Page 9 of Citadel

As far as I can tell, he means it. “Good. Because it’s not your business anyway. She’s always been real protective of me, especially when I was younger, but I’d do what I need to do to survive just like her. I’m not a kid anymore.”

His eyes narrow. His glare is cold and stern, as if he can sway me by the power of his stare.

It’s definitely intimidating, but the stubborn streak in my nature makes me stare back. Then I temper it by adding, “But I don’t much want to do that kind of thing, so I’d prefer to avoid it if I can.”

He nods. “Learn how to defend yourself. It’s not a sure thing. Even the strongest of us can fall. But it can help.”

“I defend myself fine.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.” I pull my knife out of the sheath where I always keep it and show it to him.

“Okay.” He takes a particular stance. A predatory one. “Then defend yourself from me.”

“How?”

“Any way you can.”

“With the knife?” I don’t want to stab this man even if he’s occasionally deserved it.

Cole comes at me, and I slip out of his way. I’m small and fast and have always been fairly nimble on my feet. Usually I can avoid big, lumbering men without trying very hard, but Cole is the opposite of lumbering.

He’s got a feral kind of grace. Like a panther on the prowl. He’s a challenge. An exciting one.

My heartbeat accelerates and blood throbs as he comes at me several times from different angles and in different ways. Each time, I manage to elude him.

“Good,” he says after a few minutes. “When you know I’m coming, you’re good at getting away. But you won’t always see it coming. I’ll come from behind this time. Don’t look. Just react.”

I wait, on edge and holding my breath. I twitch a few times, falsely predicting his approach.

Finally I say, “Are you ever—?”

It’s then—of course it’s then—that he makes his move. He grabs my arm, shaking it until the knife falls out of my hand, and then he swings me around until he’s got me in a choke hold.

I have no idea how to get away. He’s so much bigger than me. The natural scent of him overwhelms me every time I suck in a breath, but it’s not as unpleasant as I would have expected.

It just feels like Cole is everywhere. Everything.

I’m squirming, doing my best to break his immovable hold on me, when the sound of a throat clearing surprises me.

My eyes dart over to see Breanna standing in the door opening to the church. She’s frowning.

“He was just helping—” My attempt at an explanation is broken off by Breanna shaking her head.

She hisses at Cole as she strides toward the trees. “Hands off.”

* * *

We start off shortly afterward, walking toward the west. The farther inland we go, the firmer and less swampy the terrain becomes, but the hike is still difficult and unpleasant.

Cole doesn’t say much, and Breanna mostly talks to me. I’d prefer them to be on better terms, but Breanna simply doesn’t trust him, and he obviously knows it.

I can hardly justify the way I do trust him. It’s instinct more than anything else.

I could be wrong about him. It’s happened before.

We stop for about an hour in the middle of the day. It’s getting hot, and the sun is beating down brightly. For years after Impact, the sky was covered with a haze of dust and debris from the asteroid strike, but it must be clearing because the sky is almost blue again and the sun is unbearable today.

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