“Go,” he whispered in Leon’s ear, nudging him back toward the open air of the park. “Go.” Leon skittered away, working himself back out of the alcove. Daniel followed after him, trying to move as quickly as he could without letting the whole world know where they were.
“Hold up,” he heard someone say—not one of theirs. One of them. The mage. “I think-”
“You see something?” the mage’s friend said. He sounded eager. Daniel wriggled faster.
Leon grabbed his shoulder, hauling him out from behind the shed. Together they crouched alongside the wooden walls, dragging James out.
He still looked like hell. Daniel winced. But, he was moving, and he looked pissed, and that would have to be good enough.
“Over there,” the mage said, conviction filling his voice. Daniel’s blood chilled. They were...close. Too close. The shed dropped them back out onto a narrow path, bordered by the same rocky centerpiece they’d skirted around before. “They’re that way. And- they’re-”
“Go,” Daniel gasped, snagging Olivia’s wrist and hauling her upright as she squirmed out of the gap. “Run.”
Yells broke out behind them as they took off sprinting again. Daniel glanced back.
Figures—three of them. One of them, he recognized from James’ house. The way he raised his hands, arms outstretched, was too familiar to mistake.
“Go!” Daniel cried, twisting back. His hands were sweating, but he grabbed hold of his pistol again, pulling it free.
Leon grabbed hold of his jacket, hauling him another few steps down the path. But- the mage was doing something. He was casting.
Daniel’s arms steadied. Sucking in a breath of air, he leveled the gun, and-
For a moment, pinned in his crosshairs, he saw the mage’s eyes widen. Just for a moment, the man’s focus faded, exposing something beneath.
Fear.
The gun bucked in his grasp. The roar of it echoed around the park, bouncing off concrete and stone until it filled his ears.
Heat exploded off the side of the shed, bursting into flames that sent off gouts of sparks.
The mage lurched—and pulled himself back upright, clapping a hand to his shoulder. Even despite the distance, Daniel could see the stain spreading across his shirt.
He’d shot someone.
“Come on!” Leon cried, right in his ear. His hold on Daniel wasn’t so delicate, anymore. He dragged him away, toward an enormous wood-and-cobblestone windmill at the end of the row. “Keep moving!”
Their pursuers were scattering, dragging their wounded companion with them, but Daniel knew it wasn’t over. Indira would never let him get away so easily, and the golden shield around the park still glowed down from above.
And now they knew hiding wouldn’t work.
They couldn’t wait this one out.
“Which way?” he heard Olivia call from the front of the group. She had a hand on James’ back, steering him onward. “Where should we-”
“Left!” Leon called back. “Take a left!”
Smart. Their pursuers were trying to circle—so they’d have to stay a step ahead. Daniel bolted after Olivia, but his eyes lingered on James. He was slow. It wasn’t his fault, but...it would be a problem, soon.
“W-We...We have to stop them,” he gasped, shooting a look at Leon- who cast a terrified glance right back.
“What? W-What are you talking about?”
“We...can’t keep running.” He swallowed, darting around the backside of the windmill, and nearly tripped over the green-felted playing field. His eyes flicked up, catching a glimmer of movement.
A figure, climbing the side of the golf park’s central building. A figure with a gun slung over his shoulder.
“We need to- We have to turn the tables,” Daniel spat. His legs were already aching. Damn it, he was stronger than this. “Catch them off guard. And then-”
“Damn it- I said wait!” a voice cried from behind them. There was an urgency contained in their words that screamed of a deep-seated fear. Something like that, he couldn’t ignore. Daniel looked back.
And then he ducked to the side, biting back a yelp as gunfire cracked across the park again. Something slammed into the windmill—’something’, he said, as though it wasn’t damn clear they were bullets.
“Owl!” he heard James rasp from ahead, the bigger man crumpling behind a shrubbery. “Y-You have a gun. Use the damn thing!”
Right. He did. He turned back, slowing long enough to raise his weapon.
All he had to do was point it at them and pull the trigger. He’d practiced. He’d trained for years, damn it. How could he fail now?
When he leveled the gun, though, all he could see was that man stumbling back—and the red dripping down his clothes.
His hands wobbled. The sights wavered, nowhere near stable. He sucked in a breath, stumbling back a step, and-
The foliage around them flickered, the air shuddering in one final warning. The whole thing erupted into crackling flames a heartbeat later. James screamed, pulling back. Olivia dragged him away, batting at his clothes.
Daniel fired, but already, he knew it was too late. The cluster of mages following them ducked down another path.
Leon’s hand closed around his again. “I guess that bastard was fine,” Daniel heard him hiss.
“We’re- We have to keep moving,” Daniel said, swaying. “Come on. Let’s-”
“Are you goin’ to use that damn thing?” James said, looming alongside him. The man’s face was tight-drawn, a mask of tension.
Daniel shrank back, still scanning for any sight of pursuit. “W-What? I don’t-”
“Give it to me, if you’re not going to.” James said, grabbing at the pistol in Daniel’s hand.
Leon started forward, a protesting noise slipping from his throat.
Daniel could have argued with James. He could have given him a lecture about how trying to wrestle a gun away from someone was a good way to wind up shot in the foot.
Instead, he just let James take the gun, sliding his hand from the grip. It wasn’t like he was doing any good with it.
“We just have to get the jump on them,” he whispered instead, shrinking lower. “They’re...something’s going on.”
“They want you,” Olivia muttered, dropping down beside him. “Alive. Indira does, anyway, and she’s the one
