I tensed my core in preparation for his inevitable attack. “Try it then.”
“Hmm.” He tilted his head, and the black helmet slid from the movement, the strap under his chin secured too loosely. “I wonder, how would your boys react if they saw you on my leash? Not a physical one—I’m not into those types of games—but an invisible tether. Where you stood by my side, abiding by my rules, not a single thought about rebelling left in your mind,” he detailed. “You would make a beautiful toy. Something I could show off.”
The picture he’d painted was cruel, immoral, wicked, but not a hint of dread tickled my heels.
I’d heard worse.
I’d survived worse.
I’d overcome worse.
So if he sought to catch me, to take me captive, he better prayed to the gods sailing the stars to grant him luck.
Because I wasn’t going to yield.
Like a vengeful angel, I was going to soar the skies, hunt my prey, and snap my beak at any predators challenging me.
“You will pay for this.” For draining my friend of her life. For convincing us he was on our side. For tricking us into believinghis lies. For being so closed-minded, he refused to consider his masters might have turned him into a brainless puppet.
Ilasall’s military was wired like the microchips embedded into their purlicues: created to follow a specific set of rules and nothing more.
No questioning their laws, no pondering whether their creators were worth the worship, no free thinking.
“We’ll see.” Arlo twirled his knife graced with Tarri’s blood around, clutching it so hard, his knuckles turned white. “If you’re expecting backup, then know it’s not coming.” He passed another row of seats. “We blocked the catacombs.”
I stood my ground. “And yet half of your military is sick, aren’t they?”
A shadow crossed my peripherals, and a body slammed into a window from the outside. I grabbed the closest pole to hold myself up as the bus rocked on its wheels. Quick as a flash, someone cracked their target’s neck, and the corpse fell below the frame of the window.
Realization that I couldn’t recognize either the victor or the fallen curdled my stomach.
But it didn’t affect Arlo.
With a grin, he leaped onto me. “Let’s dance.”
67
KALI
His fist flew toward my chin?—
I crouched down, catching a pole for balance as my foot connected with Arlo’s ankle. Zion and Eli had drilled one rule into my head: to always aim for the weakest parts of a human body. Or in other words, the joints.
A pained grunt slipped past Arlo’s teeth as he staggered back, reaching for one of the plastic seats to avoid sprawling out on his ass.
Utilizing his shock as an opportunity, I slammed my heel into his ankle again, but he was too far, and I only grazed his limb.
But it was enough for him to hiss.
Yes.
Between curses, he gritted out, “How do you know about the sickness?”
“Don’t pretend to be stupid, Arlo.” I stood back up, the hollow metal rod slippery from the clamminess coating my palms. “You didn’t block all the entrance and exit points in the catacombs. Our people got through.”
Sure, maybe not as many as we’d planned, but Eli and Eislyn had obviously managed to sneak in, find our contact who worked in the water plant, and poison the military’s water supply.
“Fucking rats.” Arlo tried to put his weight on the injured ankle?—
