"Come on," Galen said to Iliana gently. "She's right; it isn't safe here."
Iliana looked up at him earnestly. She seemed about to agree. Then she gave a little shiver, shut her eyes, and fainted.
Galen caught her as she fell.
Keller stared.
"She's too pure to deal with this kind of stuff," Winnie said defensively. "Violence and all. It's not the same as being chicken."
It was at that exact moment that Keller could pinpoint her first real doubts about the new Wild Power. Galen looked down at the girl who lay in his arms like a broken lily. He looked at Keller.
"You take her; well surround you and cover you," Keller said, cutting him off. She knew her hair was in complete disarray, a wild cyclone of black around her. Her sleek jumpsuit was torn and stained, and she was clutching her right shoulder, which still throbbed in agony. But she must have looked fairly commanding, because Galen didn't say another word, just nodded and started toward the door.
Nissa led the way in front of him. Winnie and Keller fell in behind. They were ready to fight, but when the security guards with walkie-talkies saw Nissa whirling her stick, they backed away. The ordinary people, curious onlookers attracted by all the noise, not only backed away but ran. Lots of them screamed.
"Go," Keller said. "Fast. Go."
They made it to Mrs. Fields without anybody trying to stop them.
A girl with a red apron flattened herself against a wall as they thrust their way behind the counter and into the sanctum full of industrial-sized ovens in the back. A gangly boy dropped a tray with a clang, and lumps of raw cookie dough scattered on the floor.
And then they were bursting through the back entrance, and there was the car, a white limousine illegally parked at the curb. Nissa whipped out a key chain and pressed a button, and Keller heard the click of doors unlocking.
"Inside!" she said to Galen. He got in. Winnie ran around the car to get in the other side. Nissa slid into the driver's seat. Keller ducked in last and snapped, "Go!" even as she slammed the door.
Nissa floored it.
The limousine shot forward like a dolphin-just as a security truck sped up from the rear. A police car appeared dead in front of them.
Nissa was an excellent driver. The limo swerved with a squeal of tires and peeled out of another of the parking lot's exits. A second police car swung toward them as Nissa dodged traffic. This one had lights and sirens on. Nissa gunned the engine, and the limo surged forward again. A freeway on-ramp was ahead.
"Hang on," Nissa said briefly.
They were passing the on-ramp-they were past it. No, they weren't. At the last possible second, the limo screamed into a ninety-degree turn. Everyone inside was thrown around. Keller clenched her teeth as her wounded arm hit the window. Then they were shooting up the on-ramp and onto the freeway.
With a little patter, cat's paws of rain appeared on the windshield. Keller, leaning forward to look over Nissa's shoulder, was happy. With icy rain and the low, gray fog, they probably wouldn't be chased by helicopter. The big limousine roared past the few other cars on the road and Winnie sat looking out the rear window, murmuring a spell to confuse and delay any pursuit.
"We lost them," Nissa said. Keller sat back and let out her breath. For the first time since she'd entered the mall, she allowed herself to relax minutely.
We did it.
At the same moment, Winnie turned. She pounded the backseat with a small, hard fist. "We did it! Keller-we got the Wild Power! We..." Her voice trailed off as she saw Keller's face. "And, uh... I guess I disobeyed orders." Her pounding was self-conscious now; she ducked her strawberry-blond head. "Um, I'm sorry, Boss."
"You'd better be," Keller said. She held Winnie's gaze a moment, then said, "You could have gotten yourself killed, witch-and for absolutely no good reason."
Winnie grimaced. "I know. I lost it. I'm sorry." But she smiled timidly at Keller afterward. Keller's team knew how to read her.
"Sorry, too, Boss," Nissa said from the front seat. She slanted a glance at Keller from her mink-colored eyes. "I wasn't supposed to leave the car."
"But you thought we might need a little help," Keller said. She nodded, meeting Nissa's eyes in the mirror. "I'm glad you did."
The faintest flush of pleasure colored Nissa's cheeks.
Galen cleared his throat.
"Um, for the record, I'm sorry, too. I didn't mean to charge in like that in the middle of your operation."
Keller looked at him.
He was smiling slightly, hesitantly, the way Winnie had. A nice smile. The corner of his mouth naturally quirked upward, giving him a hint of mischief in all but the most serious moments. His green-gold eyes were apologetic but hopeful.
"Yeah, who are you, guy?" Winnie was looking him up and down, her dark lashes twinkling. "Did Circle Daybreak send you? I thought we were on this mission alone."
"You were. I belong to Circle Daybreak, but they didn't send me. I just-well, I was outside the shop, and I couldn't just stand there..." His voice died. The smile died, too. "You're really mad, aren't you?"
he said to Keller.
"Mad?" She took a slow breath. "I'm furious."
He blinked. "I don't-"
"You stopped me. I could have killed him!"
His gold-green eyes opened in shock and something like remembered pain. "He was killing you."
"I know that," Keller snarled. "It doesn't matter
what happens to me. What matters is that now he's free. Don't you understand what he is?"
Winfrith was looking sober. "I don't know. But he hit me with something powerful. Pure energy like what I use, but about a hundred times stronger."
"He's a dragon," Keller said. She saw Nissa's shoulders stiffen, but Winnie just shook her head, bewildered. "A kind of shapeshifter that hasn't been around for about thirty thousand years."
"He can turn into a dragon?"
Keller didn't smile. "No, of course not. Don't be silly. I don't know what he can do-but a dragon is what he is. Inside." Winnie suddenly looked queasy as this hit home. Keller turned back to Galen.
"And that's what you let loose on the world. It was the only chance to kill him-nobody will be able to take him by surprise like that again. Which means that everything he does after this is going to be your fault."