The Stars Never Rise

The remaining guard glanced from Anabelle in the car to Finn in the guard booth. He lifted his gun—an unaimed precaution—and stepped into our path, still scowling at Finn. “What are you—”

“Get out of the way.” Finn’s borrowed voice was soft, but the command was strong.

“Turn off the engine and get out of the car!” The guard swung his huge gun toward our windshield. Jennings stared, still too confused to take action.

Anabelle stomped on the brakes hard enough to throw Melanie and me into the backs of the front seats, even at our low speed.

“Let her through!” Finn shouted as the gate rolled open slowly, like a huge metal snail in its track.

The guard’s eyes widened, and we were close enough by then that I saw comprehension the moment it surfaced behind his eyes. He’d just spotted me between the seats, and even if he couldn’t see my face, he knew we were hiding something.

The guard aimed. Anabelle ducked as light flashed and thunder exploded from the end of the rifle. A small hole appeared in the front windshield an instant before something thunked into the seat in front of me. Anabelle screamed. Melanie curled up on the floorboard, and I shielded as much of her as I could with my own body.

“Shhh,” I whispered. “Be quiet and don’t move.” She tensed beneath me but didn’t make a sound.

“Out, now!” the guard shouted, and I peeked again to find him still aiming at the windshield.

Finn fired his gun. “Go!” he yelled as the guard’s body crumpled in front of our car.

Shouts came from our right as the rest of the cops were recalled from their wild goose chase by the gunfire. Anabelle sat up and stared at the hole in the windshield, and I noticed that the glass around it was cracked like a spiderweb. “What the hell is happening?” she demanded.

Jennings reached for his holster, and I realized that Finn had removed the gun before he’d given up the body.

“Anabelle, go!” I shouldered the back of her seat. “Drive!”

She stepped on the gas. The car bounced once, then twice, jarring us all as the wheels rolled over the fallen guard.

The gate was still moving, but it was too slow. It wouldn’t be open in time. Finn punched the button through the open window in the guard’s shack, but the gate gained no speed.

“Who is that?” Anabelle asked, staring at him as she clutched the wheel.

“It’s Finn,” I told her. The explanation would have to wait.

“Go!” Finn shouted again, and Anabelle stomped on the gas again. The car lurched forward, and I fell against the rear bench seat. We flew past the guard shack as Finn took aim at another one of the guards. Light flashed from the barrel of his gun.

The gate knocked off the passenger’s side-view mirror, then scraped the entire length of the vehicle on the right side as we breached the New Temperance town wall and shot out into the badlands.

Anabelle took a hard right just outside the gate, and I tumbled across the floorboard onto my sister. “Mellie, are you okay?” I asked, lifting myself off her with one hand on the seat.

“Fine,” she said, as I crawled onto the backseat, trying to get a good look at her as the lights from the gate faded. “But totally lost. What happened to Finn?”

More gunfire rang out from behind the wall, and I caught my breath. Was Finn shooting, or being shot at?

“Finn’s human, but he can possess people like a demon,” I explained. Both Mellie and Anabelle started to throw questions at me, but I held up one hand to stop them. “For now, you’ll have to trust me.”

When the squeal of metal told me the gate was closing behind us, I stood on my knees to stare through the window. The gate was almost shut, trapping the guards inside until they could reverse the motor, and I still saw no sign of Finn.

“Anabelle, stop!” I shouted.

She slammed on the brakes. The car skidded on bare dirt and chunks of asphalt from the crumbling road. For several tense seconds, I stared at the gate as the opening narrowed, waiting for Finn even though I might not be able to see or hear him coming. I couldn’t leave him. But we couldn’t wait much longer without putting ourselves—and Melanie—in danger of being recaptured.

And finally, when my chest ached and my nerves were like live wires shooting sparks beneath the surface of my skin, a man slid through the gate just before it slammed shut. He raced toward us, arms and legs pumping, automatic rifle aimed at the ground.

“It’s Finn!” I shouted, though I couldn’t see the guard’s eyes from that distance. “Unlock the doors!”

Anabelle hesitated for a second; then she punched a button in the driver’s door and the locks thunked open. I got out, and Finn threw himself into my arms, gun still aimed at the dirt, new tall, firm body pressed against me as his borrowed heart thumped against my chest.

“Are you okay?” he whispered into my ear, and I nodded against his shirt.

“You?”

“Winded.” He stepped back far enough that I could see moonlight shine in his bright green eyes. Then he kissed me.