“Not before I fucking kill you,” came a guttural voice from the shadows.
I snapped my attention to the opening in the alleyway, spotting a hooded Chrome standing there. Despite his haggard appearance, the flared nostrils and tensed jaw displayed his barely contained rage, freezing his crystalline eyes in violent malice. With labored breaths, his shoulders shook harshly. Chrome peered from beneath his hood with glacial malevolence that promised nothing short of devastation.
Chapter 24
Slate
Pushing past the confusion in my ringing mind, I rose to a knee, ready to attack. Chrome pulled two swords from his back, the blue casting an ominous hue to the alleyway.
I kept hold of my dagger and met Chrome’s eyes, both of us nodding as we closed in on the injured Kale.
Even through his pain, Kale pulled free a sword of his own and found his footing, bracing to take us on at the same time.
I let Chrome attack first, one sword coming down above Kale’s head with excessive force.
Kale lifted his blade to deflect it, his arm shaking from the effort it took him to hold off Chrome’s strength.
I took the opportunity to slice his torso in several quick successions since he exposed his side.
Kale grunted and flinched, weakening his hold on Chrome’s overbearing force.
As I continued to methodically splice him in precise movements to weaken and distract him, Chrome bashed the hilt of his other sword down into Kale’s temple.
Kale collapsed to the ground, dark pools of blood expanding around his body. But the hatred and determination in his eyes didn’t dim. If anything, it only grew, seeming to give him the life he needed to keep fighting.
Neither Chrome nor I assumed Kale being down as a victory. Chrome took one side while I took the other. Chrome rushed to drop to his knees, grabbing Kale from behind in an unbreakable chokehold, squeezing his trachea within the crook of his arm.
Meanwhile, I retrieved his sword and tossed it to the side.
A sudden scream pierced through the alleyway, making the blood drain from my face.
I whirled around, finding Hazel’s face contorted in agony as she clamped her palms to her ears. “It’s too much! Stop!” I realized with horror that Kale directed his magic on Hazel, my weakness in this fight.
Fuck. I was torn between running to help my sister and finishing Kale off myself.
Hazel’s screams distracted Chrome, too, because, in the next second, Kale slid out a knife he’d stashed in his pants leg and reached behind him, stabbing Chrome’s thigh.
Chrome released his chokehold on Kale just a fraction, but it was enough for Kale to scramble and get the upper hand. The buzzing feeling returned to the back of my neck, and I looked down at my hands, finding them illuminating a silvery hue to the usual pale white light. I kept my fists clenched and rushed to the brawl happening on the ground.
In my dash, I swept up the sword Kale had tossed to the side. Upon my touch, its sigils ignited blue. I approached the two of them as they traded heavy hitting blows to the face. Before Chrome could flip him, because it was only a matter of time before he did, I snuck up behind Kale.
I jabbed the edge of Kale’s blade against his throat. “Release my sister,” I muttered, an unforgiving hardness to my tone,especially as Hazel’s screams continued to wail louder. I didn’t need to look behind me to know that she had curled in on herself on the ground.
Kale laughed. “No.”
Hazel screeched. Fuck. I worried about her permanent hearing if he didn’t stop soon.
Chrome grabbed my attention as he rose to his feet. “I got it, Slate. Go to Hazel,” he said, removing his black bracelet.
The sword grew weightless in my grasp as if someone had grabbed hold of it, but it was simply Chrome’s element.
I nodded to him and sprinted to my sister, who lay in the fetal position. Dropping to my knees at Hazel’s side, I pulled her into my lap, protecting her head with my body as if it could stop the onslaught that Kale inflicted on her ears.
I dared a glance in Chrome and Kale’s direction just in time to see Chrome release an implosion from his body. The blast struck Kale, incinerating him into dust. The small particles plumed into a cloud before scattering in the alleyway, slowly floating to the ground.
Hazel trembled in my arms. An eerie silence drifted through the alley, announcing the severity of the crime that had just been committed.
Chrome just killed a Kinetic Scout.
