“I’ll come back for you,” Kinzer told Maggie, “and we’ll figure out how to make you better again, I promise. Just be strong for me, okay? Be strong.”
She sobbed because the pain was just so severe… too severe. “I will.”
But she wasn’t sure if she could handle it… not if it kept intensifying.
Kinzer and Hayde hurried down the hall.
Kid hoisted her to her feet. “Okay,” he said with a grunt. “Let’s do this.”
***
Treycore crept through the woods.
Whenever the immortal guards appeared discouraged, he created another crack for them to follow. They stepped over fallen branches and navigated their way through the foliage around them.
Treycore ducked behind a broad tree.
“Seriously? What the fuck?” the first guard asked.
The second guard grunted.
“I’m gonna call back to the house.”
Shit.
Treycore couldn’t let him do that.
“Hey,” the guard said into a walkie.
Treycore leapt out from the foliage and rushed the one with the walkie, severing his wrist so the walkie went flying through the woods.
The other guard retrieved his sword, and they exchanged a few clashes before Treycore threw his fist against the side of his head and slammed him against a nearby tree so he fell unconscious.
The one-handed guard reached for his sword, and Treycore severed off his other hand.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
Treycore knelt and snatched him by the throat. “You’re done talking,” he said.
He dragged the guard through the woods.
“Heckley, you okay? Everything alright? Do we need to send someone out there with you?”
The sound led Treycore to the walkie, which he picked up and shoved next to Heckley’s mouth.
“Tell him you’re fine, and make it convincing… unless you want to lose something else… something more valuable.”
He pressed the button on the walkie.
“All good here,” Heckley said in a clear, steady voice.
Treycore smiled. “Appreciate it.”
He slit the higherling’s throat and tossed him aside. He returned to the other who he’d knocked unconscious and finished him off. He couldn’t risk him waking and alerting the enemy of their presence.
A loud sound, like a truck, caught his attention.
He turned to the warehouses they’d passed on the way to Veylo’s place.
