Jack’s lips curled up. “She was here in London, but she’s on the move. She’s headed south. That help?”
I nodded. “I’ll take it. Thank you.”
“Don’t fucking thank me. Getting tangled with us assholes has killed more than one dumb fuck.”
He tugged his collar, ducked his head and strode away from us.
Peta laughed softly. “Trackers, foul-mouthed bunch to the last drop. Come on, we need to keep looking. Even though she may be gone, we have to see if we can get a solid hit.”
I agreed. We turned away from the direction Jack went.
“Here, what about these?” Cactus asked. He pointed at a wall along the edge of the sidewalk plastered with signs and maps. I ran a hand over them, stopping when I saw one that spoke of the Tower of London. Yanking it off the wall, I opened it to a folding map. Cactus peered over my shoulder.
“We aren’t far. A few streets up and then four to the west and we’ll be there.”
I tucked the map into the back of my belt and broke into a jog. We were close enough I didn’t want to hold back. I reached for the power of the earth to propel me forward and got a distant buzz that brought me to a standstill.
Cactus stopped beside me. “What?”
“Try to reach the earth,” I said as I took a slow circle. Lines of power flickered up his arms, but he was no more successful than me if the widening of his eyes was any indication.
The ground was buried under a thick coating of cement. Lips tight, I held my hand out, palm down, and called the earth upward. Such a strange thing; it was akin to calling on the bottom of the ocean from the surface of the water. I could feel the earth, but it was far away from me.
“I can’t reach it.” Cactus shook his head and there was no small amount of fear in his eyes.
Beside us, a car roared by, its lights blinding me before throwing me into night blindness. I covered my face with one hand. “I can, but it’s a strain. How do they live like this?”
“They don’t know anything else, Lark. You probably thought the same thing when you were in the Pit.” Cactus took my hand and we started toward the Tower again.
“Maybe, but the Pit at least was natural. This is anything but.”
Peta was between us, keeping up easily. “Not true. The cement is made up of tiny particles that are of the earth, as are the buildings and even the car that went by. Humans have gotten good at manipulating the elements around them and bending them to their will.”
We took our corner and kept moving as cars zipped past us and the fumes choked my lungs. Cactus seemed less bothered by what was going on than I was. He grabbed my arm as he pointed to the skyline above the buildings that crowded around us.
A plume of smoke swirled up, a hint of orange glow coming from underneath it. Damn, that was in the direction of the tower.
“Move, she won’t stick around with that going on.” I was running before the words were out of my mouth. We burst around a final building and skidded to a stop.
The tower was actually a large square with four main towers. The front two were on fire and humans poured out of the buildings. Cactus grabbed me. “This is our chance to get in and out without being noticed.”
“Are you crazy?” I made a face at him as he tugged me along.
“Only for you, Lark.” He smiled at me and my heart gave a traitorous thump. “Come on, I can protect you from the fire. We can grab your Tracker and be done with this.”
I glanced at Peta. She gave me a subtle nod, which was all I needed. I raced after Cactus. We pushed our way through the growing crowd. There were men holding a long snake-like thing that shot water out of the end of it.
“You can’t go in there!” one of the humans shouted. We ran harder, dodging their efforts at stopping us. Cactus let out a laugh, and I had to admit, his recklessness made me giddy. Like we were kids again sneaking tarts from the kitchen and running from the cook. We were through the main gates and into the courtyard before we had to stop.
“Where now?” Cactus asked.
Behind us, the men ran toward us. Worm shit and green sticks. “Can you slow them down, please? I need to figure this out!”
He flicked a hand, red lines lit up his arms, and flames raced out along the ground bringing the humans to a screaming halt. They shouted at us, but we ignored them.
Peta shifted into her snow leopard form. Her green eyes narrowed as she stared around us. “I can protect you from the heat better this way.”
“Shouldn’t need protecting, Peta. We’re here to talk to the Tracker, not fight her.”
She snorted. “Did you not get a fist slammed into your jaw only a few minutes ago? And that was by a mildly irritated Tracker.”
My lips twitched. It couldn’t be all that bad. Trackers might be a bit rough around the edges, but I doubted they were going to go out of their way to cause trouble. My jaw might disagree with me on that, though.