Page 105 of Ravaged Devotion

“Penn, calm down.” Rue didn’t like the way he was pointing the gun at Ryker, or how badly his hand was starting to shake.

“If Rhys wanted to fire Izan, that’s news to me,” Ryker stated, not seeming even remotely concerned the way Rue was. “I’d also like to point out, that neither of our fathers are here at the moment. Rather convenient, don’t you agree? Come on. Use your head. Rhys and Izan have been best friends since they were our age. If my dad was going to pull something like this off, he’d need help.”

Penn was shaking his head. “Your dad might hate you, but mine loves me. He never would have brought me here if he’d known any of this was going to happen. Or, at the very least, he would have taken me with him when they all left to go fishing.”

“Maybe it’s a test?” Ryker shrugged. “They’re both assholes. Can you really tell me this isn’t the sort of bullshit test they’d come up with? We’re about to enter the company.”

“It’s a business,” Penn sneered, “not a swamp! They don’t need to test us against monsters!”

Ryker rolled his eyes. “Frenzy bears live in densely forest areas, not swamps. And you can see it for yourself. Without all the fog helping it be mysterious, it’s clearly just an animal. It’s kind of sad too.”

“Are you seriously complaining about animal cruelty right now?” Penn sneered. “You said whatever was done to it had something to do with its brain. Brain surgery isn’t cheap.”

“Pretty sure the Augustine coffers are overflowing.”

Penn took a step closer, the gun held a little more firmly in his hand.

Something shifted from behind him, just a quick blur of motion.

Rue had only just processed it when something whistled through the air, metal glinting as it cut through the distance.

A knife.

Headed straight for Penn.

Chapter 22:

Penn cried out, mouth gaping open in surprise. When he hit the ground, the gun went sliding away, and Rue rushed to grab it.

Ryker was too busy tilting his head, staring at the dagger protruding from Penn’s back. “I was getting through to him.”

“Doubtful,” Ellery snorted, ambling from the top of the stairs where he and his cousin had just appeared.

They joined them.

Uriel, who had been the one to throw the blade, checked his handy work, then reached down and callously pulled the weapon free.

Penn made another sound of pain, then started to twitch as blood flowed from the wound.

Rue gave Uriel a displeased look.

“What? You hated him anyway. He was always picking on you,” Uriel reminded.

“He was?” Ryker’s expression darkened.

“How do you know that?” Rue asked.

“I told him,” Ellery said. “He wanted to know what we’d been up to while he was hooked up to a machine.”

“It’s sounds like you got kind of pathetic in my absence,” Uriel told Rue. “No offense.”

“Offense totally taken.”

“Ew.” Ellery was staring at the creature’s skull. The smoke had stopped coming out of it. “What in Light’s name is this?”

“A monstrosity,” Uriel helpfully inputted before turning to Ryker for the actual answer.

“You spent the last three years living in a video game.” Ryk bent down and snatched the manual up, handing it over to his friend. “No wonder this whole thing felt familiar to you.”