Page 84 of The Fates We Tame

“Go behind the bar. There’s an entry on the other side. Stay as low to the ground as you can. Go.” Sophia does as I say, and I reach for Rae as King sends her my way. “Follow Sophia.”

“I know what to do,” she says with measured confidence.

Spark is stuck near the entry to church, his whole body wrapped around Iris. Her service dog, Mac, howls. Lookingaround, I flip the thick wooden table with all the boxes of party food on it and drag it across the room.

“Spark,” I shout. “Hand her to me.”

At first, I don’t think he heard me, but then I realize he’s paralyzed by…PTSD. Fuck, it comes to me with certainty. Spark was injured in a bombing where everyone else on patrol with him was killed.

“You’re crushing…me,” Iris manages to say, but Spark just tightens his grip and holds her down in front of him.

Even though it feels like every muscle in my arm is tearing apart, I grab both of them and tug.

Bullets hit the front of the table. I glance up and see Halo jump over the bar and then crawl his way to provide cover for Briar and Gwen to escape down the rear corridor. Clutch is already up front with King, firing back.

But I heave Spark and Iris behind the table. Mac follows.

“Spark,” I say, “you’re gonna hurt Iris.”

He looks up at me. I’ve seen that kind of fear in a man before. I don’t know where, but I have.

In another time and place, there may be a more measured approach, but I do the only thing I can think of.

I slap him. “Spark, I need you to come back to us, brother.”

He shakes his head, then takes in what is going on around us. “Iris,” he says.

“I’m safe.” She places her hand on his cheek. “But we need to move.”

With burning muscles that feel like they are being shredded in my weak arm, I grip the top edge of the table and shunt it across the floor, feeling the force of every bullet. Bates uses our movement to duck low with Vi and get her to the other side of the bar, and the two of them disappear into a room. When they re-emerge, it’s with Ari, Lola, and their own daughter,Avery, who is crying in Bates’s arms. Vi covers her baby bump protectively with her hands.

But it’s Sophia I’m looking for.

“Let’s get them all into the medical room,” Bates says.

When I get there, I see Sophia sitting with Briar. She has her arm around the young woman, who’s in obvious distress.

“You okay?” I ask.

“Just another day in paradise,” she says with a soft smile.

I like that she isn’t falling apart, that she’s offering comfort. I don’t have much in the way of weapons on me, so I tug my switchblade out of my cut pocket and hand it to her. “If anyone other than one of us makes their way in here, you use it…”

She takes the blade, holds the safe handle, and flips the bite handle and blade around her hand in a maneuver called a butterfly. It’s fast, and her hand moves as if she’s done it a thousand times before.

She huffs and looks up at me. “I wonder what Dr. Polunin would say about this little bit of procedural memory?”

“Don’t give a fuck, but for now, I’m going to be really glad you remember how to use it, and we can try and figure the fuck out why when this is over.”

And with that, I return to the front of the building.

22

SOPHIA

Theo is in the medical room, patching up those who need it. I saw the moment training overtook everything else. He needs help threading the needle but is steady enough to stitch. He’s calling out what needs to happen before he knows why.

Dressing versus stitches.