“The feeling seems mutual,” Locke casually adds.
I whip my head toward him, confused he’s talking about Nate. “What?”
Locke shrugs. “I’m just saying you seem into the Leech, too.”
Oh. Right. Stryker. I narrow my eyes. “That’s fucking stupid. He was trying to kill us,” I point out.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t say it was the brightest fucking idea,” he fires back. “Look, I don’t blame you. Luxe bastards are pretty, even I know that. Just keep it in mind in case that mutual attraction comes in handy.”
“How the fuck would it come in handy?” I grumble, glaring at Nate in the other boat, directing my annoyance on his slowly retreating form.
Locke shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe you have to seduce him next time to get away.”
I meet his eyes. “You think there will be a next time?”
He nods. “Did you see the obsession flickering in his eyes? He’s got it bad for you, Hyena.” He grins. “You two do have pretty intense chemistry.”
“Shut up,” I grumble, focusing on paddling now.
“He’s not wrong,” Svetlana chips in. “You and the Leech have aniskra.”
“See, even the bug sees it,” Locke says, gesturing to Svetlana.
The praying mantis turns to him and clacks her arms together. “If anyone here is abug, Bone Breaker, it’s you.”
I shake my head, ending the conversation before it can turn into threats. I look away from Locke’s probing gaze and Svetlana’s displeasure at the cold. Because of that, my eyes find Nate again in the boat as he slowly gets further ahead of us. I’m watching him, my lips pursed at the thought of him surviving the Harrow after what he’s done, when another movement catches my eyes.
At first, I can’t make sense of it. The water rises up behind the boat, ripples flowing away from something at its center. Something dark grey and black sticks up out of the water and then dips back down, following after the noisy boat. I’ve never seen anything like it before.
I frown. “What is that?” I ask, stopping my paddling. “Do you see that?”
Locke stops paddling as well and turns in the boat to follow my gaze. His brows furrow. “There’s three of them, whatever they are.”
When he says that, I realize he’s right. There are three separate ripples as something moves through the water after the boat.
We watch as the boat dances on the ripples, Nate none the wiser that something is chasing him. I consider calling out to warn him. I even open my mouth to do so, but then the image of his wife and child in the snow flicker in my mind again, and the NPC he’d raped. Slowly, I close my mouth and settle in to watch.
One of the things hits the propulsion system on the boat and the sound of the roaring cuts off suddenly. Nate whirls in the boat, his face pinched in anger when his momentum starts to slow and he’s left floating on the water.
He’s at least a hundred meters away, but with the stillness of the air around us, I can still hear his, “What the fuck,” all the way from where we are. He beats on the propulsion machine with his weapon and pulls on the cord again. Nothing happens. We watch as he tips the machine forward, lifting the propulsion tip out of the water.
There’s nothing at the end of it.
“Oh, dear,” I whisper, watching closely. “It looks like he’s stranded.”
“Indeed, he is,” Svetlana replies, peeking from my furred hood.
Locke shoots me a look at the clear glee in our voices.
“What a shame,” Svetlana adds, braving the cold to get a good view of the scene before us.
Apparently, I’m not much different from the bloodthirsty praying mantis, after all.
Nate seems to realize he’s fucked now and moves around the boat, rocking it violently as he searches for some way to paddle. He sees us in the distance and waves his arms.
“Hey!” he shouts. “Hey! We can work together if you help me!”
We don’t answer back. He’s an idiot to think we would help him after the way he’d threatened us. My eyes are on his face, watching his expression as he tries to school his anger to appeal to us. That’s how I see the moment he realizes there’s something in the water. Something big.
