The Stars Never Rise

“Did you guys see that?” Each grinding thump of my shoes against pavement bounced back at me from the brick walls of yet another dark alley, and I wondered if I’d ever walk on Main Street again. Why hadn’t anyone told me that claiming my exorcist birthright and being declared anathema meant giving up daylight and sidewalks forever?

“See what?” Devi snapped. Finn was hanging back for me—I didn’t yet have their stamina—and since he was in Maddock’s body, she was hanging back for him, shooting us angry glances every couple of seconds while Reese maintained the lead she clearly wanted. “The part where a pack of degenerates attacked a large congregation on live television for the first time since the end of the war, or the part where you called the Church out in front of all those innocent people, further pissing them off and endangering yet more innocent lives?”

“I didn’t call anyone out!” I was huffing, though the rest of them sounded fine, and a glance back told me we’d finally zigged down enough alleys and zagged across enough open lots to lose our fake-exorcist pursuers.

“Bullshit!” Devi grabbed my arm, trying to haul me forward at her pace while she yelled at me, but my legs couldn’t go any faster. I jerked free from her grip and Finn moved between us in the tight space. He shot a warning glance at her, but he couldn’t stop her mouth from moving even faster than her feet. “They were trying to take us alive—”

“They were…shooting…at us!” My words were disjointed, punctuated with short gasps for air. My lungs burned.

“They would have shot to wound,” she insisted as one alley faded into the next, broken only by short sprints across deserted streets. “To slow us down. They took Carey alive, and he wasn’t the first exorcist they’ve plucked off the street, which seems to suggest that they wanted us alive too. At least, they did until you tried to tell two dozen civilians that their exorcists are fake and we’re the real thing. To the Church, the truth is like a disease—they can’t let you infect anyone else. You practically dared them to kill us!”

“It was worth it,” I said as Reese finally slowed when the town wall came into view. We were approaching the apartment complex from the back and couldn’t afford to draw attention, so I lowered my voice to an angry, huffing whisper. “We got away, and now two dozen people know the truth. Or at least they know the Church is lying about us.” I sucked in another cold breath, trying to put out the fire in my chest, but oxygen seemed to feed the flames. “If the truth is like a disease, let’s hope it spreads.”

Devi glanced at Finn while I bent with my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. “Can she really be that stupid?”

He scowled at her with Maddock’s furrowed brow. “She’s not stupid.”

“Colossally naive, maybe.” Reese stared down the length of the town wall in one direction, looking for police or exorcists or whoever the Church had patrolling for us. “Recklessly optimistic, definitely. But not stupid.” He turned in the other direction, and I saw the sweep of several broad flashlight beams just as he did.

My heart jumped into my throat. They were so close. Too close. But they seemed to think we’d made it over the wall.

Reese held out both arms, herding us toward the seized apartment while Devi warned us to be quiet with one finger pressed to her lips. As if we needed a reminder.

Finn let us in with Maddock’s key, in Maddock’s hand, and the moment Grayson saw us, she threw herself at Reese. He shushed her even as he caught her in both arms.

“I saw the news until everything went crazy and the picture cut out! I was afraid they got you!”

“We’re fine, but they’re close,” he said while I closed and locked the door.

“Thanks to Nina. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was working for the other side.” Devi grabbed a bottle of water from the stack Grayson had been packing, then tossed one to Finn. “Don’t let Maddock dehydrate.”

“Hey, I’m not the one who exposed us.” I grabbed a bottle for myself and opened it with so much force I nearly cracked the plastic. “We all did that, because our only other option was to let degenerates shred those poor people like beef through a grinder.”

Devi wagged one pointed finger at me, scolding me like a naughty child. “It’s your fault we’re still in this miserable little town, and it’s your fault we were at the courthouse, and—”

“And if we hadn’t been, instead of losing ten or twelve lives, New Temperance could have lost fifty. A hundred, maybe. Who knows how long it would have taken the fake exorcists and their stupid guns to do what we did in minutes?”

Devi stomped closer, speaking through clenched teeth, her nose inches from mine when I refused to back away. “I don’t care how many people your backward-ass town would have lost. I don’t care about anyone but the people in this room, and you keep dragging them all into serious trouble, which means I care less and less about your well-being with every passing second.”

“Fighting each other is doing their work for them.” Finn pulled her away from me before my temper could snap or hers could boil over. “Don’t do their work. Do our work.”