Page 55 of This Blood That Breaks Us

This was all mine.

It was confirmed when Luke shot me a worried glance. He felt it too.

Feelings were more of a suggestion as far as I was concerned. I filed them away in my suggestion box that then got set on fire. Problem solved. I didn’t take suggestions. This wasn’t that. This wasn’t something I could control. I turned away while Luke tended to Connell’s shoulder. The sadness crept up my throat, and I beat it down like the vile rabid dog it was.Nope. Not here.

“There. You’ll be all right,” Luke said.

“Come on, sir. We should get this started, don’t you think?”

Henderson made it easy to grab on to the only emotion I enjoyed feeling—an unholy amount of anger. He was cocky. From his smirk, I could tell he thought he could beat Luke. They all wanted to beat us because they wanted tobeus. They thought they’d be next. The missing two from the prophecy. Or maybe they wanted someone else to be chosen.

Luke might lose to me in a fight eight times out of ten, but those times, he showed me he wasn’t someone to be messed with. He had something I didn’t have. When I was knocked down and couldn’t get up, I was fueled by pure spite, but Luke had actual resilience. The kind you couldn’t learn and had to be born with.

He tore off his shirt and threw it over the side. With a bite to the wrist, blood ran in a steady stream onto the floor. The drain system in the concrete of the floor was perfect for washing away the buckets full of blood spilled daily.

“Alright. Let’s see what you got.” Luke was oddly serious, but I knew why. He didn’t tolerate bullies.

“May fate guide you, sir.” Henderson bowed.

Luke bowed back, though he didn’t need to. “May fate guide you.”

Sirius taught us that stupid phrase the first time we sparred. More cult bullshit.

Henderson rushed him, and Luke countered easily like I’d shown him. He pushed Henderson to the ground with one hulking arm. Henderson wrapped his arm around Luke’s leg and tried to pull him down.

“Amateur,” I whispered under my breath.

He may have been older than me and liked to fight, but he had a lot to learn. I guess Sirius and Ezra had other things they deemed more important than training the men like they’d taught me. Luke was a hulking mass, and even if they seemed equal in build, unless Luke was good and drained of blood, knocking him off balance would be nearly impossible.

“See, bad idea. You want to wait to pull me down after more blood is drained.” Luke grabbed Henderson from the floor and flung him into the wall with ease. “Okay, try again. This time, keep your chin up. Slow down and watch my movements. Read me first.”

Luke rushed him, and Henderson went straight for a cheap shot chokehold and bite at the neck, but Luke flung him over his shoulder into the concrete.

“I said watch!” Luke grabbed him by the collar and pinned him to the ground, holding down his arms and feet.

“What are you playing at?”

“I’m trying to make you a better fighter.”

I smiled. He didn’t like fighting, but he loved teaching and challenging people to make them better. Luke taught me to be a better fighter. He taught me to be better at everything, and he would teach them too. The medium was right. Darkness had followed us, wrapped us in its arms, and placed us there, and we shouldn’t have fit. It shouldn’t have worked. If it wasn’t true, we wouldn’t have.

Something about Henderson softened. He let his shoulders drop and listened to Luke’s guidance. Luke’s audience of blood thirsty assholes had turned into a more silent group, watching him as he explained things step by step.

I smiled. It was working. He was fitting in. We both were.

Luke and I could be okay if things didn’t work out with the escape. I wanted to believe it would stick. That this time would be different, but I didn’t know for sure. I had to have a backup plan. I had to be ready for anything.

Fifteen

Zach

“Follow me to the garden,” Ezra said.

I groaned. It was winter. The garden was nothing but old shriveled leaves and gray; there was nothing cool to look at. It was all dead plants. Plus, it was drizzling. It was always drizzling.

He patted me on the shoulder, and I reluctantly followed. I had a few minutes before I had to meet Luke at The Underground, and the sun was setting.

Ezra didn’t stop at the gate, and he led me farther into the garden than usual. The whole thing was one giant maze, and that was saying something with the giant hedge maze not too far away from it.