1269_UgliesFreeBook

UGLIES 143
the gap” was the only important part of the clue, but Tally
had decided to treat the note like a magic spell. Leaving out
any part might make the whole thing meaningless.
And it felt good to ride fast and hard again, leaving the
ghosts of the Rusty Ruins behind. As she whipped around
tight turns and down steep descents, the world whirling
around her, Tally felt like something caught in the wind,
not knowing which direction the journey would ultimately
take her.
A few seconds before she took the jump across the gap,
the metal-detector lights winked out. The board dropped
away, and her stomach seemed to go with it, leaving a hollow
feeling inside. Her suspicion had proved right—at top
speed, there hadn’t been much warning.
Tally flew through the air in the silent darkness, the
rush of her passage the only sound. She remembered her
first time across the gap, how angry she’d been. A few days
later it had turned into a joke between them, typical ugly
stuff. But now Shay had done it again, disappearing like the
track below, leaving Tally in free fall.
A count of five later, the lights flickered on, and the
crash bracelets steadied her as the board reactivated, rising
smoothly up under her feet with reassuring solidness. At
the bottom of the hill the track turned, climbing into a
steep corkscrew of turns. But Tally slowed and kept going
ahead, murmuring, “straight past the gap.”
The ruins continued under her feet. Out here they were