"Gwen lost it again," Natalie announced, gently patting the wolf behind the ears as it twisted and turned around the clearing.

  She maintained an easy balance on its back despite the constant motion. Rachel could see why riding on a wolf or dog was a ridiculous idea, given how sharp and jagged their backs were and how they constantly flexed around while moving. Under any other circumstances it should be completely impractical, but between Natalie's young age and the extreme size of this particular wolf, they made it work. Rachel assumed Natalie had helped grow the wolf somehow, just as Cinza could grow plants, or else she was remarkably lucky to find such a huge specimen roaming the woods of western Washington.

  It had been twenty or thirty minutes at least, and their guide had lost the trail twice. Natalie got more frustrated with every delay. She pulled what looked like jerky out of her bag and chewed on it while waiting for Gwen to find the scent again. Rachel took the opportunity to sit down and rest for a moment. She'd sprinted all the way out into the forest hoping to catch the reverend, and they'd been on the move constantly since. Her legs were feeling like they were about to give up and fall off.

  Kendra came and joined her, looking prim and proper as always, though her clothes were quite a bit more plain than usual. "What happened?" she asked quietly, while they watched Natalie feeding a piece of jerky to the wolf, muttering words they couldn't understand.

  Rachel briefly explained how and why the Reverend had died, and why it was partly her fault, and the whole business with Hector and Julian in town. She even mentioned Cinza and the confrontation in town, though she left out the theft they'd planned for later that night, of course. As she spoke, she was noticing a slight change in how Kendra reacted to everything she said. It was small, but it was enough to finally boil over a revelation that had been brewing in her mind for a while.

  "You're not really Kendra, are you?" Rachel asked quietly.

  Kendra hesitated. "No one's supposed to know," she answered, and her rich, precise diction was gone. She was still definitely British, but she sounded much more relaxed and casual than the Kendra Laushire that Rachel knew. "I'm Lily."

  "I didn't know Kendra had a sister."

  "We want to keep it under the radar. There's plenty out there who'd exploit it if they knew," Lily smiled. "Managed to fool you for years now, and you're probably my best mate."

  "So you two have been swapping out?"

  "Sometimes. Just when we have to. It's a bit mental, yeah, but it's the only way we could keep the damn market open. Kenni'd probably fall apart if she had to do all the teaching and uni business on top of it. So we take turns. Nat knows, but she's cool." Lily laughed. "She kinda had to know, when she walked in on us both in the same room. But get this, cheeky kid just says 'which one of you is the cool one?' like it's no big deal at all. That girl isn't phased by anything."

  "But you two talk and act so differently," Rachel protested. "How could I have never noticed?"

  "Well, see, we grew up in jolly old London, in the highest of society. We had to act proper. But once we got out here, on our own and so far away from dear old dad that no one would ever find us, we got a bit more relaxed. As long as publicly it was still proper, posh and professional Kendra, everything was peachy." She smiled wistfully. "You know, I think Kendra is jealous of me. I get to be everything she wishes she could. She's too set in her ways to really change who she is, but I've got all the freedom I want, except when I need to sub in for her."

  "But why? Why go through all this?"

  "Well, I'm not supposed to exist," Lily said with a wink. "Long long story, but that's the gist of it. Trust me, it'd cause more problems than it'd solve if I popped into the world today."

  Rachel would have asked more, but Natalie was moving. The wolf had turned to face one end of the clearing and growled at the newcomer. Natalie had her hands up, and what seemed to be a stack of kitchen knives were floating in midair around her head, pointed at her target like arrows about to take flight.

  Ryan emerged from the underbrush, his hands raised in surrender. "Holy shit."

  "Ryan, what are you doing here?" Rachel asked, scrambling to her feet.

  "Will sent us. Hey, Josh, get out here before you get eaten by something." Josh, looking as though he wished he were anywhere else in the world, cautiously walked into the clearing. His eyes were fixed on the wolf.

  "William sent you?" asked Lily.

  "Yeah, apparently Rachel sent up the bat signal. You seem okay to me," Ryan added, glancing up and down her body. His eyes lingered in a few particular spots, and Rachel felt a little more disgusted with him. She had to remind herself what he'd done that afternoon and his value in general before she started talking.

  "Reverend Smith is dead, and Robert Harrison's about to start a riot in town. We need all the help we can get." She frowned. "How did you find us anyway?"

