Charles' Choice (Penny's Choice) Read Online Free

catch her breath.  She had thought this world she had been sucked into only affected her.  She never dreamed it would reach out to hurt someone she cared about. 
    “Hey,” Thomas said to her, suddenly standing next to her with his hands on her shoulders.  “We’ll get her back.  They won’t hurt her.  I promise.”
    She blinked away her tears.  Thomas had just lost his father.  She should be the one comforting him.  And yet, he was more concerned about her than he was himself.  It made her smile to think about, in spite of all the evil and death around her, literally at her feet.
    “Lorelei,” Charli asked, “how far before the river can take us to your world?”
    “Not far,” the Siren answered.
    “Then let’s go.”  Charli tugged gently on Charles’ arm.  He looked at Lorelei, questions in his eyes, then he took up his position at the front of their group again with Charli. 
    What Lorelei had in her eyes wasn’t questions.  She really has feelings for him, Penny realized.
    Thomas gently touched her face and then let her go, walking behind all of them, ears pricked, eyes open.  And just like that, they were moving on, scanning everywhere, looking for the danger that approached them like a storm front.
    “I don’t like leaving him there,” Charles protested a short time later.
    “Neither do I, Charles,” Charli hissed at him.  “None of us do.  But we can’t stay, and we can’t bring him with us.  We’ll mourn him when we can.  Now shut up!”
    They moved on in silence after that, passing tall stately buildings and museums and people who stared at them and moved out of the way.  Behind them, they could hear approaching sirens.
    And bootsteps .
    “They’re here!” Thomas warned them.  “Move!”
    Penny glanced behind and saw maybe a dozen men, all in black, all with short crossbows in their hands, running at a madman’s pace along the walkways of the Spree River, on both sides.  They must have come up both banks just in case the family had decided to cross the river first.
    The first arrow flew so close to Penny’s head she could hear it.  Charli caught it from the air and snapped it in two with her hand.
    Thomas produced two throwing knives from under his jacket.  Turning midstride he threw one at the group on their side of the river, and one at the group on the other.  Penny heard a man scream in pain.  But only one.
    Thomas cursed as he caught back up to them.  “I missed one.”
    “How can you miss with that many?” Charles called back to him.
    “You want to try, little brother?”
    Charles turned out from their group and knelt down on the paved sidewalk, raising two knives of his own.  He threw both with as much force as his muscular arms could manage.  And two men screamed and fell dead.
    And a crossbow bolt zipped by him, tearing open his left shoulder.
    He was up and running again.  “Ha, Thomas!   Got two!”
    “Yeah, and got clipped in the process.  You keep up those odds and you’ll be dead, too!”
    Charles didn’t say anything back.  Penny could tell how much his father’s death had upset him. 
    “Here,” Lorelei said at last, coming to a halt at a spot along the river where train tracks crossed overhead to span the river.
    “Here?” Charles said.  “Why here?”
    Arrows rained around them.  Penny covered her head defensively.  “Does it matter?” she said.  “Let’s go!”
    Lorelei stepped to the edge of the water, and simply walked off the edge.  She made a small splash as she went under.
    “Everyone, let’s go!” Charli called out, throwing a knife of her own before jumping off the edge.
    Charles followed her.  And then Thomas was grabbing her by her hand, and together they dropped into the cold moving water of the Spree River.  Arrows sailed past her when she opened her eyes, trailing bubbles, but all of their momentum disappeared underwater and they became nothing more than harmless sticks.
    The bullets that started