We rounded a corner and a bridge loomed up in the distance, arching over this section of the Bloodiron River. I used to be wary of the bridge, and especially of the lochness monster that lived underneath it, but not anymore. The lochness was going to save us, just the way it had Devon and me once before.

“We just have to get across the bridge!” I yelled to the others. “Blake won’t be able to follow us, and we can disappear into the alleys!”

Deah looked confused, but Devon and Felix both nodded, some of the tension easing in their red, sweaty faces.

We ran on. Devon’s compulsion magic weakened and finally faded away altogether in the others, who began to slow down. I could have kept right on running, with the magic and strength still pumping through my veins, but I eased my pace to match theirs. We needed to stick together no matter what.

The bridge loomed up before us and I risked another glance over my shoulder. Blake and his guards had closed the gap again and were much closer than before. Blake had his phone clutched up against his ear as he ran, barking orders at whoever was on the other end, but I wasn’t worried. Once we reached the bridge we’d be safe—

Headlights flared to life in the distance.

I squinted against the harsh, unexpected glare. An SUV had turned onto the street on the far side of the bridge and was closing in fast on the span. The vehicle’s headlights clearly illuminated us, like four deer out on the road late at night, before it swerved to the side and stopped, blocking off the far end of the bridge. My heart sank as I spotted the symbol emblazoned on the SUV’s doors—a snarling dragon crest.

The vehicle ahead of us belonged to the Draconis. Blake was still coming up behind us, and now he’d cut off our escape route on the other side of the bridge.

Trapped.

We were trapped.

CHAPTER TEN

The others spotted the SUV at the same time I did, and we all skidded to a stop right before we would have stepped onto the lochness bridge.

Deah blinked. “That’s a Draconi car.”

“We’re cut off,” Devon said in a tense voice.

“Now what?” Felix asked. “Because Blake and his guards will be here in a minute, and we can’t fight them all off.”

Devon squared his shoulders and turned to face Blake and the oncoming guards. “You guys run. If you hurry¸ you can get away from the bridge, duck into one of the alleys that we just passed, and sprint out the far end. I’ll stay behind and hold them off as long as I can. It’s my job as the Family bruiser. Besides, I’m the one that Blake really wants. You heard what Victor said about capturing all the Sinclair leaders. I’m the only one he doesn’t have yet.”

His mouth tightened into a grim slash and he raised his sword and stepped forward, calmly facing Blake and the approaching guards.

But I wasn’t about to let Devon sacrifice himself for us. Not when I knew that Blake would probably kill him, despite Victor’s orders, just for making Blake chase us. So I whirled around and around, trying to figure some way out of this mess. I’d thought that once we’d gotten across the lochness bridge, we’d be safe, but Blake had cut off our escape route by sending that SUV to the opposite side. And despite what Devon said, we couldn’t go back, not now, not with Blake and his men getting closer and closer by the second.

Desperate, my head snapped left and right, my gaze scanning the surrounding buildings, searching for a ladder or a fire escape or even a drainpipe that we might climb up to at least get off the street and give me a few more moments to think.

But there was nothing. No ladders, no fire escapes, no drainpipes. Just the rundown warehouses and the bridge and the dark, glimmering surface of the river below where the lochness made its home—

The river.

My head whipped around again. The lochness had saved Devon and me once before when we’d been on the bridge because I had paid its toll. I wondered if the creature would do the same thing if we actually went down to the water where it lived.

Monsters are your friends. Never forget that. Seleste’s voice whispered in my mind. That was the prophecy, the warning, the message she’d given me last night. I just hoped that her words were true. That the lochness really was my friend and that I wasn’t about to get eaten, along with my friends.

Only one way to find out.

“This way!” I hissed. “Down the riverbank!”

“What?” Deah hissed back at me. “Are you crazy? A lochness lives under this bridge! It’ll drag us into the river and drown us before it eats us. And that’s if we’re lucky.”

“Trust me. This is our only option. Now let’s go.”

Still holding on to my stolen sword, I raced over to the bridge, using my free hand to shove up my black suit jacket and dig into one of the hidden slots on my belt. I didn’t have time to sprint out to the stone marked with three Xs in the center of the bridge where you were supposed to leave your tribute, but I was hoping that the lochness wouldn’t be too picky about where I put the coins, as long as it got paid. So I grabbed all the quarters I had in my belt and slapped them down on the stone column at this end of the bridge. Then I sprinted back toward my friends.

“This way! Follow me! Hurry!”

A wide swath of grass ran alongside the bridge before gently sloping down and running all the way to the water’s edge. It would have been a pretty picnic spot, but none of the locals ever stayed close to this part of the river for long, knowing that it was the lochness’s territory. Several black-and-white monster warning signs were also planted in the grass to keep the tourist rubes away. DON’T FEED THE LOCHNESS.

But I sprinted past the warning signs and scrambled down the bank anyway, hoping that I hadn’t just made it that much easier for the creature to snatch us up with its long, black tentacles. All the while, I kept listening, hoping to hear the scrape-scrape-scrape of coins sliding off the stone column above as the lochness accepted my tribute.

But try as I might, I couldn’t hear anything over the rapid thump of my heart, the slap of my sneakers on the grass, and my friends’ harsh, ragged breathing. I’d just have to risk it.

We reached the bottom of the riverbank and stopped. A wide stone ledge ran along the edge of the grass, almost like a boardwalk, separating it from the water. The moon and stars were shining brightly tonight, making the rippling surface of the river gleam like a sheet of polished silver. The air was even more humid down here than it had been up on the street, and the entire area smelled wet and fishy. I stared out at the water, using my sight magic, but I didn’t see anything lurking in the dark depths.