  "Easy, I was already out here. I was making sure Nate didn't get killed on the way home." Ryan looked back over his shoulder. "Ran into the greycloaks a while back. They were already gathering for some sort of ritual for the night. Josh was there as a witness when we got the call, and they clearly didn't want us there, so we fucked off." He shrugged. "Your boyfriend's good at directions. Too good."

  "Rachel, what do you mean a riot?" Josh asked.

  "I mean he thinks that the greycloaks are responsible, and he's about to form a lynch mob," Rachel said. "What sort of ritual were they doing?" If Cinza had the Scrap and was planning to read it that night, then Rachel couldn't bring them to help—but if it were anything else, they should be making all haste.

  "You think I pay attention to those?" Josh shrugged. "Doesn't really matter though, does it? If Robert's pissed and they see anything like Cinza's usual tricks, there'll be blood. A lot of blood."

  Rachel couldn't deny it. They had to go. She'd just have to get Cinza to hide the Scrap and all knowledge of it before they arrived. Between Natalie, Cinza and Makoto, Rachel just hoped they had enough firepower to hold off the mob. "Lead the way, then, Josh."

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  After a few minutes of blind wandering, it became obvious Josh had no clue how to navigate through the woods at all, much less at night. With an amused smirk, Natalie brought Gwen up close. Josh shut his eyes tight and was muttering rapidly under his breath while the huge wolf sniffed his clothes. Natalie pronounced his scent caught, and they were off.

----------------------------------------

  Rachel was growing increasingly uneasy by the way the shadows deepened over time. It seemed to be getting darker much faster than usual. Was it natural? Or was Rachel just increasingly paranoid in a world where she had no idea what was actually possible anymore? Case in point, she was watching a little girl in a black dress and a pink unicorn rain jacket currently whispering to a wolf easily three or four times her size and ordering it around. Rachel didn't really have grounds to question anything anymore.

  Natalie had called them to a halt once again as the wolf looked up and sniffed the air. After a few moments, it turned to face Rachel, as did the rest of the group.

  "What?"

  "Don't you hear that?" Natalie asked. Rachel strained her ears, and finally she caught a faint humming sound coming from her bag.

  "How did you hear that?" Ryan asked her incredulously.

  "My ears are better than yours, and I don't smell so bad."

  "Kid, when you get older, you'll fuckin' love somethi—"

  Josh clapped a hand over Ryan's mouth before he said anything further, and Lily shot him a dark look. Rachel dug into her pocket and withdrew her phone, which was indeed buzzing away with the third or fourth attempted phone call.

  "Will, I'm so sorry, I was out of signal range."

  "I know," Will's voice crackled through the speaker. It wasn't great quality, but it was enough, and Rachel felt warmth spreading from the speaker through her brain. Just hearing his voice was enough to bring a measure of comfort. "Are you okay?"

  "Yes. I'm with Natalie, Kendra, Josh and Ryan. You sent them?"

  "Kendra, Josh and Ryan, yeah. I also called Jackie, Boris and Cinza, but I think they're a bit busy with what's going on here."

  "What's going on?"

  Will sounded like he was running, which was already unusual. In an emergency he was usually at his computer, where he felt he was most useful. "There's a lot of shouting and people are looking for a fight. I heard more than a few people yelling 'justice for Jenny' and some brutal stuff about Cinza's people. Rachel, I don't think they're gonna back down this time."

  "Did you get anything back from Jackie?" Rachel asked, as a sense of impending doom settled in the pit of her stomach.

  "Nothing. Listen, Rachel, there's something else too. I just felt a massive spike of magical energy in town at Boris' shop. Bigger than anything I've ever felt. It's gotta be him. I think something serious is going down there right now."

  Rachel's thoughts were split in half. She was thinking at a mile a minute, but every single time she leaned toward one approach, she began arguing herself back toward the other path.

  Did she go to Cinza and help her? The greycloak leader had become a friend, and one she trusted more than almost anyone in the world these days. Rachel wanted to help her and protect her. She was brave and kind and she deserved better than to face a lynch mob alone and unsupported.

  On the other hand, what Will had just told her was the first real lead they'd had on Omega ever. He was in town, in a location she knew and could reach. It might be her only chance to stop him before real permanent damage was done, may Smith and Jenny rest in peace. The riot and the mob were borne of problems Omega had created. If she could bring him low and lay him before the town, give them the malevolent they'd been hunting, couldn't that be enough to stop the bloodshed?

