Ariel gasped for breath, struggling to keep going. She knew the city like the back of her hand, but the Partials were faster than she was, their senses keener. She could hear their feet pounding on the road behind her, heavy boots slamming down, one after another, a relentless rhythm getting closer and closer with each gasping breath. She dodged to the left through a gap in a fence, cutting right and then doubling back to the left again, around another wooden fence. Her feet were quieter than theirs, barely a whisper in the darkness, and she held her breath as she tiptoed through the grass, her eyes straining in the dim light for any twig or branch or bottle she might step on and give herself away. She heard one set of heavy footprints run past her, crashing through the hole in the fence and thrashing wildly through the yard beyond. The second pair followed, and she nodded. Just one more. Just one more Partial fooled and I’m free. She crept forward silently, almost to the end of the grass; there she would slip down a stairway to a basement safe house she’d used a time or two before, and hide there until the raiders gave up and left in search of easier prey. All she had to do was make it to the stairs—

The third set of Partial footsteps stopped, nearly even with her on the far side of the double fence. Ariel froze, not moving, not making a sound, not even breathing. The Partial took a step in one direction and stopped. Back in the other direction, and stopped. What is he doing? But even as she asked the question, she knew, somehow, what he was doing. He had stopped because he had spotted something. And he knew where she had gone.

She heard a deep chuckle. “Oh, you’re good,” the Partial laughed, and vaulted the fence directly toward her. Ariel cursed under her breath and sprinted again, all thoughts of stealth gone in a flat-out race for survival. The Partial vaulted the second fence and ran after her, just a few yards behind, almost close enough to stretch forward and grab her by the neck. Ariel ran as fast as she could, her mind trying desperately to figure out how he’d found her—she’d been quiet, she’d been hidden, she’d done everything she’d learned to do, and yet it was like he’d known she was there, almost like a sixth sense. Marcus had told her about their link, and the way it let them find one another, but everything he’d said told her that it wouldn’t work on humans—that humans were a blind spot in a sensory system they relied on too much. She’d used that to her advantage before, and it had always worked. How had she given herself away?