“Good.” Elayra gave a quick, relieved nod as he examined himself. He looked a little paler than he had been a moment before, but in one piece, nonetheless. She held his gaze for a moment as he looked to her, before his pleasure at her expression made her usual irate irritation reclaimed its place over her features.
	She opened her mouth to snap a reply, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of the truth, but the long, consistent ring off a high-pitched alarm made Elayra’s attention snap back to the store. She jumped to her feet as Ghent scrambled to do the same. Though the sound was unusual to her, its meaning was universal: [i]INTRUDERS![/i]
	“Run now, think later!” Elayra reached to grip Ghent’s wrist when he spoke instead of immediately fleeing. She moved to tug him along a couple paces as she turned and ran toward the nearest alleyway.
	Satisfied he would keep running, she released him as the unfamiliar [i]crack[/i] of a gunshot echoed from somewhere nearby, wondering why he linked the sound so quickly to murder. Had Miles actually killed someone just to get them and himself to the portal? She shook the thought off. They had their own problem to deal with.
	A couple paces ahead of Ghent, she ducked into the alleyway before him just as a car turned the corner, hoping it had not spotted her or Ghent before he turned behind her. The stench of the multiple dumpsters, a few too full for their lids to lie flat, filled the air between the alleyway, mingling with the smell of wet dog.
	[b]“Did she see us?”[/b]
	Elayra looked over her shoulder at Ghent, a spike of panic at his unexplained use of ‘she’ rushing through her chest.
	“Who?” She glanced behind her, the panic on Ghent’s face making her that much more on edge as he rambled on. Deducing that ‘she’ was not the ‘she’ Elayra was used to judging by his following words, she scowled when he finished.
	“You’ve [i]got[/i] to be joking!”
	With a frustrated growl, she spun around and reached back to pull Ghent to the side of one of the dumpsters packed full enough for the bags to just hide them from prying eyes. She gripped his shoulders to give him a quick shake to try shifting his focus from his panic to getting out of there before they got caught. She wished more than ever that her sword still hung at her belt.
	“Your [i]mom’s[/i] not the one you should be worried about right now!” she growled threateningly as the sound of sirens grew steadily closer. “Get your head on straight, and get us to the Book Barn, fast!” She shoved him back toward the alleyway none too gently, ready to run after him, or push him onward.