Page 55 of Lawless
"Sorry," Jandro murmured. "I barely even remember my folks. I was raised by my aunt and uncle in Old Tucson."
My chest tightened. What the Collapse did to families was so overwhelmingly sad, I preferred to talk about anything else.
"Where did Reaper go?"
"Went to be alone," Jandro humored my subject change. "He gets in moods like that sometimes."
"I guess he's never really alone with Hades."
"Yeah," Jandro breathed. "Sometimes that dog is the only company he ever wants or seems to need."
BOOM!
An invisible force sounded like thunder crashing next to my ears and nearly knocked me off my chair. The ground shook so hard, pool water splashed up onto the deck.
"What the hell?" Jandro jumped up and stood over me protectively, eyes narrowed and suspicious. "Gun, did you—"
"Oh my god!" I sprang to my feet at the sight of Gunner in the shallow end of the pool.
His head rested on the ledge, but his eyes had completely rolled back until only the whites were visible. He twitched slightly, his mouth going from open and slack to tightly clenched. And every small jerk of his head sent him closer to slipping underwater.
"Gunner!" I went to run to him but Jandro braced his forearm across my stomach and pulled me back. "He's having a seizure!" I yelled. "He could drown, let me go!"
"He's okay, Mari," he answered with unusual calm. "It's just something that happens, you'll see. Something else is going on, though. Fucking Reaper was right."
I didn't have a moment to think about what he said when a commotion on the roof brought our attention skyward.
One of the guards, armed with a bow and arrow, was desperately trying to fight off a bird. The animal hovered around him, too close for him to shoot with the bow, and darted down with its talons outstretched toward the man's face. His arms and hands were already bloodied and torn up as he raised them to shield his face.
"Is that...Horus?" I shielded my eyes as I watched.
"Get Mari out of here!"
Gunner, now looking perfectly fine, swam like a dolphin across the pool and hopped out right in front of us, his expression hard and jaw clenched. "We've been fucking set up. They're coming this way right now. We can't let them capture a woman, let alone our only medic."
"How many did you see?" Jandro demanded.
"At least twenty."
"Any sign of Reaper?"
"No."
"What the—!”
Jandro hoisted me over his shoulder without another word, carrying me to the sandstone brick wall that surrounded the pool area.
"Climb over, Mari," he instructed.
"No! What's going on?"
He lifted me up by the waist so I had no choice but to grab the top of the wall and hoist myself up.
"There's no time to explain," Gunner told me apologetically. "But you've got to hide and they can't find you under any circumstances, do you understand?"
"Stay out of sight of the men with bows and arrows," Jandro added, his hand lingering on my leg that dangled over. "Donottry to sneak back in, no matter what they do to us."
"What do you mean?" I demanded. Fucking hell, what was happening?
