His cheek was shaven and pristine. No pockmarks, no signs of age. He couldn’t be more than eighteen, and he looked like he’d never seen a single hour of acid rain in his life.
Through my ferality, one thought surfaced: I would enjoy this.
I sank my teeth into his cheek, biting down as hard as I could. A scream rang out, voices saturating the air around me. I didn’t know who was screaming, whose voices I heard, if it was him, or them, or me—all I knew was I had to bite and not let go.
And I didn’t. I didn’t let go until I was pried away.
Only then did I realize the guard had been thrashing, trying to shake me loose, and I had clung on to my assailant with my legs wrapped around his torso. Hands pulled me away, and the last part of me to divorce myself from his body were my teeth.
I had learned from Theo that the jaw could exert two or three hundred pounds of force. And my teeth were just as hard as any man’s. So when they dragged me back, I jerked my head and ripped.
Blood sprayed. It hit the floor just as I did, landing hard with my eyes still on the guard I’d attached myself to. He clutched at his face, his eyes wide as though he suddenly understood the once-perfection of it.
“Gods,” one of the other four said. “She bit his cheek off.”
I spat out blood, shrugging off the hands now only half-heartedlysitting on my shoulders. My gaze darted up, and I recognized one of the other night guard. He was older and shocked, the back of his hand held to his mouth as he stared at what I’d done.
At least he’d come to help. He’d had the decency to do that.
I pushed to my feet, my heart pulsing in my ears and head and hands. “Any of you touch me again,” I said, my voice like gravel rolled over cobblestone, “and I’ll bite your throats out.”
Did I mean it? No, but yes. We never knew what we were capable of until pushed, and tonight had opened a new crevice in my heart.
I would do whatever it took.
The doorway filled again—the regiment commander, his wispy hair floating in my periphery. “Stars and shadows. What are you five doing here? What’s this blood?”
“She bit me,” the one guard said, practically weeping as blood oozed past his hands and streaked down his neck.
The regiment commander’s gaze shifted to me.
My fists clenched; I didn’t want him to see the cold tremors of my hands. I met his stare with eyes as hard as gemstones.
“Out, all of you.” The regiment commander seized the shoulders of one, shoving him out the door. The others followed. When I moved too, his finger stabbed at the air. “You, stay.”
I stopped, fists still clenched, as the bunk emptied of everyone but me. My eyes followed the trail of blood to the doorway, and I listened, jaw tight, as the guard I’d mauled fell into a kind of pitchy bawling.
The regiment commander closed the door behind him. He was geared for the night shift, his plate armor gleaming silver in the window’s light. “You’re bleeding.”
“It’s his?—”
“No.” He swiped my towel from the hook by the door and extended it to me. “Your nose.”
My hand came up, touching my face. A steady, thick stream of blood trailed down from my nostrils and into my mouth. Only then did I register the throb in my nose, the taste of copper.
I accepted the towel, setting it to my nose. “Thank you.”
“Might be broken,” the regiment commander said, eyes following the trail of blood to the messy scene near my bed. “You should go to the infirmary.”
“I’d rather be on the wall, Commander.”
His green-eyed gaze flicked to mine, a moment’s surprise there. “That was an order.”
I stared at him overtop the towel at my nose. I didn’t speak.
He drew in a breath, let it go, folded his arms over his chest. “Women shouldn’t be in the guard. Now you’ve seen why.”
“Are you discharging me?”
