Page 75 of Xerxes Ascendant
The hand reached his throat. Squeezed. And then curled under his chin and jerked it sharply to the right, gifting Akira a real instead of reflected view of Kyle splayed out on the floor. The blonde’s pretty blue eyes were drenched in uncharacteristic sorrow, heavy with fear and dread as he stared up at the pair of them. The rest of Kyle was still: the outstretched arm amid a sea of glass shards, and the antique dagger having fallen to thefloor mere inches from frozen fingers. One leg curled under the other, and it was only his rapid breathing and the way it made his chest flutter that assured Akira he wasn’t looking at a statue of his man.
Stars, Akira loved him. And seeing him so vulnerable was hard, one of the hardest things he’d ever had to endure, especially when Mackenroth – seemingly satisfied that he’d positioned Akira well enough for him to enjoy an unobstructed view of what happened next – crossed back over to Kyle and crouched to pick up the knife.
“This was recovered by a Diver from the ruins of a museum on Earth,” he said mildly. “They say it once belonged to Genghis Khan.”
He hovered the rusty blade over Kyle’s bare arm, below the hem of his t-shirt. “Do you think it still has a taste for blood?”
Kyle glared at him, eyes narrowing but otherwise motionless.
Mackenroth made a low, anticipatory sound in his throat and drew the knife across Kyle’s arm slowly.Tauntingly. From the way it dragged against the exposed skin, it wasn’t overly sharp – but neither had it been fully dulled by time, for blood soon blossomed beneath the blade.
Kyle cried out. Akira snarled with impotent fury.
“It seems it does,” Mackenroth commented idly. “Because a knife knows it has one purpose in life.” Another cut: slow, shallow, and designed to shatter Akira with the helplessness of being forced to watch Kyle suffer. “So does a whore. They spread for me, scream for me,bleedfor me...and don’t cause any trouble.”
He moved the knife to Kyle’s torso and used the bloodied point to scrape his shirt up, exposing the vulnerable flesh of his stomach and chest. The tarnished blade indented Kyle’s pale skin as it was brought to rest over his heart.
“But some of you,” Mackenroth whispered, “just don’t know when to lay down and die.”
The engines onboard each city rely on a delicate interplay of propulsive force and runic magic. Runes are etched into the heart of each engine, generating power that accelerates the working fluid and applying Newton’s Third Law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
This reaction produces directional thrust, enabling the city to counteract gravitational drift and maintain controlled translational motion. This fusion of mechanical physics and arcane resonance keeps each city suspended in stable equilibrium, despite the ever-shifting forces of the upper atmosphere.
-Extract from ‘Rune Theory and Fundamentals’ by Professor. D. S. Locke [scribbled across the page is a note which reads "stable equilibrium my ass!!!”]
CHAPTER 22
Akira
Akira glanced anxiously at the armed guards hovering around the doorway, who still hadn’t moved. There were six of them, he counted, and far too many to be able to avoid the bullets they’d inevitably send his way. Were they going to stand there the whole time Kyle was being tortured?
“Benedict. I’ll do anything you ask. I’ll tell you everything the Coterie is planning. Get on my knees for you. Just please,pleaselet Kyle go,” Akira pleaded. Terror made his voice quake.
Kyle glanced at him, horrified. “No, Master!”
“No, Master,” Mackenroth mocked, and then glanced at Akira shrewdly. “You’re not one to give up so easily, Miyasaki.” Oh, the irony. “You’re lying.”
“Master Nu discovered what you did in 2047,” Akira said frantically. It was a bluff, but a conceivable one: their mayor had been nineteen years old that year. Everyone did shit at nineteen they later regretted. “I can tell you how the Coterie is going to use it to unseat you-”
“Out,” Mackenroth snapped, straightening up from where he’d been leaning over Kyle’s paralysed form. Thank the stars. “Get out, all of you! I don’t want you listening to his lies!”
His six guards, still silent, sheathed their guns and trudged dutifully from the room. When the office door clicked shut behind the last of them, Mackenroth’s erratic breathing was loud enough to fill the room.
“They dare,” he hissed, his expression animated in disgust. “The Coterie would dare come afterme?”
Kyle snorted in disbelief.
Mackenroth glanced back down at him, his mouth thinning to a line. “It seems you don’t enjoy your blood remaining in your body, boy.”
“Hush, Kyle,” Akira ordered. “I do not want you getting killed by this unstable bastard.”
That, as intended, drew the mayor’s attention back to him.
“You two cocksucking sluts are going to regret ever being born,” Mackenroth threatened, spittle flying from his lips with the words. He was losing that careful control of his, which made him vulnerable, but also more dangerous than ever. “When I finally decide to free you both from this fun little stasis rune, you’re going straight into cuffs.”
“We’ve been arrested before,” Akira said blandly, knowing the irreverence would wind him up. Because Benedict’s flaw – one of many – was that he needed to be listened to. Given attention. Feared. “It’s hardly the horrifying experience you seem to think it is.”
The older man laughed. The sound was sadistically cold.
