“Yeah,” Shade agrees, coming to a stop beside us. “Shit is right.”
“Is that…?” asks Landon.
“One of Russo’s,” Ruby replies, looking around. “Two, actually. No, wait, three. The guy on the left is a dragon shifter. I’m not sure about the others, but I know they aren’t human.”
“What are they doing here?” Xander asks.
“Three guesses,” Shade fires back.
“So that’s where the Academy people have gone,” says Hunter, and as I look around, I can see that he’s right: the airport is surrounded by familiar faces, none of them on our side. They might not all be shifters, but they’re sure as hell not here to help us, and they seem to be waiting for something.
Us.
“They must have figured we would try to escape,” mutters Hazel. “They’ve got the whole damn place blocked off.”
“Well, there goes that plan,” gripes Landon. “And here I was thinking we could just catch a ride out of this fucking place.”
“Can’t we sneak past them?” protests Hunter.
“With this many?” Silas asks incredulously. “Doubtful. And they’ve probably got humans ID’ing people on the inside. Deep pockets, and all that.”
“Fuck,” Shade says, throwing his hands up and raking them through his sandy hair. “Now what?”
I can feel the others watching me again, waiting for direction, and the answer comes to me in an instant. I square my shoulders and take out my phone. “I think I have an idea.”
Chapter 5
My hands are shaking as I bring up the text message that’s been burning a hole in my pocket ever since it arrived. Come to London if you want to survive this or he will make you watch them all die, it reads, as cryptic and ominous as can be. It came from a private number, and although I’ve done a little digging to try to locate the source, I’m no closer now than I was before. I hate the fact that I’m even considering this, but we don’t have much of a choice. Normally, upon receiving a mysterious and vaguely threatening text message from a stranger, most people would delete it and pretend it never happened.
But I think we’ve established by now that I’m not most people.
The unknown messenger, whoever they are, first reached out to me during the human-shifter diplomatic conference that brought us to Boston in the first place. The only problem, of course, was that the two communities seem to be past the point of peaceful negotiations. Things are escalating beneath the surface, and the worst part is that most humans, in the dark about supernatural beings, don’t even realise how dangerous their world has become. That’s not the point, though. The point is that I first received a warning message before Hawthorne even attacked the convention centre, which means whoever is behind the texts has an in with the mucky-mucks. Whether they’re on our side, though, is another story.
“Boots?” the sound of Hunter’s uncertain voice pulls me back to reality, and I realise with a start that I’ve been staring down at my cell phone in silence. “We lost you for a second, there.”
“Sorry,” I say, shaking my head. “I was just thinking. Look, I’m not totally sure on the transportation thing, if I’m being honest, but if the Academy is this gun ho about finding us, then we ought to consider finding outside help.”
“I’m all for that,” Landon says dryly. “It’s not like we’re a bunch of half-trained university students or anything.”
“Do you have someone in mind, Boots?” Silas asks, brow furrowing.
“Maybe,” I reply, biting the inside of my lip. I can feel a blush creeping into my cheeks. “It’s… a possibility, anyway.”
“You don’t sound super convinced,” remarks Hazel.
“That’s because I’m not,” I explain. “The truth is, I got a text from someone during the conference, telling me to watch my back.”
“Who was it from?” asks Shade, crossing his arms.
“That’s the problem,” I say. “I’m not sure.”
“You realise it could’ve been Lyle, right?” asks Ruby. “Or any of the other Academy bastards trying to throw you off.”
“I know, and that’s what I thought, too,” I concede. “At least, at first. But then…” I sigh, looking down. It’s embarrassing that I’ve kept this from the others, but I wasn’t expecting to need to resort to this. We’re backed into a corner. “After we escaped from the campus, when we were first running back into the city, I got another text,” I explain, choosing my words carefully. “Same number, but I have no idea who it belongs to. Hell, I don’t even know the area code; it was unlisted. It said that we need to come to London if we want to survive this.”
“And that’s it?” asks Shade, sounding incredulous.
“I texted them back, asking who they were, but they never responded to me.”
“Great,” mutters Landon. “That doesn’t exactly bode well.”
“I know,” I admit, “and that’s why I didn’t say anything earlier. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to… But now I’m starting to think we might not have a choice.”
“So you think we should do it, then?” asks Xander. He and Ruby exchange a look. “Just like that?”
“I’m not sure it’s a good idea,” Hunter says, shifting uncomfortably. “We don’t even know who they are.”
“That’s a fair point,” Silas agrees. “For all we know, it could be someone from the Academy, trying to lure us back there. What if it’s a trap to corner us?”
“To be fair, that wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense,” Landon points out. “If they wanted us back at the Academy, why wouldn’t they just tell us to meet them there?”
“Maybe they’re finally realising we’re smarter than they gave us credit for,” Shade suggests with a smirk.
“I guess that’s a possibility,” I acknowledge, my face falling. “You know what? Never mind. Forget I said anything. We can figure out another way to-”
“Well, wait a minute,” Hazel interrupts, holding up a hand. “I don’t think we should just ignore this.”
“But we could be walking right into a trap,” protests Hunter. “We can’t let M-” He stops himself, clears his throat, and says, “We can’t let any of us get hurt.” His blue eyes flicker to me, and then down to the ground.
“We have to think big picture, though,” argues Hazel. “Let’s just say this is a trap, and someone’s trying to capture us. They obviously already know where we are, or they wouldn’t have sent that warning during the convention, right? Which means if we don’t take them up on their offer, we could just be inviting them to come attack us while we’re sitting in Boston with our asses hanging out.”
“So we leave Boston,” suggests Xander. “We can take a train down the coast, find a way to-”
“Do you really think the humans are going to let us leave the city?” Hazel asks. “They’ve blocked off the airport. They know they have us trapped here, and they’re just going to keep tightening the net. I wouldn’t be surprised if the train station already has agents there waiting for us.”