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I heard the first warning bell for the regular and knew I had to take the chance I jumped into the empty car closest to me, followed by the three vaet on He banged against the , but once the doors had shut, they wouldn’t reopen until the next stop

We pulled out of the station, with Tyler still haainst the train, and I was ecstatic he had missed it I doubted I could be effective if I had to worry about a huht

I didn’t take tiuards under control I had to trust my liaison could take care of hie between subway cars, and the air of the tunnel smelled of dirt and oil as the train barreled forward I stepped into the next car, and this one had a sers--a black n language, holding their Bloos close They hushed when they sawheavy slaainst the wall of the car I’d just left, and the train tre ers keep their balance I was starting to wonder if the universe found it funny to throw rittedpain, thenheap of ed man in a tweed coat with a copy of Proust next to him on the floor told me I wasn’t far behind Charlie

There was a scream, but I couldn’t tell if it came from the car behindby outside the carfroht up with e I’d done to it, h that I couldfor the next door when the giant who had killed the girl grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me backwards

My heels caused e of uards, this was the one I least wanted to be fighting because of his colossal size Yet here ere, stuck together on a two-foot-by-two-footpast I couldn’t have swung my sword if I wanted to

He knew it too, because he liftedthey could drop s

He held h I could feel the whoosh of the suballs ski sla onto the electrified tracks

Stupid pigheaded stubbornness keptlad he was focused on dangling ht at the end of the tunnel We had almost reached the Grand Central platfor s up so the balls of my feet were on the fli between the cars and offered no useful tension I bent o

I didn’t need to wait long

He saw the end of the tunnel and opened his hand to drop me but was too late The stale air of the subway station washed over o, and I kicked off froht dohere I would have been crushed under the train

My landing was far fro onto my broken side as I slid across the floor with the e of the opposite side, a hair away fro over, and re through ed to scrape the skin offover the concrete

A crowd of late-night commuters were stunned to silence by my dramatic exit from the train There were a lot uard had followed me onto the platforuard, and one door up Charlie stepped out

He sawthe opportunity to run, he did what most would-be villains did He decided he wanted to finish me off hirip and was now teetering precariously on the edge of the abyss between the platform and the electrified rails below I couldn’t reach it before Charlie got to et hiet within reach of the sword before he noticed where it was That shouldn’t be too hard

But where the hell was Holden?