  Rachel didn't know what to do. She wanted to curl up and cry. The shock of seeing the reverend broken and burned still hadn't left her, and she wasn't sure it ever would. She was being asked to make impossible choices and it wasn't fair. All she'd wanted to do was help save the world. Why did the world have to make it so difficult to be saved?

  "Rachel?" Will's voice crackled again. The group was watching her with baited breath. She was the leader, after all. She had to make the call. Rachel had chosen to take that responsibility.

  What sort of idiot asks for this?

  Cinza's people were well-trained and well provisioned. The majority of them had magic, and Rachel had no doubt that she'd taught them combat techniques in preparation for a day like this. Rachel could send Natalie to back them up—the girl was a skeptic like the rest of them, but she wasn't unfriendly to the group as a whole. With her terrifying new friends, Rachel could see Natalie scaring away the more timid of the mob. As soon as even a portion began to falter, the group was that much more likely to break down. Mobs thrived on cohesion and feedback loops; as soon as anything external broke the loop, the mob was poisoned.

  But if Rachel was going up against Omega, she was going to need all the help she could get. Ryan and Josh weren't the sort of powerhouse duo she'd have preferred, and they still didn't exactly get along. Natalie was one of the rare few Rachel had noticed with a talent for magic that seemed to be far beyond the usual means. Kendra (or is it Lily? Rachel mused) was another, and Hector was a third. If she was going to go toe-to-toe with a god, Rachel wanted them at her side.

  The group wasn't paying Rachel any attention, busy getting outraged at a tasteless comment from Ryan. Rachel dialed Hector's phone, but only got a full voicemail message. She didn't really have any more backup she could call on. All she had were the people in front of her, and she needed them all with what she could be walking into.

  With a heavy heart, Rachel made up her mind. As much as she'd grown to like the girl, Cinza would have to fend for herself.

  "We're going back into town."

  "We're what now?" Josh asked.

  "Omega's there, right now, in Boris' shop."

  "Hell no," Ryan shouted. "I'm out."

  "Fuck you too, Ryan," Josh snapped. "Rachel, are you sure?"

  "Ninety-nine percent," Rachel answered. "You don't have to come with me, but I can't do this alone. If I go in by myself, I'm probably dead."

  "And now you're gonna guilt-trip us? Fucking hell, Rachel," Ryan grumbled.

  "If you don't want to come, don't. I don't need you." Rachel turned and walked across the clearing to Natalie, who was busy scratching behind the ears of her wolf. She knelt down cautiously in front of the girl—but with her height, Rachel still felt like she towered over the kid. It was a stark reminder of how young Natalie was, still growing and changing.

  Rachel faltered. How could she ask Natalie to follow her into this? She was still a child. She wasn't responsible for any of this. Rachel's plans were predicated on having the firepower of Kendra and Natalie at her back, but could she really send a twelve year old girl into a battle with a murderous god and live with herself afterward?

  "What?" Natalie asked. Her eyes were still bright and warm, while Rachel felt impossibly cold and afraid. She felt like she was about to step over a line that she could never return from.

  "Natalie, I need you to come help me fight someone."

  "Rachel, no—" Lily started, but Rachel held up a hand. Lily fell silent, but her eyes were narrow and blazing with disapproval.

  Natalie brushed her hair back behind her ear casually. "Is it the bad guy? The one who killed Jenny?"

  "Yes," Rachel answered, and the pit in her stomach grew tenfold. It wasn't a lie, but… "He's at Boris' bookshop right now. I don't know why or who else is there, but we have to stop him before he hurts anyone else."

  She nodded. In a smooth motion that would have put any professional equestrian to shame, Natalie took up her spot on the back of the gray wolf. It growled in a low menacing rumble that made them all wince, but Natalie scratched at it again and the growl became almost a purr. Natalie's cat sidled up next to the pair and rubbed against the wolf, but the wolf's fierce eyes were locked on Rachel.

  "For Jenny," Natalie said.

  Rachel nodded, while echoes of the war cry of the mob flitted through her ears. Visions of Cinza's people being run down and attacked in the dark night blazed in her mind, but Rachel fought back against her own conscience with thoughts of Omega blasting the town apart and killing them all, one by one.

  He had to be stopped.