They had put enough distance between themselves and the town that it had shrunk to a dark smudge on the horizon, blurred by the midday heat. Dry shrubs were pushed aside by the hooves of both horses as they galloped toward their next destination, where the grass grew greener and water was more plentiful.
Bonnie had been trying to figure out how to bring up the topic that had been on her mind the entire time. Start with the cat thing, or the superhuman speed? There had to be a proper order to things — the right sequence made everything easier to understand.
On her end, Evelyn wiped the sweat from her forehead and gripped the reins tightly to keep herself from toppling over.
'She seriously seems like she's made of steel. It doesn't make any sense…'
Bonnie shook her head. That question could come later. There were also other things she wanted to know beyond just the supernatural powers.
Working from there, she shaped her first question.
"Did you… used to live in that town?"
"I did…" answered Thieving Cat with a nostalgic smile. "I lived there as a girl. I don't know if everyone's forgotten me by now, or if they just choose not to remember — but I definitely lived there. Then all sorts of things happened and I ended up the way I am."
"I see. And… how did you become an outlaw?"
"Same way you did. I killed a man and ran, terrified. By the time I understood what I'd done, it was already too late to take it back. I didn't even try to clear my name. I just accepted this new life. The faster you accept it, the easier living gets."
"I see… At some point, after you ran and everything — is that when you got your powers? Summoning a cat, moving that fast…"
"That's not all I can do," said Evelyn with a brief laugh. "I also have perfect aim, I can sense things at a great distance even when I can't see them, and I can make my horse faster and more agile."
Bonnie looked at the road ahead, thinking.
'That sounds familiar…'
She glanced at Capella, calling to mind the mare's agility during their escape from the Sheriff's deputies. She knew better than anyone that Capella — being somewhat stocky and large — was faster and stronger, but had never been agile enough to weave around that many obstacles in such quick succession.
The perfect aim was another important piece. Even though Samuel Calloway knew how to handle a revolver, his accuracy had never been as sharp as Bonnie's had been during the escape.
"Looks like you've already started picking up on some of it," Evelyn added. "You zoned out and got that faraway look. What was it you noticed?"
Bonnie felt a reluctance to admit it — but there was no going back now.
"My aim improved way too fast, and Capella has never been that agile before…"
"Makes sense. Those are our powers — the powers of Outlaws."
"Really? How does that work? I never had any kind of supernatural ability, and nobody in my family has ever practiced anything like witchcraft. That's even assuming witchcraft is real in the first place…"
"Honestly, I don't know much about any of it. What little I do know I learned from Victoria. She taught me that everything that exists has a reason for being — even supernatural powers that seem to make no sense."
"So it all comes down to secrets and speculation. You have no idea how it starts? Is there something specific we have to do to get this power?"
Evelyn gave it serious thought for a few seconds.
"Supposedly, yes — but it's all very murky. One thing that is certain is that every outlaw possesses supernatural powers. But we're not the only ones. There are sheriffs who have them too. Pastors from the churches."
"The exorcists?"
"Exactly. You know what I'm talking about. There are also people outside the law and crime who carry power — but that's more complicated. What I can say is that, similar to them, we outlaws possess a power tied to freedom and escape. On top of that, we have a kind of superior luck — though it's not necessarily good or bad luck on its own. It's just luck, and whether it helps or hurts us depends on what's happening around us at any given moment."
Pausing, Thieving Cat looked at Bonnie with quiet confidence and continued:
"So based on what you told me, you already carry the power of an outlaw — welcome to the fold. Before we go our separate ways, you're going to need to learn how to use all those new abilities of yours."
Learning was something Bonnie was good at — but…
"Right… I see… You've told me a lot of things, but none of it explains your wounds. Nobody survives that long with injuries like yours. And the cat. How did you do that?"
Evelyn's expression drifted somewhere distant as she looked at the road.
"Well… that's something more personal. I swore I'd never tell anyone. I'm sorry — but that's all I'll say about it."
"Oh…"
"Don't look so glum, though. There's still a lot more beyond that. Once we meet up with Victoria, she'll be able to help you far more than I can. That woman knows things nobody else does."
"You've mentioned that name a couple of times now. Who is Victoria?"
"Victoria is the leader of my gang — and the one who knows the most about supernatural powers out of all of us."
