Free Fade by Kailin Gow Page A

enthusiastically that for several seconds, there’s no one in the world except us. Grayson’s hands slide through my hair, pulling me to him so that his lips can dance against mine. For a moment, I find myself thinking that he’s not quite as skillful a kisser as Jack, but then I chide myself for even thinking that. I shouldn’t be thinking about Jack when I’m kissing Grayson, and in any case, Grayson is more than good enough. There’s need there, and passion, and joy.
    Eventually, I pull back, laughing. It’s always a good kiss when it leaves you that happy. “Does that answer your question? Now we just have to work out what to do with you. Jack can… where’s Jack?”
    I look around and Jack just isn’t there.
    He hasn’t driven off, because his car’s there, but there’s no sign of him nearby. When I look into the Aston, he’s not there either. It’s like he’s disappeared. Around us, there are fields of wheat, but there’s no sign of someone having gone into them, no track-ways trodden through them. Yet it’s the only place I can think of that Jack might have gone.
    “Jack? Jack!”
    There’s no reply, and there’s still no sign of him. Then though, I catch a faint flash of sunlight off something down the road, and as I look closer, I realize it’s the windshield of a car. Another of those black sedans is parked almost on the edge of sight, and beside it, I can just, just make out two figures struggling. Is one of them Jack?
    If it is, how did he get there so fast? Grayson and I weren’t kissing that long, were we? Yet there he is, probably more than half a mile away, struggling with a black-clad opponent. I react on instinct, starting to run towards them, knowing that I should help, even as I’m not sure exactly what I can do. Though I did okay when it came to helping Grayson.
    I hear a car start behind me as I run, and I realize that Grayson has taken Jack’s car as a quicker way to get there. Yet he doesn’t overtake me. He’s in a sports car, so he should roar straight past me as I run, yet Grayson doesn’t. Even with the amount of time it’s taken him to get into the Ferrari, that just doesn’t make sense.
    I glance back, and I suddenly feel dizzy. I’m used to moving quickly thanks to my track practice, but this is different. This is far faster than I’ve ever run before, so that the air rushes past me and the ground blurs beneath my feet. It’s faster than the track records back at school. It’s faster than the state records too. If I could run like this to order, in fact, I would probably be winning international competitions, but that thought doesn’t fill me with the joy that running fast normally does. Instead, this is so much faster than usual that it’s almost frightening.
    It isn’t long before I’m alongside the sedan where Jack is struggling with a man in dark clothing. The fighting is brutal, all elbows and knees and frantic jabs at the body’s most vulnerable areas. I see Jack’s opponent parry a strike aimed at his throat before kicking Jack in the knee hard enough that Jack stumbles. Yet they keep a grip on one another.
    No, not on one another. On a gun. It looks like it might be Jack’s, and both men have a death grip on it as they wrestle for control of it, battering one another around it as they struggle to force the other to let go.
    Jack spots me then, and looks over. “Celes, stay back. Get away.”
    It’s only a moment of distraction, but it’s enough. The man in the black clothing brings his head forward in a brutal strike, then twists the gun around. I hear the dull crack of a shot.
    “Jack!”
    Jack stumbles back, slumping against the car as he clutches his shoulder. Blood is already starting to come from the wound, spreading out around it in a darker stain on his suit. The man who now holds the gun raises it for a second shot.
    It feels like the moment when Grayson was in trouble, back at the school. It’s like I know exactly what I need to do.