The driver turns his chin slightly to the right and gives a curt nod. He has short hair and dark stubble peppered with gray. His brown skin is leathered with age, and a surgical scar sits above his right ear where the hair hasn’t grown back. “Let’s not overwhelm her. I need all of you alert when we cross landscapes. Last time it shifted into some kind of half-dead forest, and I almost crashed us into a swamp.”

Theo turns around again, gluing his eyes to the back window. “We’ve got company.”

I look over my shoulder and spot two vehicles in the distance. They look like silver sports cars with low roofs, but when I steady my gaze, I realize they’re not cars at all. They’re flying.

I grip the leather seat tighter. “Are we—are we in a spaceship?”

Shura giggles. “Oh, to be young again.” When I raise a brow to argue that she is clearly younger than I am, she takes note. “It doesn’t matter how old you were when you died. Your life in Infinity is the one that counts, and you were born less than an hour ago.”

“Shit. They’re getting faster,” Ahmet says, and I feel a horrible thump in my chest when I see the ground exploding around us and realize we’re being shot at.

The vehicles begin closing the gap. A series of bullets land behind us, sending bursts of red sand into the air. They’re still a safe distance away, but for how much longer?

A chill finds the back of my neck, even though I feel like I’m a trillion degrees, and I dig my fingers into my palms, realizing we could be obliterated at any moment. All it would take is one of those bullets to knock us out of the sky. And then what’s the plan? I know this place operates under different rules, but I can’t imagine the four of us being able to outrun a pair of armed, flying hovercrafts. Especially not when I still have a piece of metal in my leg.

Theo thumps his hand against the back of Ahmet’s headrest. “Can this thing go any faster?”

Flustered, Ahmet curses under his breath. “We just need to make it to the border. I can lose them in the Labyrinth.” The engine revs louder in response, which helps to block out the rat-tat-tat of ammunition on our tail.

Shura strains her neck to see through the window. “Not to be a backseat driver, but I don’t think we’re going to make it to the border.” She leans toward Theo. “Can you blast them from here?”

He shakes his head. “They’re too far away.” And then he claps Ahmet on the shoulder and barks an order that makes me jump. “Stop the vehicle.”

“What are you talking about? We’re almost there,” Ahmet grunts.