“Yes,” he says. “I forgot that part. I always forget that part.”
“Alright. Thanks. I gotta go.”
“You’re my first customer,” he says. “I hope you’ll be okay.”
He sounds regretful, but I have already stepped off the edge and am falling. I count to three, then pull the cord. The chute opens. I can’t believe it, but a big canopy of fabric billows out behind me and my descent is slowed considerably.
I don’t think I’m going to develop a taste for skydiving, but I tolerate this experience as I turn my lines toward the ship, or the place where I think the ship is. I can only imagine the panic that will be ensuing if Zeal soldiers come down to the village and start freaking everybody down there out. They’ve been through enough.
It turns out my sense of direction is uncanny. I can see the ship, and unfortunately, I can also see Zeal soldiers with weapons pointed at my mates. I can see that an altercation is in progress. There are about twelve soldiers. I instantly know they did not send nearly enough people. Even heavily armored, even with high-powered weapons, it takes more than four men to take one of my mates down.
I am helpless to intervene. I am swaying back and forth at the end of the chute, waiting for gravity to deliver me to the fray.
I see a light flash that must be Sharp pulling one of his super dangerous swords. From this height, it’s more like a glinting little flash, but I know what that looks like. I’d know it anywhere.
There are so many pretty little bursting lights, which correspond to the Zeal soldiers opening fire. They may as well be little LED lights flashing on a game board for all the effect they seem to have on my mates.
Boss lowers his head and shoulders, then charges the nearest cluster of soldiers, goring through them in one brutal motion. I am getting closer by the second, and I know that the soldiers on his horns are not holding on. They have no choice. He has turned them into impromptu head decorations, and now he uses their limp bodies as a kind of shield while the others continue to fire on him.
This gives Sharp all the opening he needs to start swinging his weapon, a sword that cuts through every bit of the soldiers where it makes contact. He is skilled with it, but even if he were not, I have no doubt that he would be making diced meat out of these soldiers.
Poor bastards. They didn’t know what they were in for.
Kronos lights the rest of them up with cracking lightning that seems to emanate from his hands and fingers. Still have no idea how he does that. There is so much more to him than meets the eye. That’s true of all of them, I realize as my feet dangle in the rushing air.
Stuck floating toward carnage, I realize again that I finally have access to all my memories with them.
They make me blush…
Some time ago…
“Kneel, pet.”
I blush, but I don’t go to my knees.
“Why do you resist even the slightest display of obedience?”
“I don’t know,” I whimper as I hide my head, a little ashamed of myself under Sharp’s stern stare.
“You speak the same language. You understand me entirely. But you have decided not to obey. Why?”
“Don’t make me explain myself,” I plead.
“You will have to explain yourself. You can either use your words, or you can choose to obey. I will take either option.”
“It feels weird to kneel. Makes me feel… small, I don’t know.”
“You are small,” he points out pragmatically.
“Yes, but that’s not what I mean. I mean I don’t… I don’t want to do what you tell me to do.”
“Are you sure about that, pet?” Sharp’s stern voice is laced with a hint of sexy warmth. He is so patient. Dangerously so.
“Yes, I am pretty sure,” I say, squirming.
“The others have put you on your knees, but I want you to do it for me. I do not want to have to manhandle you every time you need to do something.”
“But I don’t want to…”
