“Since that’s settled,” she said, “we can figure out the rest somewhere safer.” She was about to place the key in the lock on the door when another sound, like a crash of thunder, came from the other side of the street.
Before Kinzer could inspect the cause of the sound, a tentacle wrapped around Kelley’s waist. She grunted before raising her sword, but before she could strike, another tentacle wrapped around her wrist.
Kinzer sliced his sword through the tentacle around her waist, but it pulled back so swiftly that he just caught the air, and as he turned to see what had become of his ally, she was pulled into a jagged hole in the side of the building across the street—surely the hole created by the beast when he heard that loud, thunderous sound before it grabbed Kelley. She screamed, cried with a familiar passion that Kinzer recalled in the times of war, made ever more familiar by the cry of the Morarke that was in that building with her.
SNAP…then silence.
Kinzer knew what it meant, but they didn’t have time to mourn Kelley’s death any more than they’d had time to mourn all the deaths they’d witnessed minutes earlier.
“Fuck,” Quintz said. “Where’s the key?”
Kinzer checked the lock. Not there. Kelley must’ve still had it in her hand when that Morarke had grabbed her. Kinzer inspected around him and saw it between two stone tiles in the road. He looked to Quintz, who was looking at the key too. Quintz turned to him, exchanging a knowing look as they both seemed to have the same worry—if they went for that, the creature would nab them.
Like with the immortals attacking Quintz’s operatives, Kinzer didn’t doubt that the Morarke had been placed across the street to prevent their exit, but considering this was apparently ground zero for Janka’s attack, Kinzer knew they had to get out of there.
Kinzer leapt to the ground, seized the key, and bolted for the door. He anticipated the creature’s attack as it reached from the hole in the wall. He dodged the oncoming appendage and rolled across the street as Quintz sliced through the tentacle. The creature cried out and sent another appendage for Kinzer, who jumped to his feet and flipped back when yet another tentacle was unleashed. It snatched him by the ankle, and he felt the sharp sting as it released barbs into his flesh, clinging on. Kinzer cried out in anguish before slashing at the tentacle, when another reached out, wrapped around his sword, and pried it from his grip.
“Fuck!” Kinzer called out.
The Morarke raised him high in the air before thrusting down and slamming him against the road. Then it yanked him back and slammed him against the wall of the building on the other side of the street before bashing him back down to the street tile like it was trying to hammer him into the ground.
Kinzer caught a glimpse of Quintz a few yards away as he defended himself from a tentacle. He was too busy shielding himself to help Kinzer, and Kinzer knew that wasn’t good, especially as the last blow he’d received prevented him from willing his limbs into motion.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Kinzer moaned as he felt the creature pull him toward the hole it’d pulled Kelley through.
Quintz was still having to save himself, and Kinzer knew he was fucked.
A slicing sound filled the air along with a screeching sound that made the scream Kelley released earlier seem like a faint whisper. The grip around Kinzer’s ankle released. Two legs appeared before him, and as he looked up, expecting to see one of the members of Quintz’s operation, there stood a familiar face, but a face he’d hoped he’d never see again: Hayde, the immortal who had so cruelly betrayed him.
He looked down at Kinzer, those mismatched eyes—green and brown—gazing at him. His dark hair was cut shorter than when Kinzer had last seen him, except the bangs, which arched over his forehead, the tip dropping past his eye, to the top of his cheek. Kinzer noticed the freckles on his face and the two small moles across his neck, but mostly he noticed the body he missed so much, the one exposed before him as Hayde wore nothing but a white frader, sheaths for his daggers on either hip.
Kinzer’s thoughts warred against one another as he was filled with confusion, rage, anger…hurt. He tried to move but couldn’t. His body was still in shock from the creature’s brutal assault.
Quintz managed to slice another tentacle, and the beast retracted its limbs back into the hole they’d come from as Hayde knelt down and threw Kinzer over his shoulder. Retrieving the key off the ground, Hayde hurried to the door across the street and unlocked it.
Quintz didn’t ask Hayde any questions, and Kinzer knew it was because he just wanted to get the fuck out of there right then. Hayde opened the door.
“There’s someone on the other side waiting for you,” Hayde warned.
“I can change the portal. I’ve got to go through first,” Quintz said quickly. He searched around before diving for the ground and retrieving his remote, which had fallen during the attack. He raced through the portal.
The wall of the building on the other side of the street broke open as the Morarke came for them.
Just as Hayde jumped through the portal, the beast lunged at them and crashed against the side of the portal. Its entrails exploded the moment it touched the fluid, and that propelled the three of them through the portal even faster. They shot out, the red and blue of the Morarke’s blood filling the air with bits and pieces that chased after them as they were thrust through the air.
Kinzer collapsed onto the concrete floor of whatever chamber they had been transported to. His body was so weak from the Morarke’s attack that it took him some time to force his limbs to obey his will. His vision, a blur at first, settled, and he saw Quintz lying alongside the far wall. He pushed his hand against the floor, forcing himself to his feet.
A groan caught his attention, and he turned to see Hayde lying a few yards away from him, on the wall adjacent to the portal. Kinzer stumbled toward the bastard, swooping down and scooping Quintz’s sword off the floor, where it had landed when they’d been shoved inside. He rushed to Hayde, who turned and looked up in time to see his attacker making his way to him. Kinzer raised his sword and drove it down, but Hayde slid a dagger from a sheath affixed to his frader and held it before him, blocking the attack.
“You fucker,” Kinzer said. “I gave you the chance to get away once. I won’t make that mistake again.”
“I just saved your asses.”
“And I’m not interested in finding out why.”
“Kinzer,” Quintz called as he pushed to his feet. “He did save us.” Quintz glanced between them, clearly trying to figure out the nature of their relationship.
“This is a known traitor,” Kinzer explained. “I’ve worked with him in the past. He’s saved my ass once, only to turn against me and kill a very good ally and friend. Something…I still don’t understand.”
