“How unexpected,” she said, staring at the side of his face. “And here I thought you liked to play by the rules.”
Graydon pulled back a tiny bit. “You’re the one who said rules are made to be broken.”
“As if you didn’t have that habit before you met me.”
Graydon’s chuckle did delicious things to her insides. “I’m looking forward to what’s coming. I have a feeling it will be something for the history books.”
Kira eyed him as he straightened. “Of course.”
She was the Phoenix, after all. The person Himoto compared to a wrecking ball.
A mad smile formed on Kira’s face. It went perfectly with the fierce glint in Graydon’s gaze that dared her to do her worst.
“You really need to stop smiling like that,” Jin muttered through their comms as Kira moved past Graydon.
A rush of air at her back announced Graydon and his oshotas’ departure, leaving Kira and the rest of the initiates to whatever fate now awaited them.
“You’ll terrify the rest if you don’t,” Jin added.
“Yes, that would be terrible.”
How would they get the courage to make things interesting if they were too scared to make a move in her direction?
Kira knelt, more interested in the mystery behind the sand than finding out what her fellow initiates were up to. She brushed away the surface particles to find more of the same below. Even poking a finger as deep as it would go couldn’t help her find the bottom of the particles.
As she withdrew her finger, she watched the hole she’d made fill in with grains. Almost like water welling up from the bottom. It seemed there was some type of memory function in the particles, allowing them to restore their original shape after a disturbance.
“Could they be nanites?” Kira mumbled to herself.
“Something like that,” Alexander said from over her head as his shoes entered her field of view.
Kira wiped her hands against each other as she looked up to find Alexander and Selene standing over her.
Someone nearby snickered.
“How pitiful to be impressed by such a small thing,” someone sneered. “You really did grow up in a technologically backward society.”
Kira and Alexander looked in the person’s direction, neither bothering with a response.
Selene was equally silent as she stared at the person and their companions. Many of whom were from the same group as Renata and the rest.
There was a watchful look in Kira’s eye as she rose.
“It’s a tragedy what growing up in such conditions did to you,” the person who’d spoken said with fake sympathy.
Kira looked up at Alexander before pointing at the idiot in front of them. “Is he talking to me or you?”
It was important to know in order to allocate the appropriate energy needed to deal with them.
If Alexander was their intended target, he could bear the brunt of the effort.
“You.”
“I don’t think so.” Kira shook her head before waving her hand at his body. “Your overall vibe is way more tragic than mine.”
Alexander faced Kira more fully, squaring off with her.
A sigh came from Selene before she made a gesture.
