We left the car. We went on foot.
The alley was narrow enough that my shoulders found brick on both sides in places, and dark enough that I was walking on sound rather than sight. The walls held the day's heat and gave it back in a slow, close press. Every footstep came back off the brick a half-second late.
Every apartment above us had its lights off. Every single one, all the way down. As if the dark would convince the things on the street that nobody lived here, as if a building could hold its breath.
Linn walked at the front because it was her route. Trapper behind her. Mercury behind him.
I took the back.
That was deliberate. Whatever came at this group was coming from behind us, and I was the only one here who'd survived being followed.
Mercury's hips caught on the narrow part and stuck for a second. She laughed at herself, twisted sideways, and squeezed through. The scrape of denim on brick was brief and ordinary and somehow louder than it should have been.
