That wasn’t true.It had been a fairly terrible life, one fraught with pain and trauma no person should have had to deal with.I thought about getting shipped off to Obsidian as a kid, about trying to survive while so many thoughts and feelings that weren’t my own poured into me.Really, things had been rather unfair, and maybe this was the first time I’d truly considered it.
In fact, I wasn’t sure there was one bright spot in the whole mess of my life.
A flash of my tongue entwined with Yun’s, her sweet breath, the way she’d swallowed Ingram’s cum from my mouth filtered through my mind.Was this just a moment of nostalgia?
Whatever it was, a discomfort settled in my stomach over the idea that there might have been one thing worth all that hell, and that I was losing itfartoo soon.Thankfully, with Yun up in the room, she was out of danger.The Guild had already been alerted, so they’d send more espers, and given the number of espers at the compound, they could deal with this asshole pretty easily.
Still, it was fairly irksome that after everything we’d done, after surviving The Pitt,thiswould take us down.It should have been better, should have been at least memorable.Reject Squad would go down as failures who never gained ground again, who never managed to come out on top again.
At least, that was my thought as I pulled my shoulders back, as I readied myself for whatever this corrupted would dish out—and I had no doubts it would be highly unpleasant—when someone else stepped forward, past me.
Familiar dark hair, a figure that was already trapped in my psyche, sure steps.
It startled me so much that I failed to react, as though so unexpected that Icouldn’treact.It felt like if the sky had suddenly fallen, the event so impossible, so unprecedented that no one would know how to respond.Likewise, I just watched as Yun stepped forward, past Kenyon and me, her steps quick.
Ingram tried to pick himself up off the ground, arms giving out, and Carter had not moved since the last strike.It was then I recognized that neither of them would stop this.
If that corrupted could take me out in one hit, the damage he could do to Yun was unfathomable.
My throat strangled the words, but I shoved her name out, surprised by the panic in my voice.I didn’t panic.I didn’t feel much of anything.
Or perhaps I’d just never recognized it before now.Maybe it had never been strong enough for me to identify it clearly, but I certainly did now.
Yun didn’t react, her gaze shifting around to the men on the floor, but she didn’t stop until just before the corrupted.
Despite the way she stood, her shoulders back, her chin held high, the fear that poured off her was impossible to miss.It bathed the room, thick and acidic and choking to me.I couldn’t ignore it, the fact that she wasn’t foolish enough to think this was safe.
“A guide?”The man let his lips quirk up on one side, a sickening smile that made my stomach clench in anger.“Don’t you know that guides should stay back and not get in the way?”
“What exactly are you wanting here?”Her voice was strong despite the waves of panic that rolled off her.
“What else?Just to prove something, to show that no matter how much the Guild wants to control us, it can’t.”
“And you think that causing a scene here does that?All it does is provewhywe need the Guild.It just scares civilians and makes them give more money and more power to the Guilds.It tells them we’re uncontrollable and that there’s no good reason to give us freedom.”
He narrowed his eyes until nothing but purple shone out through them.He bent down slightly, to meet her gaze head on.“You’re worse, you know that?Espers, the Guild, they’re powerful, butyou?Guides benefit from everything else but they don’t bring much to the table.They don’t matter, not really.You just lie to yourself and the world helps out and tells you how vital you are, but really?You’re fucking useless, just a tool to get used, nothing else.”
On the surface, Yun made no visible reaction.Nothing went to show that the words hit, but her mental waves moved out of control, shifting around, showing that the insult landed.
I wanted to do something, but nothing came to mind, nothing useful.She stood so close to the corrupted that he could erase her life before I coulddoanything.Even a wrong word could make this go bad so much faster.
“If you had more respect for guides, maybe you wouldn’t have ended up here,” Yun shot back.
I winced at her honesty and lack of tact.Couldn’t she have been a little gentler in this moment?Her cutting wit normally pleased me, but right now was not the best time for it.
Lines etched in his face, making the black spidering evidence of corruption more evident.“We’re stronger when we’re like this.You’re nothing but a way to control espers, to weaken them.You havenoidea what it feels like now, to let the corruption take over.It’s only called corruption because civilians want to demonize it, want to make it seem terrible, but the truth is that it is amazing.It makes us more, not less.I wouldn’t let something like you weaken me.”
With that, he snapped his hand out and wrapped his fingers around her throat.
Fuck.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Yun
The moment he touched me, it was over.
Despite the panic that rushed through me, the fear that came from knowing exactly what he could do, I focused only on whatIcould do.
