The sight of him—
It does something to my throat. Thickens it, like a pip is suddenly lodged in there.
Raindrops cling to his long lashes, and as though none of this gruesomeness bothers him at all, he keeps his feathered cheek to me and watches the rest of the unit pour in.
More and more warriors fill the corridor lined with cells until it’s completely crammed and claustrophobic, then the rumble of metal rattles the air.
A warrior slips behind the general and slides the solid door shut.
The door is as thick as a wall.
Heavier than any human can move—even a few human men wouldn’t be able to shift that door.
It’s one of those powered ones, the kind that run on electricity and cards swiping through readers.
But that warrior slides it shut, like it’s easy.
The bang jolts my bones.
I flinch closer to Samick.
The curve of my shoulder digs into his arm.
He tenses, his hand flexing on the rope that tethers us.
I’ve walked with the unit for so long now that I shouldn’t be this unnerved by them—but those slightly unnatural looking faces are twisted, mouths curled with bites of pain, hands pressed to bleeding wounds, and we’re too congested, too clustered that the weight pressing down on my chest and constricting my breathing won’t ease.
My exhale is loud but hollow.
I sink closer to Samick.
In answer, his fingers slip over the rope to my wrist, and he grips, firm.
The dampness of his grip lures in my gaze.
I blink down at his hand.
Tears of milk trail over a porcelain complexion.
Blood.
That weird white blood of his.
It weaves along his knuckles and oozes out of holes and torn skin up to his wrist.
That’s hismehand.
The one that was on my head as a barrier.
He took some hits.
I drag my gaze up the wet, glistening leather of his sleeve. The chain-link armour is sprinkled with a mist of white blood—andas I look up at him from beneath my lashes, I see the damage now that he’s turned to look down at me.
I see the other side of his face.
Not even his weird powers with ice and mist and air stopped a hunk of hail from striking him on the jaw.
Looks like he took a right hook to the face… with a metal bat.
