Wes laughed. “Something tells me Boise better watch out.”
“You have no idea.” Jordan grinned and held up her hand. “Keys?”
He pulled a set from his pocket and handed them to her. “You do know how to drive a stick, right?”
She rolled her eyes. “Who doesn’t?”
I decided to keep silent on that subject.
Derek and Wes accompanied us outside where an older model white Ford Escort sat in the driveway. We thanked both men. Then I hurried to the car, hoping the heater worked well. Damn, it was cold outside tonight.
“Hold on a sec.” Derek ran inside and returned a minute later with two fleece jackets. “Here, take these before you freeze to death.”
I refused them because I doubted we’d be able to return them anytime soon, but he waved it off. “My mother keeps buying them for me, and I have more than I’ll ever use,” he argued.
“Thanks.” I pulled on one of the jackets and handed the other to Jordan. We slid into the front seats, waved to Derek and Wes, and pulled away.
“And we’re off!” Jordan let out a whoop and gave me a wide smile. “Next stop, Boise.”
“Let’s get out of town first and then we can celebrate.” I glanced around, expecting to feel a telltale brush against my mind at any second. Butler Falls was only five miles from Westhorne, and it wouldn’t take Nikolas long to get mobile and come after us. This was my only shot at leaving. If they caught me now, there would be no second chance. Nikolas would make sure of that.
Jordan and I were tense as we sped through town as fast as we could go without drawing attention to us. At one point, a dark SUV appeared behind us, and my heart leaped into my throat until the vehicle turned into a grocery store parking lot. By the time we reached the highway exit, my stomach was tied in painful knots and Jordan’s knuckles were white from clenching the steering wheel. We both released audible sighs when we merged onto the highway and picked up speed.
After we put a few miles behind us, Jordan began fiddling with the radio, and I turned up the heater to warm my cold feet. I missed my boots, but they had been too bulky to fit inside my coat with my change of clothes. Someone definitely would have noticed and our getaway would have been over before it had even started.
I still couldn’t believe we had pulled it off. Westhorne was going to be in an uproar when they realized Jordan and I were gone. I’d left letters explaining why I was leaving, though I didn’t expect them to placate the people who read them.
Nate had been through so much lately, and he was going to be very upset when he heard what I’d done. But I was doing this for him and everyone else I cared about. None of us was safe as long as the Master was alive. Our only connection to him was Madeline, and I was sure I could find her with David’s help. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe that.
Nate wasn’t the only one who would be upset. An ache settled in my chest when I thought about Nikolas. Already, I missed him and I wondered how long it would be before I saw him again. In the back of my mind, a sad voice whispered, Solmi. My Mori couldn’t understand why we were leaving Nikolas and his Mori behind. For once, I had no words of comfort for it.
I pictured Nikolas’s reaction when he discovered I was gone. I hadn’t talked to him since we had argued about his plans to take me away and hide me from the Master. He’d come to my room twice, but I wouldn’t open the door even though it had been so hard to feel him nearby and not go to him. Nikolas was astute, and he would have known I was planning something as soon as he’d seen my face.
He’d left me alone after that, but he’d made it clear that he knew me a little better than I’d accused him of. When I’d left my room to go to the menagerie, Niall and Seamus had materialized beside me and accompanied me there. They hadn’t left my side when I’d taken Hugo and Woolf out, though I could tell they were nervous around the hellhounds. On my way back to the main building we were met by Chris who took over babysitting duty. Nikolas might have been giving me space, but he hadn’t been taking any chances either.
Did he know I was gone? Had he already found the letter I’d left in his apartment? He was going to be furious. He wouldn’t agree with my reasons, but I’d had to try to explain them anyway, and to make sure he knew my leaving had nothing to do with our bond. If I’d believed I could have convinced him to work with me on this, I would have chosen that option in a heartbeat. But I’d seen his face when he said he was going to take me away, and there would be no compromising with him. Not on this.
“Ah, hell!”
“What is it?” My head whipped around, expecting to see a pair of headlights closing in on us.
“I forgot my damn sword.”
I stared at Jordan, willing my heart to settle back into a normal rhythm. “Your sword?”
“Yeah.” She let out a mournful sigh. “I’ll never find one as good as mine.”
“Jordan, we barely snuck away as it is. If anyone had seen you carrying a sword, they would have known something was up.”
“I know, but I still hate leaving it behind.”
“We’ll find you a new one.” I looked around. “How close are we?”
“About twenty minutes. I may have broken the speed limit a little.”
Soon the lights of Boise appeared in the distance, and before I knew it, Jordan was maneuvering the car through the busy city streets. She handled the car well for someone who had spent most of her life at a Mohiri stronghold. When I mentioned it, she smiled and said it was easy to get the boys in Butler Falls to let you drive their cars.
After half a dozen wrong turns and a stop at a 7-Eleven for gas and directions, we finally reached our destination. Jordan pulled up in front of St. John’s Cathedral, and I waved wildly at the two figures standing by the large door at the top of the steps. They jogged over to the car, and Jordan popped the trunk so they could stow away their large backpacks.
Roland climbed in behind me and rubbed his hands against his thighs. “What took you so long? We nearly froze our asses off.”
I turned in my seat to face them. “Why didn’t you go inside to get warm?”
Peter made a face. “We did, but sitting through one long mass is enough. We’ve been here for hours.”
“You poor things.” Jordan scoffed. “At least you didn’t have to climb out of a river, and then hike miles in this cold.”
Roland leaned forward. “What are you talking about?”
Jordan groaned. “Before we wow and amaze you guys, can someone tell me where we are going?”
“Salt Lake City,” I said.
The three of them stared at me.
“David has a friend there who is holding a laptop and some cell phones for me. We can stop over there on our way to Albuquerque.”
Jordan spoke first. “That has to be six hours away.”
“Almost five. I looked it up.”
“Sara, don’t you think it would be better to stay in Boise tonight and leave in the morning?” Roland asked.
“Boise is going to be crawling with Mohiri in an hour... if it isn’t already. I don’t know about you guys, but I’d rather not be here when that happens.”
“She’s right.” Jordan said. “They probably have a team here already, and the rest will come when they find out we’re gone.”