Firewalker Read Online Free Page A

waited to beat you to death.
    On the outskirts of Kingman, I said, “I hear that Maya’s birthday is next week.”
    “I don’t want to talk about Maya.”
    The answer, swift and abrupt, shut me down. Nash didn’t even adjust his hands on the wheel.
    He stopped for gas in Kingman and grudgingly let me use the bathroom, and then we took the highway that climbed north out of town, curving along the side of a mountain. Lights twinkled in the valley to our left, becoming sparser as we moved on. Within a few miles, the desert night was black again, the road straight and monotonous.
    I folded my arms and slumped against the door, trying to grab some sleep while I could. I couldn’t. My eyes stayed open, the spell pulling me onward.
    After about another hour, the road began rolling through steep cuts, hard rock hammered out by dynamite long ago. To our left, beyond the hills that lined the road, was a steep drop to the Colorado River, which snaked its way southward through bone-dry land.
    Orange cones gleamed ahead of us, directing us into one narrow lane that led to a checkpoint. There were only a few cars ahead of us this late, red taillights silhouetting drivers and passengers inside the cars.
    I drummed my fingers on the dashboard as Nash slowed, but he had no choice. The road we took led over the massive Hoover Dam into Nevada, and a checkpoint had been set up by the nice feds to make sure we didn’t do anything cute like carry explosives to the middle of the dam and set them off.
    The cars in front of us moved through and drove on, but one of the officers held up his hand, signaling Nash to stop. Nash halted and rolled down the window, letting in a blast of cool night air and the acrid scent of exhaust. I folded into myself and tried not to scream in impatience.
    The uniformed man strolled the few feet to us, flashlight shining. Every hair prickled on my skin, the latent Beneath magic in me screaming a warning.
    “Nash, gun it,” I whispered. “Get us out of here.”
    “Janet, if I speed out of here, every state and federal cop within range will be after us, and they won’t be afraid to use deadly force.”
    “I’m telling you, there’s something not right.”
    “I know that. I’m not stupid.” Nash waited calmly, his hands on the wheel, as the fed approached. Gods, he drove me crazy.
    “Can I see some ID?” the officer asked.
    My insides crawled. I could feel the man’s aura, thick, black, and inky. I had no idea what one of them was doing out here in the middle of the highway at a brightly lit checkpoint—an easy way to find victims, maybe?
    The officer shone his light on the driver’s license and sheriff’s ID Jones handed him. The man lifted his brows and spoke in the friendly way of a patroller just doing his job. “Sheriff, eh? Official business?”
    “Personal. Vacation.”
    The flashlight moved to me, and he smirked. “Vacation. I see. Pull over there, sir, and get out of the truck.” He gestured to a pull-off just beyond the glare of the generator lights.
    “Nash,” I said frantically as Nash drove the few yards into the darkness. “We can’t stop. This isn’t what it looks like.”
    “I know, but I’m not running from trigger-happy feds,” Nash snapped. “Besides, he still has my ID.”
    I seethed as Nash set the brake. The officer walked to us without fear, putting Nash’s truck between himself and his fellow officers at the checkpoint. It was pitch-black out here away from the lights, only the glow of Nash’s headlights and the officer’s flashlight to illuminate us.
    “If you’ll get out of the truck, sir,” he said. “You too, ma’am.”
    I hopped out, searching for some spark of magic within to help me out. The sky was deep, velvet black, the stars stretching across it in a ropy smudge. A Stormwalker without a storm was useless, and there wasn’t a cloud in sight. I scowled at the empty sky before the officer shone his flashlight in my face.
    “You have documentation