Chapter 42. Rust and Sparks

Riven slid into place at his shoulder. Her palms screamed inside the bandages, but she wrapped them tighter around her pipe and kept her eyes forward. Her heart hammered, but not only from the fight coming—because of the space between her shoulder and Axel’s, so narrow their sleeves brushed each time they shifted.

Kenzie perched on the hood of a van, chain swinging loose. Her grin flashed sharp as sparks. “Birds at the door, vultures at the feast. Somebody open the buffet already.”

The gate bulged inward, hinges screeching.

“Now,” Axel rasped.

The Crownless engines surged, smoke billowing. The gates gave with a scream, and the Ravens poured in.

Steel met steel in an explosion of noise. Pipes clanged, chains cracked, engines snarled. The yard filled with smoke and grit, gravel spitting under tires as bikes skidded between rusting carcasses of cars.

Riven swung her pipe hard, catching a Raven across the helmet. He staggered sideways into a junked tr