Page 16 of The Last Hope

Gods, let us run.

And we’ll find an escape pod on our own, and be free.

He keeps edging forward. “What if I told you that I’m human?”

“Are you?” I ask and my spine suddenly hits the wall. Trapped here, I toss the half-a-rod at his face.

He blocks the attack but gives me time to run. I sprint toward the door.

“Wait!” he shouts. “Bloody hell.” He chases after me, gains speed, and as he surpasses my stride, he pushes me into the corner.

Breath ejects from my lips, and in one blink, he reaches over his shoulder and clasps a handle attached to his back. He draws a long glinting blade to the front of his body. Holding the sharpside perilously at my throat, his armor pushes up against my bony build.

My eyes grow big.He has a weapon.This whole time, a sword was strapped on his back.

Maybe he truly doesn’t wish to hurt us.

Court tries to come near me.

Bludrader glances over his shoulder. “You move, I cut her neck.”

Maybe he does.

Court goes rigid, and he battles another incoming cough. He loses this time and hacks into his fist. Doubling over.

Mykal puts a hand on Court’s back and roars something at our enemy, but his words are muffled with blood.

“Everyone, just calm down,” Bludrader says with heavy breath, looking between our raging eyes. “You don’t need to fight me to the death.”

Fight to the death.I’ve never heard that saying before.

“Why won’t you show us your identification?” I ask heatedly. “Why won’t you tell us who you are?” I need answers. I need answers to everything. Anything.

I need them so badly, I could scream and scream andscream.

He smiles weakly. “Because, dove, I have no ID on me, and saying my full name isn’t as simple as I wish it were. I will tell you. Just not here. Not now.”

Patience, is that it?

It’s what I’ve been. It’s what I’ve been continuously instructed to be.

Patient little Franny. Don’t ask questions.

I rumble inside, but I know that now is truly,trulynot the time. Court isn’t well.

Court.

I suddenly remember what he once did as I held an iron poker to his throat. In a snap-second, I decide to take the biggest risk.

And I step into the blade.

Fear, for the first time, flickers in Bludrader’s gaze. He instantly retracts the blade, not drawing any blood from my neck.He doesn’t want to hurt me.

He spins the sword in his hand, looking miffed.

Court shakes his head. “You don’t want to hurt her, yet youthreatento slit her throat and you hurt my…” His voice catches, hesitating to tell Bludrader what Mykal is to him. He simply nods to Mykal.

I don’t want anyone to use their coupling against them either. It’d be worse than cruel.