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.“Get away from her!” Rebecca shouted.Her voice was shaky and weak with fear.“Shut up! You're coming with us now.Try anything and we'll kill you both.” The Thrall kicked her.Rebecca screamed.She gripped her ribs, where she had been kicked.She tried to roll off it.Her ankle surged with pain when she moved.She was pinned.On her side, she could feel something pressing into her hip.The gun.The realisation sparked to life that neon sign in her mind.Protect Ashley! Rebecca reached into her pocket.She drew her gun.Rebecca aimed at the Thrall standing over her.“Get back!” she shouted.Whatever confidence she may have felt was smothered beneath her fear.The Thrall laughed.“Don’t be an idiot.Are you going to shoot me? You don’t think someone would hear?” Rebecca held her weapon tight.She knew the Thrall was right.She didn’t care.She fired.“I’ve got your f—" The delivery boy stopped.His mouth hung open.The Thrall screamed.Rebecca fired again.The Thrall stumbled against the wall.Rebecca scrambled to her feet.She swung around and levelled her handgun at the other Thrall.She fired.It missed and put a hole in the wall.Ashley dropped to the ground, huddling in fright.The Thrall was confused.Everything had suddenly gone to hell.She fired.This time the bullet hit.The Thrall dropped.She fired.He wasn’t moving any more.“Get in the car.” Ashley ran from the room.Rebecca tucked the small gun into her pocket.She could feel its heat against her leg.She noticed the delivery boy for the first time.She took the plastic bag hanging loosely in his fingers.She waited a second, wondering how to explain what was going on.“Smells good,” she said and then ran to the car.Suddenly she was running again.Now they had somewhere to run to.As the fear began to subside, Rebecca felt the warmth of hope creeping up inside her.China.This time the word sounded good.The word sounded safe.The word was a long way away from dead Thralls in motel rooms.Rebecca and Ashley spent the night parked outside the Tamworth airport.The car smelt of spaghetti Bolognese and baked potato.It was a warm, friendly smell and it helped Ashley to relax.Ashley fell asleep easily with her head resting on her seatbelt.She had fallen asleep before they even reached the airport.Ashley found the movement of the car soothing.The passing street lights formed a hypnotic pattern.Light, dark, light, dark, light, dark.The radio played a sad song like a lullaby.She wasn’t awake for long once she’d finished eating.Peaceful sleep came easy to her in the comfortable protection of the car.It was her blanket and her shell.She was feeling safe and sound as only a child can when it’s warm and her loving parents were no further than a room away.Rebecca wasn’t feeling safe.Once she’d parked the car and eaten, she shifted quietly in her seat and tossed her head back and forth.She was wide awake, jumping at shadows and listening, dreading that she might hear sirens.There were none.Eventually she fell asleep.She woke up a couple of hours later.The sky was still dark but there were no stars hanging over the airport.She looked over at Ashley: She was still asleep.She closed her eyes and tried to get comfortable again.Rebecca slept, or at least thought she slept, for another hour.The clock read 6:22.Rebecca yawned and sat up.Everything was still and silent.Rebecca thought of turning on the radio but stopped herself, thinking it might wake Ashley.She sighed, somewhere between relief and a lingering fear.Ashley woke up a few hours later and stretched her arms over her head.“Where are we?”“The airport,” Rebecca told her and then went on to explain what they were going to do.“China?” Ashley asked when Rebecca was finished.“Yeah.It’ll probably be a long flight but we’ll be safe.”“Are you sure?”“Yes.” Rebecca wasn’t sure at all.“Edward is related to Lord Sebastian.He’ll take care of us just like Lord Sebastian did.You can probably go back to learning magic.”“What about you?”“I’ll still be there to take care of you.”“Okay,” Ashley said.Then Rebecca saw, for the first time ever, Ashley smiled at her.“Let’s go to China.”Rebecca nodded.She became aware that she was still carrying the gun in her pocket and wondered how she’d manage to get past security with it.She spent some time looking through the car for a bag.There wasn’t one and she decided just to stash the gun and the motel room keys in the glove compartment.Once again she had only what she had in her pockets when they left Lord Sebastian’s castle – her wallet and her own mobile phone; the battery had gone flat by then.She took the phone she found in the car with her and put it in her pocket next to her own.Rebecca took Ashley by the hand and began walking through the parking lot to the airport entrance.She was starting to feel naked.She got the feeling that Thralls could show up anywhere and at any time and now she couldn’t fight them at all.She was at the mercy of whatever fate would throw at her from this point on.She walked into the airport and the cold, conditioned air washed over her.She hoped that they could get away safely.She just wanted to get on her plane without being stopped by any thralls or police or security guards.Rebecca went mechanically through the airport.She passed through security and boarded the small white private jet with clockwork precision.Ashley’s hand never left hers and she didn’t smile.Despite her inhuman behaviour, she was now on the plane waiting for it to take off and that’s all that mattered.Rebecca looked back on it from the comfort of her seat, hardly remembering how she'd got there from the parking lot.That wasn’t important though.They were safe.“I’ve never been on an aeroplane before.”“What?” Rebecca looked over at Ashley.She was staring out the window at the other planes taxiing around the airport.“I said I’ve never been on an aeroplane before.Have you?”“No [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]