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Or maybe a lack of empathy was a disease that spread long before the Great Collapse.

“So, Spade’s the head of this resistance movement in Hermes?” she asked.

Brock hesitated. “Not exactly. I’ve never met their leader.”

“What?” She swung her head.

“Yeah.” Brock crossed his arms. “The resistance leader is a very careful man. Apparently, I wasn’t trusted enough to meet him, and I’ve been working with Spade for years. I doubt we’ll ever see him.”

She gnawed on her bottom lip, the uncertainty like a razor blade hovering over their heads.

Takeshi slipped the blade into his boot, pulling out anotherone from his vest, the metallic scrape of sharpening resuming as the sun beamed down on them.

Should she be concerned at this point with the number of weapons he had?

“Aren’t you worried about poking yourself with all those…things?” She waved her hand.

If you looked closely, a ghost of a grin appeared on Takeshi’s face. Though you’d need a microscope to be sure.

“No,” he replied, not breaking his focus from the obsidian blade, his cold and aloof expression firmly in place.

The ensuing silence screamed at her.

It was the empty city. The hours stretching endlessly. The scraping of a knife. His quiet disregard.

Everything eroded her nerves.

Perhaps the lingering mayhem in the ruins rubbed off on her, because Khalani craved to get a reaction out of Takeshi that was more than a single word.

“Hey, Brock, how skilled are you with a knife?” She leaned back on her palms nonchalantly.

Brock looked up at the sky. “Unmatched.”

“Oh?” Her eyes widened, feigning surprise. “You’re probably a really good teacher then, huh?”

Takeshi slowed his sharpening.

Brock tilted his head. “You could say that. Why?”

“Oh, nothing.” She kicked her feet. “I was just thinking we had some time to kill. Maybe you could teach me.”

Takeshi completely stopped what he was doing and looked up, a deep scowl darkening his face.

“Sure.” Brock shrugged, jumping off the car. “Nothing better to do.”

“I can teach you,” Takeshi spoke in a low voice, his black eyes narrowing into slits.

“No, it’s fine.” Khalani waved him off, letting her hand brieflyrest on Brock’s shoulder. “Brock’s got me.”

Takeshi’s expression morphed from shock, to betrayal, to anger, before shifting into something more unsettling.

He stood very still, gripping the hilt of his blade so tightly that she was surprised blood wasn’t pooling on the concrete.

An evil grin curled up Brock’s face as they moved toward the empty street. “You’re smarter than I gave you credit for.”

“Not sure what you mean.”

“Sure, you don’t,” Brock said, flipping his blade and catching it by the hilt without even looking. “But who knows, you might actually learn something.”