Dark Stars by Danielle Rollins (best affordable ebook reader txt) 📕

Zora cracked off three more shots, not hitting anyone but keeping them back. “Where’s our boat?”

Dorothy didn’t have time to answer. A Freak charged at her, and there was a crash as her dagger met his. The Freak grunted and threw his weight against his weapon, causing Dorothy to stumble back a few steps. Another Freak approached from behind, and Dorothy opened her mouth to yell a warning, but Zora didn’t need it. Just as the Freak drew back to strike, Zora whipped around, drawing the butt of her gun against his cheek, and knocking him from the dock. The Freak fell into the water with a splash.

Dorothy peered over her shoulder. That headlight didn’t seem to be coming any closer. She grabbed Zora’s arm. “Come on!”

Together, they raced down the docks, skidding to a stop at the place where they forked. Here, the distance between the dock and the parking garage was narrowest and—without bothering to stop and think of what might happen if she didn’t make it—Dorothy leaped—

Thud! She hit the ground still running and stumbled, pain shooting up through her knees. But she could see the boat now, bobbing in the black water, Chandra crouched inside.

“Sorry!” Chandra shouted. She appeared to be fumbling with something. Dorothy heard a growl, and then a whine as the motor died. “I can’t get this damn thing started.”

Another thud and Zora tumbled onto the dock after them. She pushed herself back to her feet and let a few bullets loose at the surrounding Freaks.

“What’s taking so long?” she demanded.

“The motor,” Dorothy said, as a bullet whizzed past her face. She swore, one hand flying to her cheek.

Zora didn’t look down, didn’t even pause in her shooting, just grabbed the motor’s cord out of Chandra’s hand and gave it a single, hard yank. Chandra yelped as the motor growled to life.

“How did you do that?” she demanded.

Dorothy didn’t wait for Zora to answer. She jumped into the boat, ducking as another bullet whizzed over her head. Zora climbed in behind her.

“Whatever you do, don’t let me fall in!” Zora told her. She crouched at the back of the boat, facing toward the docks so she could aim her gun at the still-approaching Freaks. Dorothy grabbed a handful of leather and held tight, as the boat zoomed forward.

Dorothy heard the sound of gunshots in the distance, the cackle of laughter. But they were fading, growing distant as they sped away. Until, finally, there was nothing.

12

Dorothy peered out over the black water. The Cirkus Freaks were long behind them and, in the darkness, all she could see were the shapes of rooftops jutting out of the waves like icebergs. She reached out to touch the side of one as they floated past and found it hard and grainy beneath her fingers, covered in a layer of moss. Only the ghostly white trees broke up the darkness. Their white branches stretched into a canopy above their heads, and the bark appeared to be glowing.

Dorothy had always thought those dead white trees looked like cobwebs. In fact, the whole of New Seattle had always given her the impression of something alive growing over the bones of a long-dead corpse.

She swallowed and curled her fingers around the edge of the boat, pushing the morbid thought from her mind.

Zora’s voice rumbled behind her. “I think we finally lost them.”

“Good,” huffed Chandra. She glanced behind her, eyes flicking from Dorothy to Zora as though looking for support. “Come on, it’s a good thing, right? We celebrate now?”

“Hardly,” Dorothy murmured, absently touching the locket hanging from her neck. “We might’ve lost them, but they’re going to turn the city upside down looking for us. It’s not like anywhere we go now is actually safe.”

To Chandra, Zora said, “I think that what she meant to say was thank you both so much for saving my ass.” Then, turning back to Dorothy with a smirk, she added, “It was nothing, really.”

“I’m grateful, of course,” Dorothy murmured, lowering her eyes. The words seemed insufficient to describe what she was feeling. How, exactly, was she to make it clear how touched she’d been that Zora had come for her? Zora didn’t trust her, and Dorothy knew she was still half convinced that she’d killed her best friend, and yet she’d taken on Mac and the Black Cirkus just to break her free. It was loyalty beyond anything Dorothy had ever known. Not that that was saying much, but still.

“Don’t mention it,” Zora said, gruff as always. Dorothy’s gratitude seemed to make her uncomfortable, and she became, suddenly, very interested in a loose cuticle near her thumbnail. “What were you trying to do back there, anyway?” she asked. “Because, from the outside, it looked like you were committing suicide by way of psychotic gang.”

“Not exactly.” Dorothy hesitated a moment, trying to figure out how much to reveal. At any other time in her life, she would have lied. The exotic matter and the Professor’s discovery were valuable bargaining chips. Who knew how useful they might be later, if she needed a little leverage?

But Chandra and Zora had just risked their lives to break her out of the Fairmont. It had softened her. She couldn’t imagine trying to manipulate or blackmail them now. They deserved the truth.

And so, exhaling, she found herself telling them everything. “I was in Roman’s room early this morning, looking for . . . well, looking for money, if I’m being perfectly honest. I’m broke and, as I’m anticipating being on the run, I figured I’d need everything I could get my hands on.”

She waited, eyes shifting from Zora to Chandra, to see whether either of them would pass judgment on her, but they stayed silent.

“I didn’t find any money,” she continued, after a moment, “but he had these . . . these papers hidden in his bedside table.”

Zora, blinking, said, “Papers?”

“Journal entries,” Dorothy clarified. “They’re from the Professor’s journal. I recognized the handwriting from the last time.”

A year ago, to Dorothy, and