Forty-six
Bronwyn landed on Down Street, climbing from her cockpit with confusion in her gaze. Victoria quickly thanked her and climbed into the cockpit, Graham following in after with the rock in his gloved hand.
“If we can get the Kreak through to Chicago,” Graham said as the hatch lowered, closing them inside, “it will turn back into the humans who are a part of it.”
“You’re sure?” Victoria gauged, checked her situation, readjusting her seat, and wrapping her hands around Bronwyn’s joystick. This wasn’t Elsie, but she couldn’t very well take the time to run down a hovney, order it back to the Aviatory, and retrieve her own plane. The Kreak was nearing the shore and any moment it would break through their defenses.
“Yep,” said Graham from behind her.
She triggered the ignition, noticing how low Bronwyn’s fuel gauges were. There was nothing to be done for it—they had to go now, before the Kreak decided it was done batting at the other planes, or worse, before their fuel ran out as well.
She made speed, lifting at the end of the street and climbing into the sky. Determination settled into her bones. She felt more right with herself than she ever had. She knew who she’d been. She knew who she was now. She knew what she wanted in that moment, and was determined to let nothing stop her.
“Break for the shore,” Victoria called in her headset as she approached the other three planes. “I’ve got it from here.”
“Good luck,” said Emma.
The planes circled around in retreat. The Kreak’s head whipped in their direction, its clockwork eyes clicking.
Victoria’s stomach plummeted. It couldn’t go back to the town, not now.
“How do we get it to follow us?” Graham said, voicing her doubts.
“Hold on.” She pitched the joystick to the left, hard. The plane responded, jolting and juddering, and it took every ounce of control she had to make it circle the brute’s head. Faster, faster, faster around she went. The beast reeled, whipping its head back, struggling to catch her. It lunged forward with a massive splash that rippled toward the shore now twenty feet away.
“You’re making it angry,” he said.
“That’s the idea.”
She continued taunting it, flying in as close as she could, then pulling back, zipping to its head, then rearing and causing it to hit itself as it swung for her. Again, she circled its head before spearing off at the last minute, off toward the edge of her world.
The Kreak released a deafening howl. The waves from its motion began at once, surging high and wide. The Kreak shot from them, glittering and enraged, its mouth gaping wide as with silver teeth.
“It’s moving fast, and so must we,” Victoria said. She tried remembering the coordinates that had appeared when she’d bounded back from the farmlands the day she’d taken Graham to find Wolverton. Going too far would mean subjecting the farmers on the other side to the Kreak instead, taking it farther than it needed to be from the very water they so desperately needed.
“It’s working,” Graham said, hammering a hand on the back of her seat. “It’s working!”
From her reflective mirrors, she could see the monster cycling after her, swimming in the direction she headed.
Energy filled her. She choked back the fear attempting to burble in her throat. This was for Dahlia. This was for Graham, for the town, for their memories and the lives they’d each lost.
“Open your hatch,” Graham said behind her. “This is far enough.”
“Are you sure?”
“Open it!”
She slammed her hand against the hatch release at the same moment the Kreak vaulted itself up from the water, up, into the sky. The monstrous creature, its sea-stained metal dripping with algae and foam, barreled straight for them.
She released a cry as the Kreak struck her plane, spinning it in midair. Air crushed her in a rush through the open hatch, popping her ears, whirling her hair.
Graham shouted behind her. “Close it! Close it!”
“No!” Victoria’s restraints fought the pull of gravity with every whirl. She couldn’t close it, not now. She braced herself with her feet, struggling to regain control. The gauges in her dashboard screeched, but no matter how hard she jerked on the controls, it would not respond.
They were at a tailspin.
“We’re going down!” she cried.
“Hold on!” Graham called.
“Heaven help us!” she muttered, her heart thundering. Thinking fast, she released the joystick and applied full rudder in the opposite direction of their tailspin. The plane lurched, shooting her hard to the left, halting their rotation.
Her head rattled, making her dizzy. Victoria gripped the joystick, struggling to keep control.
“Let’s not ever do that again,” Graham said. She heard his restraints click as he unbuckled them.
“Be careful,” Victoria said, scanning the sea for a sign of the Kreak. There it was, swimming directly beneath them, its jaws gaping open as if waiting for their descent. “Now, Graham! Throw it now!”
He didn’t hesitate. He took aim and with a grunt, chucked it as hard as he could into the sea below.
Every second they had to wait was agony. She couldn’t leave too soon or the Kreak would follow. She had to time it just so.
She closed the hatch, waiting. Pulsing.
Purple light splashed across her vision in an instant, opening to an almost blinding whiteness.
She braced herself against the dashboard. “No. No, no, no, I faced this, I faced it!”
“It’s not you, Tori! It’s working! Go! Get us out of here!”
A seam ripped straight through the sky, tearing invisible stitches and leaving a gape. Victoria gasped at its pull, but she pushed the throttle, powering her plane to fight it, to go, get to shore. An earsplitting howl crackled through the air, tugging at her ears, her stomach, her teeth. She wanted to pull back, to release and let it consume her.
But there was no going backward. Only forward.
She gritted her teeth and gave the throttle all she had. Her plane lost altitude. Her fuel gauges were dangerously low.
“Prepare for impact!” she warned Graham, readying the eject nozzle and praying they were far enough away.
With a final glance behind, she saw it. The purple, glorious sky swallowed the Kreak whole, knocking back a drink of ocean for good measure. Within moments, the beam vanished, shooting them forward to crash into the sand.