Page 160 of The Last Hope
I may not be able to feel Court, not while I’m in this much pain, but we’re more than this strange link. He is still with me. No matter how heightened or how faint this bond becomes.
He’s still with me. Guiding me.
Stay calm.
Jolee twirls the battle-ax. “I’ll tell you why I was bestowed with this beauty. I’ve murdered more humans than I have lived years. It’s an accomplishment that had to be rewarded.”
I take advantage of her yammering and try to slip my hand free from the chain on the bed. Twisting and turning the cuff.
The tall, freckle-faced boy catches me andslamsthe end of a long iron rod onto the top of my hand. I scream in agony.
They laugh louder.
Energy starts draining from my body, but as pain fades and light wells in my head, I start to sense something…
I feel his heart in my chest.
Beating rapidly.
His lips… are moving.
Court is mouthing,Mykal.
Mykal.
Mykal.
Please don’t be feeling this, I want to tell Court. Please let this pain be mine alone.
He keeps repeating my name. Over and over. And soon, I realize that Court is trying to help me stay awake.
I blink. Hot, exhausted tears stinging down my cheeks. I focus on keeping my eyes open and conserving my strength.
The quiet freckle-faced cadet checks his watch like he’s waiting for something. Someone.
I imagine they did their jobs and called the commander, let him know they’ve wrangled and caught a human and a bludrader.
Everyone turns their head as the youngest cadet exits the bathroom. A tattooed hornet inks the side of his cheek, and he drags a limp body by the wrist. Strands of wet hair hang over Zimmer’s heavy-lidded eyes. Soaked from toe to head, wet tracks trail him along the floor. The young boy pulls Zimmer behind him, like he’s nothing more than a tree chopped down for wood.
I lay a nasty glare on the cadet. “You lay another finger on him and—”
Smack.
Steel-shoe makes contact with the side of my head. I dizzy something mad. The world around me spins, and they all start screaming at each other.
Stay awake.
I blink out the fuzzy lights.
“Don’t kill him!”
“Not yet!”
“We have to wait!”
“His lifebloods will be here any minute!”
What…
