“Who?”
“Mr. Crowe.”
Emme stared. “Nigel Crowe?”
Madeline pointed again at the street, and Emme jerked out of the path of a scuttling creature. “He said he recognized something in me, something that reminded him of someone else he once knew. A nontraditional shifter.” She closed her mouth and winced. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not discuss it.”
“Of course. Please know, though, I have a good listening ear. Isla, too. She would be a wonderful resource.”
The small auto-curricle raced through the night, away from city lights, and Emme was obliged to drive by moonlight.
Maddie pulled a pocket watch from her skirt and released a slow breath. “Twenty minutes—if we are fortunate.”
Emme pushed the car to its limit, and they rode in silence; the only sounds came from the car mechanisms and the steady patter of rain. They eventually wound down the heavily wooded road leading to the family hunting lodge. The huge structure came into view, lit dimly from the interior due to the late hour. She squinted into the darkness, spotting several of her stepfather’s guests gathered at the back lawn, some with lanterns, most with umbrellas or coverings, and nearly all with weapons that glinted in the torchlight.
She pulled the vehicle to the roadside under the trees a distance from the wide front doors. They were ill-prepared for the weather, which grew colder by the minute. Madeline ran quickly around the car to Emme and grasped her arm. “I must retrieve the dungeon keys. I know where Sir Ronald keeps an extra set. We shall have to take a horse through the woods, as it isn’t accessible by auto-curricle.”
They dashed and limped through the rain, and Maddie nudged Emme toward the stables. “Wait here for me. I’ll be five minutes.”
Emme hid in the shadows, and true to her word, Madeline quickly returned. She handed Emme a jacket and thrust her arms into another. She patted her pockets, and a muffled clunk sounded from the keys within.
They skirted the main portion of the garage, and Madeline shoved her behind a barrel when a groom crossed their path. When they were alone again, Maddie quickly pulled out her telescriber and punched in a message.
“Who are you messaging?”
Madeline’s eyes were wide with fear and determination. “Hopefully, an ally.”
They slipped into the stalls where the natural horses were kept, hiding again when a groom called out an answer to someone on the other side of the building. He left the horse he’d been guiding, grumbling about constant interruptions when he had work to do, and slowly ambled away.
“You take that horse,” Madeline whispered, pointing to the animal the groom had just left. “I can ride my own horse bareback.”
As Madeline fetched her mount, Emme moved to the side of the saddled horse. After a few clumsy attempts with fingers that were cold and wet, she managed to pull herself into the saddle, gasping in pain. The stirrups were too long, and she hurriedly adjusted them, grimacing at the condition of her plaster cast, which was wet and muddy.
Maddie emerged from the stall on her mare. “Follow me,” she said, and as Emme drew alongside her, added, “I’ll lead you there, but I may have to get to the lake, if . . . if . . .”
Emme blinked. The lake? She reached over, squeezing Maddie’s hand as they moved forward. “It will be fine. You’ll have time.” She hoped desperately she was right.
Emme fell into line behind her stepsister, following her breakneck pace and feeling a combination of shame and amazement that she’d been so unaware of Maddie’s accomplishments. She spent so much time away from the family that the only time she actually saw her quiet stepsister was when they were all together and Maddie was literally in Lysette’s shadow, likely not cowed but cleverly keeping herself safe.
They wound through the trees, and Emme held her breath as the pain in her ankle exploded. They moved at a pace that made adjusting her foot in the stirrup impossible, and she clenched her teeth to keep from crying out. She shifted and leaned low over the animal’s neck, murmuring quietly, trying to let it have its head, and hoping it would freely follow Madeline’s mare. The horse seemed to understand and put up with Emme’s miserable grasping as it followed the other horse deeper into the woods.
The forest was dark and cold, and the rain continued to fall in steady sheets. The ground was saturated, and the horses’ hooves threw mud behind them as they thundered through the trees and foliage. Madeline occasionally slowed and turned, and after a while, produced a small Tesla torch from her jacket pocket. She switched it on, took a quick look at their location, and then turned her mare again. She switched the light back off, and Emme knew she was avoiding the hunters who had spread out over the acreage. Logic dictated that the hunters would be a fair pace behind, as they were on foot, but Emme’s sense of dread remained.
The horror of what her stepfamily was doing made her ill to the point of nausea. She couldn’t think about it completely, could only hope Madeline would lead her to the place where they could free the imprisoned people before they began to shift. The cruelty of it and the utter humiliation inflicted upon the victims made Emme so angry that tears formed in her eyes.
Madeline veered sharply to the left, around a berm hidden in a thicket, and quickly dismounted. Emme followed, limping to her side at a metal gate that was covered with vines and leaves. Both women breathed heavily, and as Emme gulped and tried to calm her racing heart, she heard faint shouts coming from the other side of the gate.
Madeline again produced her torch, handing it to Emme. Emme shined the light on the gate, finding the locking mechanism. Madeline pulled a pair of large keys from her
