Scott McCall's Arc

Chapter 27 of 30

Scott sat up on the clinic floor, the silver arrow still warm in his hand. His thumb was already moving across his phone. He typed fast to Isaac. High heat. Mountain ash melts into the tip. We need an anchor — something that means too much to let go. He hit send and waited, breath shallow, while Kira watched from the doorway and Malik pulled himself upright against the wall. The phone buzzed back hard. Isaac's reply was three lines. Acheron's through the barrier. It's inside the school. Get here now. Scott stood. He didn't have a silver arrow of his own — the one from the vision had stayed in the vision. Isaac had the real one. The weapon was on the other side of the storm, and so were the rest of them. "We drive," Derek said, already moving. He pulled keys from his jacket. The black Mustang waited under the clinic's overhang, rain sheeting off its hood. Scott climbed in front. Malik took the back. Kira slid in beside him without a word, her hand finding Scott's shoulder once before the doors slammed. The road was gone. Where the street should have been, brown water ran in two muddy ruts, debris turning slow circles in the current. Derek hit the gas. The Mustang shoved a wave up over the hood. A branch cracked against the side mirror and tore away. Wind shoved the car sideways into the next lane. Derek wrenched it straight. "You sure you've driven before?" Malik said from the back. His voice was flat, even now. "Or is this the first time." Derek's jaw set. "Wear your seatbelt." "It's on." "Tighter." The car bucked over something submerged and slammed back down. Kira braced against the door. Scott gripped the dash and watched the wipers lose the fight against the rain. The school's lights came up through the gray, blurred and flickering. Scott could already see the front doors hanging open, the ash line broken across the threshold like a smear of soot. He tightened his grip on the arrow shaft — useless on its own, but a promise. "Tell Isaac we're here," he said. Derek killed the engine in the flooded lot. Whatever was inside, they were going in after it now.