His fist snaked out then; I hadn’t been expecting it at all, which gave him an advantage. I jerked to the side, but his knuckles skimmed my jaw and smacked me in the ear. I reacted instantly, and despite my fatigue, managed to land a right hook, followed by an uppercut.
Training kicked in, and the next time he threw a swing, I side-swept his legs, knocking him down. Laous might have the speed of a Daelighter, but he was clearly used to other people doing his dirty work. Fighting was not his thing, which gave me a sliver of a chance.
As he jumped up with a roar, I went on the offensive, jabbing and kicking, changing up my style and stance to keep him off guard. He blocked a few, but most of my shots landed, and I was excited that his right eye was already darkening, blood seeping from his nose.
“Enough!” he finally bellowed, and that’s when I kneed him in the balls.
He dropped to the ground, a groan escaping his lips, and I wasted no time in slamming my shin into his temple, knocking him out.
“I’ll say when it’s enough,” I crowed at the unconscious Daelighter.
Panic hit me then because that had been way too easy. I wasn’t sure what was coming for me now. I started to walk away, preparing to run for it. At the last minute I backtracked, deciding to quickly search him for Emma’s necklace. It was giving him way too much advantage over us.
As I hurried to his side, I noted the odd array of clothing he wore. Looked like he’d scavenged through someone’s dirty laundry to piece together an outfit. An old and faded cotton shirt that had been dark blue but was now a washed out gray. His pants were surf shorts, which he’d teamed with long socks that almost met the bottom of them. Leaning down, I quickly searched his pockets. No way Laous trusted anyone else with his precious stone. He had to have it on him.Paranoid, dickface.
In my haste to search him, I missed the giant behemoth stepping out of the transporter. The next thing I knew, a heavy blow landed on my head, knocking me forward. I was barely conscious enough to immediately vomit down the giant’s back as he hauled me up in one arm.
Light sent screeching pain through my head as we stepped into the transporter.
Daniel wasn’t going to make it in time. I was heading to wherever Laous had just come from.
11
Mammoth man turned out to be kind of a rough ride. Thankfully, in a completely non-sexual way. By the time we reached our destination my ribs were screaming at me from being slammed across his shoulder. Laous was still unconscious over his other shoulder and I was starting to freak out about what he might do when he came to. Probably my ribs would be the least of my worries.
The transporter spat us out in a weird world. It almost looked like there was nothing around here but … clouds. Literally. Just a world of clouds. The huge scary dude dropped me not very gently onto the cloud ground, Laous landing next to me.
Scrambling back, I got my first real look of my attacker and had to swallow down my unease. His face, and the skin I could see leading into his dark shirt, looked like someone had taken a blowtorch to it, melting and burning and scarring. I felt a pang of sympathy for whatever he had been through, but at the same time, I was not going to let my guard down. Not at all. He was working for Laous, which made him the enemy.
Lying on the ground made me feel extra vulnerable. The urge to get up was strong, but I was afraid I’d get knocked down again. I focused on inching away from Laous. Being this close to his slimy ass was giving me the creeps. The giant watched me but made no move to stop me from shifting out of Laous’ reach.
“I … sorry I hit you.”
I was startled by his gruff apology, his voice raspy, words stilted, like he hadn’t used them in a long time. Clearing my throat, I wondered if maybe I could use this to my advantage. I desperately needed an ally; maybe he also needed one.
“That’s okay,” I told him. “It only hurts a little.”
I pressed my hand to my cheeks and winced. Okay, so maybe a “little” was kind of an understatement. He followed my movements and his face dropped, eyes downcast.
“Where are we?” I asked, wanting to keep him talking.
He looked around, as if he was only just noticing that we were in this weird cloud world. I couldn’t see any end from where we stood, but with everything white and fluffy, it might have all been an optical illusion, making it next to impossible to tell the size of this place. I mean, was this in Overworld? Or was it somewhere else altogether? It didn’t feel like we were in Imperial, because my energy had not returned.
“Safe place,” mammoth man finally said.
“What’s your name?”
I startled him with this question. His mouth opened to form a silent mime of the word “name.”
“What do I call you?” I tried again, not sure how much he understood. He spoke broken English, but I sensed that was not because he didn’t know the language.
He straightened. “I am called Rao, Rao Imperial.” He pointed down to Laous, who I was pleased to see was still unconscious. “Father.”
I blinked a few times, trying to see an ounce of similarity between the two men. Rao was twice as wide and a foot taller than his father. More like Daniel, who until now had made everyone look scrawny. Rao might be the one Daelighter who was bigger than him.
“Daniel never said he had a cousin.” I tried to keep the surprise from my voice. Hopefully they called them cousins here also.
Rao shook his head. “Secret.”
