Dougal blinks rapidly, the redness of his skin fading away in an instant.
“Better?” she asks.
“Aye,” he says, sounding relieved.
“Good.”
They remain quiet for a moment, frozen in the main, deserted hallway of the old schoolhouse before Dougal says, “We can’t report this.”
Rachel’s eyes widen. “Our fingerprints and shoeprints and possibly some of my DNA are down there. We need to report it, unless you want us to become murder suspects when the body starts to stink up the whole school.”
“There’s a real mean Fae down there, too.”
“Yeah.” Rachel sighs. “So, what do we do?”
“I don’t know how to put a proper outfit together half the time and now ye want me to come up with a plan to deal with this?”
“Contrary to popular belief, I don’t have all the answers.” She fixes her free hand on her hip and taps her foot, waiting for him to continue his earlier tirade. Fae influence or not, the insults he’d thrown at her had still burrowed into her mind. He’d hurt her, more than she would ever admit out loud, because he isn’t wrong.
Dougal pushes his tongue against the inside of his cheek as he ponders their next move. With a hefty sigh, he says, “Seems like yer gonna ‘ave to go find Orion.”
Five
Rickety Old Things
“What happened to the whole ‘I can’t protect ye from a Fae prince’ thing?” Rachel raises an eyebrow.
Dougal gives her a mildly infuriated glare, but at the same time she can see the ice in his gaze thawing.
She lifts her free hand up in mock surrender. “Hey, I’m just paraphrasing you.”
“Now is not the time to grow a sense of humor,” he mutters. “How do we get outta here without bein’ seen?”
Rachel points straight ahead, where an emergency exit is situated down the hallway. “Are you good to walk on your own yet?”
“Aye, but we’ll have to walk fast. I’m not keen on gettin’ a repeat performance of whatever that Fae did,” he says, releasing the pendant.
She fastens the necklace around her neck. “I don’t know, you seem to have gotten everything off your chest.”
“Yer pokin’ at the bear, Rach.”
“I’m just having a little fun,” she says.
Ready to leave this unsavory part of Ridge Crest High still in one piece, they head briskly for the faded green double doors.
Dougal glances over his shoulder. His eyes widen as he lengthens his strides, moving faster ahead of her. She instinctively follows his gaze. The boiler room’s door swings open behind them, slamming hard against the wall, wood splintering as a result. Nothing seems to exit the boiler room and there’s no obvious sign of anyone following them, but that’s not saying much.
She turns back to the front, where Dougal is struggling to open the emergency door.
“Push down and forward.” She races to catch up with him.
“I know how to open a bloody door.” He grunts from the effort.
“Push harder.”
She uses her momentum to slam her shoulder into the door, hands grappling for the bar. She pushes along with him.
Dougal cusses in Gaelic as he also repeatedly rams his shoulder into the door. The wooden barrier shakes beneath the assault, threatening to crack from their combined, desperate force.
Gradually, the brass bar gives way underneath. Flecks of rust fall onto the floor, turning her hand brown. The door stops short a hairsbreadth from opening.
“Stand back,” Dougal commands in a gruff voice.
Rachel releases her grip and takes a step away. She surveys the area behind them in the hopes of pinpointing the Fae’s exact location. It’s like searching for a hungry leopard in the African plains. By the time you see a leopard, it’s already too late.
“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,” she says, looking back to Dougal as he struggles.
“I’m doin’ my—”
A grinding screech is followed by a burst of sunlight as the doors open behind her.
“Ye happy?”
She pivots.
Dougal stands in the doorway, his frightened eyes studying the hallway behind her.
After a beat, he focuses on Rachel again. “Are ye waitin’ for a written invitation? Move it,” he says, gesturing to freedom.
They exit the old schoolhouse, jog around the corner of the building, and move through the parking lot. Rachel releases a sigh of relief when she spots her white Hyundai i10 amongst the other parked cars, whereas Dougal keeps casting concerned glances over his shoulder. His paranoia would’ve been infuriating under normal circumstances, but being hunted by creatures from another realm isn’t exactly a common occurrence.
As they run, she rummages around in her sling bag for her keys and feels the cool metallic keychain lodged beneath one of her textbooks.
“Anything?” she asks, tugging at the keychain.
“Aye, and comin’ up fast behind ye.”
Rachel frees her keys from the textbook’s hold and pulls them from her bag. With practiced movements, she finds the fob key by touch alone. A beep signals as the doors unlock. In unison, Rachel and Dougal fling their doors open and throw themselves into the Hyundai’s front seats. The little car is not much in the way of safety, but it’ll hinder the invisible predator’s advances. At least, that’s what Rachel hopes.
As she tries fitting the key into the ignition, Rachel notices the staccato creature approaching the driver’s side, its awkward movements picking up speed. The key slips out of her fingers, dropping onto the mat.
“Move yer arse, Rach,” Dougal says, slapping the dashboard as he stares past her.
She reaches down, frantically searching for the key between her feet. “Hold on a sec.” Her fingertips brush the metal before she swipes up the keychain.
Fitting the key into the ignition takes her longer than necessary.
“Rach—”
The car’s engine starts and the radio blares to life, cutting Dougal off mid-panic. She shifts into first gear and presses her foot on the gas pedal, burning rubber as she races out of the parking space. A loud bang rattles her window. Both of them duck in response.
Rachel doesn’t let up on
