“There can only be one winner, Dex. We both know that truth,” I said in a flat tone as to not give away how close to the mark he had come. Maybe I was scared of him in more ways than one. Scared of how much he made me feel. Scared that if I were to make it out of here, I wouldn’t return the same.
A little late for that, don’t you think?A snarky Kage said into my mind.
Shut up.
“You can either admit the truth or you can keep walking away from me, but I won’t follow you this time.”
“Good! I didn’t ask you to follow me this time!” I shouted back with my hands firmly planted on my hips. Dex took a step towards me, and I took one towards him. Our chests were nearly brushing together with a crackle of electricity running through us.
Another rumble of the ground rocked through my feet. I whipped my head to see what was causing it this time.
The fucking Pyro had found us, and a wave of fire was wrapped around his body. He tilted his head as he looked over at us and the fallen bears before he raised his arm and shot out a wall of fire right towards us.
Chapter 34
Dex
“Duck!” I called out to Odessa, grabbing her about the waist and pulling her down just in time. Our bodies rolled as the fire raged only a yard above us. It was so close it felt like it could burn my eyebrows off.
When the bears had been coming straight for us, I realized that my power to control bones was of no use. I had the power to controlhumanbones, but seeing as the bears were clearly animal, I failed to stop them. Odessa, however had tapped into that dark power and wielded her shadows like a goddess incarnate.
But the Pyro? He was all human and with one wave of my hand, I had his form within my grasp. He stalled becoming my puppet in an instant, and the flames receded.
“What are you doing?” Odessa asked.
“Stopping him from burning us alive!” I said, sweat gathering on my brow as I began to break his bones. I started with his femurs, making him kneel on the ground in agony.
I’d lost track of time down here. There was no way to know for sure how long we’d been trapped, fighting for our lives.Days? Weeks? It was unclear. But I was fucking done having this asshole show up with his fire and try to murder us.
“It’s good that you’re afraid of me, Odessa,” I said with a sneer as she watched me snap bone by bone. “I can be fucking deadly when I want to be.”
“Stop!” He cried out. “Please, I was just following orders!”
Odessa looked at me and then him.
“Following whose orders?” She asked.
“The woman. In- my- head,” he breathed out sounding labored. I cracked one of his ribs and he screamed.
Odessa’s eyes went wide at his words, but I’d heard enough. Anyone who justifies hurting other by following orders isn’t someone I wanted to extend my mercy to.
The last bone I broke was the one that held his head in place. I twisted it right off, and he hung in a heap of his own skin, lifeless and smelling of ash.
“What did you do that for? I wasn’t done asking him questions!” Odessa stomped off, down the wide opening.
“Well, I was.” I went after her, even though I said I wouldn’t. She could call me a liar all she wanted to and call my bluff, I didn’t care. Waking up knowing she had left, just like I’d been left before gutted something in me. She had a hold on me that I couldn’t push away no matter how angry she’d made me. “You could at least give me my pack back.”
“No,” she said, not bothering to look at me. “I thought you weren’t going to follow me.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Lies, again,” she said narrowing her eyes at me. “That’s all you have right? Lies and walls for me to climb to even get to know you? When are you going to tell me anything real about yourself, Dex?”
I stared at her and opened my mouth, only to close it again.
“That’s what I thought.”
She continued on, her anger at me palpable. I wasn’t so thrilled with her either, but we were both going to the same place. The end of this fucking maze. Might as well follow the person who has the food.
