Page 35

Kerry

I frowned when I saw that piece of Hell-rot headed straight for us.

Gemma took a deep breath, then her voice became steely in a way I’d never heard before.

“Do we run or do we fight?”

“Can’t outrun her.”

Swiveling fast, I looked at our combat zone. There were too many hiding places and not enough high ground.

I didn’t like this. I wasn’t a leader, none of them were seasoned fighters, and Gemma and Chessie weren’t fighters at all.

“Gigi, John, teleport Gemma and Chessie outta here,” I ordered.

“I won’t leave Jax.” Gigi shook her head.

“Nor I you.” Gemma frowned at me, and I glared back.

“Um, I want to leave.” Chessie was dead white. “Sorry, I’m not abandoning you, but this is suicide for me. I have zero defenses.”

“I can’t leave Tara.” John shook his head.

“It takes you two seconds to blip there and back again!” Tara whacked him on the shoulder. “Get Chessie to safety, then come back. I’ll live four or five seconds without you.”

“You’d better,” he rumbled, then released her hand, grabbed Chessie’s elbow, and flashed out.

Suddenly, all of our phones squawked in a weird tone I hadn’t heard before.

“Emergency signal.” Jax reached into his pocket and pulled his out. “The wards have been tripped. Something really bad is going down somewhere.”

“Uh, I think we’re at the epicenter of it.” Gigi’s eyes were fixed on the sky. “Why didn’t it go off earlier, when she entered the Sanctuary? Why now?”

I glanced around and, sure enough, eyes glittered everywhere.

Dropping Gemma’s hand, I reached across my waist like I was drawing a sword, and my favorite weapon appeared in my hand as the others stared at me.

“Dude! You can materialize weapons and you summon a sword ?” Jax’s eyes bugged out. “We’re in an aerial assault! You don’t think, oh, I don’t know, a rocket launcher would have been better?!”

“It’s called a katana, and it’s not for her.” I jerked my head toward the playground. “It’s for them . Pretty sure they’re what set off the wards.”

Little green figures crept out from their hiding places, swinging from the monkey bars and jumping off the sliding board.

Gigi screamed as Tara took a few stumbling steps back. Jax dropped an f-bomb, which made me smirk. Usually it was only me who had to watch his language. Gemma stood like a statue next to me. Glancing down at her, I saw she was a little pale, but her eyes were determined and her hands were clenched into fists.

My brave, brave angel.

John reappeared, his eyes finding Tara before he looked at me.

“Got a plan?” he asked.

“You ever handle a sword?” I held out the katana to him, and he took it.

“No, but I’ll figure it out real quick.”

Well, I may not be a leader, but I’m gonna give it my best shot.

“I got the harpy. Keep the gremlins off me. You can kill them like any animal, but don’t let them bite you. Their venom is poison.”

And then we were outta time. The harpy swooped down, the gremlins swarmed forward, and everyone moved.

I spiked up, drawing her attention, and she flew straight for me, like I wanted. I circled my arm over my head and a silvery lasso appeared. Spinning it faster and faster, I waited until she had her talons out and was diving before I threw it. Dodging to the side at the last second, I was lucky enough to catch one of her chicken-like feet.

I wrapped the rope around my wrist and up my arm, knowing she would head for the sky and there was no way I could pull her down, not with her wings beating against me, so I sent power into the rope and it knotted itself every few feet.

My arm jolted out of the socket as she yanked me up. Quick as a monkey despite the injury, I used the knots to climb the rope and grabbed her leg. She tried to kick me off, but I was too strong, too fast. I scaled her body like a rock wall, lodged myself on her back between her wings, and wrapped my legs around her waist.

She screamed and dove, twisting in loop-de-loops to throw me off, but I dug my fingers into her throat until the shrieks stopped. Then she settled into a straightforward glide to wrestle with me, trying to pull my hands away or buck me off.

We were only about a dozen feet above the earth, so I released her throat to catch one of her wings. It was delicate, the bones hollow and fragile, and I snapped the biggest one with ease.

I musta I wrecked her vocal cords as I’d intended because she only made a hoarse noise as she spiraled to the ground. We hit hard enough to plow a long row in the grass, and I started to roll away as soon as we touched down, but she pulled her face from the dirt and caught me with one scaly foot. Her talons dug into my good shoulder deep enough to hit bone as she yanked her foot up, and I bellowed as skin tore and muscles ripped.

And that was it.

I was done playing around with this thing.

In an instant, I shed all that ‘civilization’ everyone had been forcing down my throat and went back to a different me. A me that knew nothing of mercy and everything about killing.

Blue flames burst from my skin as I grabbed her ankle and twisted it, trying to block out the new torture as the move drove her talons deeper into my shoulder. When I broke the bone, she jerked outta my hold and started to skitter backward on her hands.

Unfortunately for her, I wasn’t in a good mood. I tackled her and swung my fists in straight punches, so savage I didn’t even spike them with power.

If she woulda had the sense to be still, I coulda stopped, but she kept fighting, so I kept punching. When her blood caked my knuckles, I manifested an axe to end her, but my arm froze mid-swing.

My eyes flicked to a thick rope of blue power wrapped around my wrist.

“That’s enough, son.”

I swiveled to the warden standing behind me. He was older than any neph I had ever seen, wrinkled and bald, but his snow-white eyebrows did a good job of making up for it. I didn’t know him, but I could sense all kinda power rolling off of him. Warrior power.

“I’ll take it from here,” he said. “I have a few questions for this thing before it’s banished.”

I worked to bring myself back from the edge and shook with the effort. When I could stand, I moved away from the unconscious harpy and looked around.

