Black Holes - The Mors Mortis Trilogy Book 3

Chapter Eleven

"Okay. Does everyone remember the plan?"

Zarah wasn't entirely sure how she'd ended up here: crouched inside the trashed Coffee Club with two revolvers strapped to her waist, just around the corner from the police station.

After Riley fled yesterday, it'd taken Danny and Zarah an hour to get back to his apartment, and another for Cassandra to return. Zarah wasn't sure where Cassandra had disappeared to, or what she'd done, but when she came back all the vulnerability Riley had dredged up was gone, hidden behind that steely calm Zarah was used to seeing.

It hadn't taken Danny long to give Cassandra the rundown on what they'd found out. Outrage had filled Cassandra's expression, ardent enough to rival Danny's.

And then, they'd started planning.

"Zarah?"

Zarah looked up to find Danny and Cassandra watching her, their faces carefully neutral. They were dressed in black, with weapons slung across their chests, around their waists.

They looked deadly, competent, and Zarah flushed.

"Yes," Zarah said, swallowing down the unease. "I remember the plan. We get in and out. We don't stop for anyone except Leah or Jared."

Cassandra and Danny nodded, completely calm, and Zarah felt the abyss that separated her from them as if it had taken physical form.

Cassandra and Danny had done this sort of thing enough times that it was almost second nature to them. When they'd gone to bed last night, they'd slept peacefully. When they ate this morning, they'd enjoyed it.

In comparison, Zarah had spent the night staring out the window, shaky breaths fogging the glass; and her breakfast had been nothing more than a glass of water, metallic on her tongue.

"Remember," Cassandra said, clapping Zarah on the back and giving an encouraging smile. "Whatever you do here isn't permanent. Everyone's already dead. Everyone will come back. You're not going to ruin anyone's lives."

Zarah swallowed and looked down at her gun. She knew Cassandra was right. Death didn't mean the same thing here that it did in the live world, simply because the consequences weren't so irreversible. But she'd always clung to the rules that'd governed her former life, anyway. Most people here did.

"I know," Zarah said.

"Good." Cassandra stood, slinging one of her guns out and cocking it. "You just need to hold up the back. Danny and I will do most of the work."

Zarah nodded and Cassandra climbed out the broken window before Zarah could baulk again.

Danny hovered a moment longer. His eyes were undulating plain of grey-green; heavy with worry.

"You don't need to come, you know," he said. "You can wait here. Cassandra and I will manage."

Zarah looked up at him, at the careful way he watched her, and felt something inside her loosen.

This wasn't what she wanted. Not at all. Ever since her parents disappeared, she'd wanted nothing more than to curl into the foetal position and sleep until this was over. But Danny and Cassandra were perhaps the only chance the world had left, and if they needed her help, there wasn't really a choice.

"It's fine," she said. "I'm coming."

Before Danny could ask again, she stood, stepping past him and over the broken glass. Danny's body brushed hers for a second, his breath ghosting along the shell of her ear, and then she was outside, pressing back against the wall of the shop and following Cassandra's slow progression towards the police station.