopped at another passenger and Ciara watched him tear off a slip of paper from a pad dangling from the belt at his waist and exchange it for money.

Here goes nothing. She closed her eyes and asked the wind to help her out. She heard a yelp and peeked out of one eye. The train conductor was caught up in a foot-tall swirling dust devil. Oops, too much. She pulled back on the power and used his and the rest of the passengers’ distracted state to tear off one of the paper tickets and floated it over to her seat.

The ticket taker pulled himself back together, brushed himself off, and glared at the others who were openly staring at him. Then he made his way over to her. He frowned at her appearance, looking her torn jacket and dress up and down, stopping for an extra second to gawk at her bare feet. “Bileta, prosim.”

She could only assume he was asking for her ticket. “Sorry, I don't understand Czech. Is this what you want?”

She held the piece of paper, praying it was valid. He punched it with a little hand-held machine and handed it back to her.

Phew.

She spent the next twenty minutes staring at the placard waiting for the dot to change. The next stop closest to Prague lit up. Yes.

A chime and then a female voice came over a crackling loudspeaker four more times in the next hour and a half. She almost had the foreign words memorized by the time they rolled toward the final destination. “Ukoncete prism, vystup a nasty, Deere se zaviraji.” Then finally, “Pristi stanice Praha Hlavni Nadrazi.”

Next stop, Prague.

Dawn approached as she made her way out of the already busy train station.

She was here, but what was she going to do now? She didn’t have any ID or money. How did she think she was going to get home?

She’d already proven calling home for help was a fruitless endeavor. Maybe she’d just take up residence here and become a homeless person.

She could live in a park and grow her own food. Until the freezing winter came and she froze to death. No, wait. She had fire.

Hmm. This plan was sounding better and better. Even better than going back to America and being a stupid wedding planner again.

She had herself convinced until she was surrounded by agroup of grubby-faced children in clothing more tattered than her own.

A woman stood nearby holding a crying baby. The children all spoke at once, chanting something and making faces at her. They bumped and jostled her, laughing like they were playing a game.

Then in another instant they fled.

A young man in a fancy uniform with a United States of America flag on it walked toward her, scowling at the scamps. “Miss, you need to be careful hanging aroundHlavni Nadrazi. If you had anything in your pockets, those Romani children have it all now.”

---