And the feel of him so close to me snatched my speech ability entirely.
“Let. Him. Go.” With her fists clenched in anticipation of a fight, Kali stomped over to us. “I said, let him go,” she repeated, slowly, deliberately so, “and I won’t slice your dick off only to feed it to you afterward.”
Before she could do irreparable damage, I reached to unclasp the strap of his black helmet?—
He shoved me aside, swiveling and blocking Kali’s blow with his forearm.
Her hiss died when steel flashed in the moonlight. His knife drew an arc and split her left cheek, in the precise way she had done to him a long time ago.
Scarlet welled to the surface. A drop trickled to her jaw, its journey sucking the strength out of her as she blanched.
Kali gaped at the last remaining soldier for a while before croaking out, “No. This can’t— No—Just no.” Laughter exploded out of her, the sound bitter and jarring. Blinking the tearsaway, she shook her head. “I’m so stupid for thinking—” She squared her shoulders. “You know what?No. And fuck you.” She punched his chest, his upper arms, his shoulders, traveling up and up?—
His head snapped aside. Yet he stood his ground, as solid as a wall, yielding to her need to hit.
Oblivious to how her knuckles had split from having struck his mask, she raised her shaking fist again.
She was hurting herself.
And neither he hiding behind the plastic, nor I could have that.
Catching her waist, I hauled her away. She screamed, trashed, kicked, and cursed, but my mind was too blank to come up with a way to mollify her rage.
Shouts reverberated in the streets nearby, and I pleaded with her. “Be quiet.” Covering her mouth, I grunted from the sting of her teeth sinking into my flesh and drawing blood. “It’s past curfew. The patrols can hear you.”
The soldiers Ilasall had posted across the city must’ve become aware of the commotion as bits and pieces of their conversations floated up to us on currents of air.
Kali relaxed in my hold, but only in a physical sense. If a person’s fury could kill, I’d be dead from how she raged.
Wary, I freed her mouth, and she spat out, “I’ll kill him.”
Disregarding her vow, he marched to the edge of the roof to peer down. Cloaked in the shadows, he closed his fist, and then flexed his fingers wide a few times, indicating the number of soldiers crawling in the streets.
Too many.
Holding her waist just in case, I dragged us to the roof’s door and nudged Kali to begin the climb down. With my pulse pounding, I turned to take one last look at him.
I’d touched him.
Had witnessed him move, graceful and swift, a blur of a shape, and not in my dreams, buthere.
As he turned around, the mask harboring his identity stared at me.
My feet melded with the ground.
Yet I forced myself to move, taking Kali’s hand and flying down the ten stories. Eerie landings with fractured wooden doors and moldy welcome mats marked the stages of our journey. The longer we descended, the more fluorescent lamps flickered, their buzzing like flies beating their wings against your eardrums.
Down we went, through the gleaming metal door of the basement, the fourteen steep steps into its depths, and then through the thick, rusted door serving as the entrance point to the catacombs Rowan was supposed to be guarding.
The heavy block of iron banged shut, and deafening silence assaulted our senses. Before Kali could secure the bolt, locking out whoever might’ve attempted to access the underground maze from inside the building, I pulled her away.
In utter blackness, we ran down the damp passage, using the wall for a sense of direction.
“Wait.” She tugged my hand. “Zion, wait!” A click, and a scorching bright light lit up a dead spiderweb on the ceiling. Panting, she directed the flashlight to where we’d come from. “What about?—”
“Nothing. We sawno one.” Beads of sweat soaked my shirt. I rolled my sleeves to my elbows, exposing the drowning-in-flames forest tattoo on my right forearm, and the swirls of burn scars on my left. “We were attacked and handled their military byourselves.”
“We can’t— That’s—” She pointed the flashlight at me, blinding me. “Zion, no.”
