Page 96 of Reaper Unhinged
Boot falls echo off the stone walls, and I back up into the shadows, waiting, hoping for a chance to pounce. All these fuckers need to do is make one false move. I know my way around this facility and—
Yeah, even if they do, you won’t get far. This place is a fortress.
I ignore the inner voice, barely breathing as the guard appears, but he isn’t alone. He has someone with him. A blindfolded and cuffed female. Anger radiates off her like a furnace.
I like her already.
Another guard joins the first and unlocks my cage. My legs ache to pounce, but I know I won’t make it past the woman. They have her blocking my exit. The guard holding her uncuffs her, shoves her into my cell, and slams the door closed.
She throws out her arms to catch herself and cries out in pain as her knees hit the ground. “I hope your dicks fall off!”
Yes, I like her.
“Have fun with your new roomie.” The guards sneer at her before sliding their glances into the shadows where I stand.
The woman tenses and then rips off the blindfold. Her gaze zeroes in on the exact spot I’m standing.
The guards leave, chuckling to themselves.
She pulls herself to her feet slowly. “Listen, fucker, you try and put your hand on me, and I will rip off your balls, you got that?”
“Loud and clear.” My voice sounds strange, raspy and alien, to my ears. It’s been days since I spoke.
Her eyes narrow. “Step into the light.”
There isn’t much of that. Just a single bulb fixed to the wall a few meters up the corridor outside my cell.
I roll my shoulders and oblige.
She stares at me for a long beat, and then her shoulders sag. “You have the same bone structure.”
“Excuse me?”
“You and Grayson. I didn’t notice it last time we met, but I see it now.”
The last time we met? “Who are you?”
“The woman who’s going to get you out of here.” She shrugs sheepishly. “Fine. That’s not true, but it sounded good. I’m Cora, Fee’s—”
“Tulpa.”
She glares at me. “Best friend. I’m her best friend. We met at your kidnapper’s hideout, remember? I came for Fee, and now she’ll be coming for us.”
Of course…I recall now. Hope blooms in my chest.
Not for you, for her. She’ll come for her.
I push the voice aside. “How did they get hold of you? They’re after humans. I was a lucky mistake.”
“They didn’t catch me; well, not until I got here. Fee sent me to scope out a location. The plan was for me to gather intel and go back so we could plan an extraction.” She sighs and leans against the wall. “Things didn’t go how they were meant to, but my partner will have reported back. They’ll find us. They’ll come. Fee won’t give up on us.”
“On you.” The words were out before I could stop them.
She frowns at me. “Hey,I’monly here because we were looking foryou. That symbol you left… Yeah, we used that to find this place.”
Fee was looking for me. The hope flares again. She cared enough to look.
“Only problem is when they do come, they’ll be completely defenseless because I don’t think magic works on this island,” she says.