Wardens were everywhere, and a dozen or more, including Hank, headed in my direction. Jax and John were over by the swings, finishing off what seemed to be the last of the gremlins, but none of them were the one I was looking for. My eyes darted around until I spotted her sitting on the merry-go-round with Gigi and Tara.

I sprinted over, half aware Hank had changed course to run with me.

“Gemma! Are you okay?” I dropped to my knees in front of her. “Did you get bitten?”

“I’m fine. Just tired. But we did it! We kept them away from you so you could take on the bigger threat. Your plan worked great.”

“I held them with plants and trees,” Tara said, “and Gemma put them to sleep. Maddy’s going to regret missing this. As an archer, she would have loved to sink a few dozen arrows into that harpy!”

“Gigi bent space so that they ran into each other and knocked themselves out.” Gemma looked over at her friend with a grin.

“It wasn’t as impressive as John, though.” Gigi nudged Tara’s shoulders. “He went through them like a lawnmower with that sword.”

“And Jax — Well, Jax is Jax, isn’t he?” Tara giggled.

“What did he do?” Hank’s eyes were bright like he knew it would be something ridiculous.

“Made them dance like show girls.” Gigi laughed. “It made it easier for John to behead them, at least.”

After he was done laughing, Hank told the girls that their wardens would take their statements later when they got back to their rooms. He would walk back with me to get mine. I didn’t care about any of that. What I did care about was the girl sitting in front of me.

“I’m glad you’re okay.” I dropped my head on her shoulder.

When she wrapped her arms around me and squeezed, I knew I didn’t make a sound, but something must have given it away because she suddenly let go.

“Are you bleeding?” She ran a hand over my clawed shoulder and the sticky wetness there.

“Maybe a little bit.”

“One of his shoulders is dislocated, too.” Hank called up a ball of light, nearly blinding me. “I can tell just from how he’s holding it.”

I glared at him. The pain didn’t matter. It never did. I would have endured it for as long as she wanted to hold me.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She hollered, actually hollered , and pushed me back so she could stand up.

Wow. That got her worked up.

She tried to take off my shirt, and I fought against her fingers. Finally, she planted herself in front of me with her fists balled up on her hips.

“Kerry Harker, each scar you bear is a medal that honors what you’ve endured. Instead of feeling embarrassed or ashamed, you should be walking tall, proud you survived what others can’t even imagine. Now take off your shirt and let me heal you!”

Sighing, I unbuttoned my shirt and started to struggle out of the sleeves. Hank reached over and helped ease it over my shoulders. Gigi ran off, one hand over her mouth, Gemma gasped, and Tara grimaced.

Oh, yeah. Impressing allll the ladies tonight.

Gemma started to poke around, and I gritted my teeth.

“Let’s do one at a time,” she said at last. “The torn one first, I think. It’s going to sting.”

A tiny frown built between her eyebrows as she ran the tips of her fingers over the mess. Then she zapped me, and I grunted a little. I’d never been electroshocked, but I imagined that was what it felt like.

“There.” She sounded satisfied. “Now for the other one. Hank’s going to have to help brace you. Can you handle that?”

I thought about it and realized I felt more stable than I would have expected.

Because of her, a tiny voice whispered in my mind. You’re stable because of her.

“Yeah. I’m good.”

“This is going to hurt.” She put Hank’s hands where she wanted them, then her own. “A lot.”

“Do your worst, angel,” I smirked.

Fire.

Fire burning through my bones, melting down through my muscles. That was all I could compare it to as she torched my shoulder. I focused on the pain and wondered how deeply I could sink into it before my brain turned to embers and ash.

And then it was gone.

“Yee-ow!” Hank shook out his hands as if his fingers had been burnt. “That hurt!”

“You should have been there when she healed the scars on my back. That was intense.”

“I only felt a fraction of this heal and it was enough. My fingers are numb!”

I was pulling on what remained of my shirt when Jax and John joined us.

“Thanks. It worked great.” John held out the katana hilt-first, and I dissolved it into a thousand blue sparks. “Slick and smooth.”

“You rusty, K-man? Need some practice fighting?” Jax nodded at my shredded shirt. “Or do you always get this beat up in combat?”

“You volunteering to spar with me? Because if you are, you better go have a look at what’s left of the harpy.”

“Joking!” He held up both hands, palms toward me. “Just joking! Jeez!”

“But do you? Do you usually get this hurt in a fight?” Gemma’s eyes were wide.

She was so concerned for me all the time. It made me uncomfortable, but warmed me up inside, too, which was weird and confusing.

“No. Not usually.” I rubbed one hand over the back of my neck. “But it happens.”

“Kerry.” Hank waited until I looked at him. “You and I both know combat isn’t pretty or civilized, and anyone who thinks it is has never been in it. You aren’t helping them by hiding anything or trying to protect them from reality.”

I held his gaze for a moment, then jerked my head in a short nod.

“Kerry?” Gemma peered up at me.

I gave her a little smile.

“I wasn’t sure how you’d react if I cut loose. I’m— I mean, I go too hard and too far sometimes. I, uh, didn’t wanna scare you.”

I didn’t know which part of that upset her, but she reached up, grabbed a handful of my ruined shirt, and yanked me down so we were eye-to-eye.

“Next time, you take it out quick and clean. No more stupid and needless injuries. Do you hear me?”

I narrowed my eyes and tried to stare her down, but for a little, bitty crybaby, she could be tough when she wanted to be. Her hand tightened up in my shirt as she shook me a little.

“I said, do you hear me?”

I remembered being on the other end of a similar conversation and grinned.

“I hear you, tiny.”

That made her so mad, she let me go and stomped her foot.

“We better go home, Warden.” I looked at Hank as my grin grew. “She might try to hurt me if we stay.”