'Now that is someone I need to meet no matter what,' Bonnie thought.
"Bottom line: everything out here is insane. Since you were a rich city girl, you probably know absolutely nothing about how the world actually works — which is honestly a little sad — but I'll fill you in on things along the way so you can start learning. Think of it as my way of paying you back for what you did with that toad-faced man."
'That sounds good — it really does. But the thought that everything I know amounts to nothing compared to what the world actually is makes me feel like an ant. What's coming next, after everything that's already happened? I hope I'm ready for whatever it turns out to be.'
The hours passed as Evelyn told the story of how they robbed the Northern Dogs.
It had started with intelligence gathered by their leader, Victoria — the levelheaded mind behind the gang known as the "Sisters of the Horizon." The three of them had waited for the train a few miles beyond the point where their information said the Northern Dogs would start the heist.
It was a stretch of land between two large gray mountains, a stretch that sometimes saw rockslides from the constant rain.
Once they spotted that massive iron train in the distance, they rode hard on either side of the locomotive at full speed. In that moment, the hatches on top of one of the cars exploded open, revealing the outlaws' escape route.
But the Northern Dogs had made a critical mistake — not having their horses ready for the final moment of the heist. That turned the advantage squarely over to the Sisters of the Horizon.
Evelyn was handling the front end, using her black cat as a distraction. She jumped from her horse and climbed onto the roof of the train. Taking advantage of the blown hatch, she pressed both hands together and pointed her index fingers forward. In an instant, the translucent figure of a cat turned solid and dropped into the car below.
Victoria followed right behind, jumping in after it.
From inside came the groans of three men being thoroughly beaten by that woman.
Evelyn, now confident that everything was handled, dropped in herself. Inside the car, the men — Wild Dog included — were sprawled between the wooden crates, unconscious and disarmed.
Victoria stood at the far end among the crates, holding all three revolvers in one hand and two satchels of loot in the other. With a slight smile, she said:
"All done. Let's go."
Thieving Cat exhaled, and the cat licking its paws among the unconscious bodies dissolved into nothing.
She helped Victoria carry everything out, and they cleared the car within a few minutes. The haul was in their hands — all that was left was getting back to the horses.
Victoria jumped first, landing cleanly back in the saddle. Evelyn followed, doing the same. But then she felt danger creeping up her spine, which made her throw the satchel to Lady — who barely managed to catch it. A second later, a powerful explosion just ahead made Thieving Cat's horse lose its footing, throwing her off.
Lady looked back from her horse with her hunting rifle raised, because someone had jumped from the train the moment Evelyn fell — but it was already too late. In a matter of seconds they had ridden too far away. And from the train, shots started ringing out toward the women, which was strange, because Victoria had taken all their weapons.
Both riders pushed hard and circled back once the mountains flanking the train gave way. They had to go back for Evelyn.
The one having the worst of it was Evelyn herself. She got up off the ground and went to check on her horse, making sure he was alright.
In the end, Storm had only gotten a scare — the only damage being dirt caked into his white coat.
She exhaled with relief — but then that feeling came back. She raised her revolver and fired, but didn't connect. Wild Dog was standing just a few yards away, weapon aimed at her.
Six shots rang out, and four of them hit Evelyn in the abdomen. Desperate, she staggered her way onto her horse and rode with everything she had.
"After that I had no idea where the hell he got a horse from, but he followed me the whole way to that town. And that's where I met you. That's roughly the whole picture, anyway — there were a few strange things along the way, like where they got new weapons after Victoria took everything, or the fact that they woke up just a few minutes after being knocked out."
That was the whole story, as Evelyn remembered it — and Bonnie didn't question any of it. Strange things had already happened before. Why wouldn't they happen again? Things without logic started making their own kind of logic when they kept happening all the time.
"Either way, Victoria should have already figured out what was going on. She beat them on her own the first time, and with Lady at her side, it's pretty obvious those two idiots are dead by now."
"Victoria sounds like an incredibly strong woman."
"Because she is, Bonnie. Wait until you meet her. There is no tougher woman in the desert than her. That's exactly why it's so important that you learn from her."
'That's only raising my expectations higher. I really hope she can actually help me.'
Bonnie wanted to believe everything was going to work out. No — everything was going to work out. What you do right ends right. She just had to stay focused, and everything would fall into place the way it was supposed to.