Page 46 of Awry
Muta strikes, easily twisting around the path of the weapon, just that much quicker.Or as if he’s already gotten a glimpse of the next few seconds of the events unfolding before him.
That’s not some kind of whimsical reckoning of the scene.The death-god bushmaster ismore, like Zaya ismore, like her aunt before her wasmore.Evenmorethan Reck is, and he transforms into a fucking terrifying creature of myth and legend.
At the last possible moment, moving faster than I’ve ever seen anyone move out of a dead sleep, Zaya lunges forward from Rought’s lap.She wraps her outstretched hand around Muta’s neck.
Reck’s weapon jams.Or misfires internally.
My hand clamps down on Reck’s shoulder.
And we all just hang there, in that moment of violence unleashed but momentarily thwarted.
Zaya is somehow holding the massive snake at bay midstrike, though her hold looks loose, light.Muta’s venom-weeping fangs are less than a thumb’s-width away from Reck’s wrist.
Reck is frozen midlunge, with his arm still outstretched.He’s locked his gaze to Zaya’s.Her eyes are vibrant, starlit nebulae of purple, with no hint of the whites or the black of her pupil.
Oh … fuck.
A suffocating energy swamps the room.
I struggle to not fight against it, to not slash at it with tooth and claw.To not tear through my skin and lash out with suffocating fog and icy rain.
I win that struggle.But then I continue to fight to take even a single breath against the pure, pungent essence that Zaya radiates.
Under my firm grasp on his shoulder, Reck is shaking, chest heaving.
“Fuck.Off.”Zaya’s voice is heavy, infused with that otherworldly power.As if the universe has spoken through her.
Reck’s body jerks, instantly snapping fully upright.He turns, tears free from my hold, and just walks out of the motel room, then out of sight.
The suffocating energy collapses in on itself, as if it’s being sucked back … into the diamond pendant swinging forward from Zaya’s chest?
“We’ve killed enough people for today,” she murmurs, speaking to the gigantic snake and still sounding otherworldly even in a whisper.As if once more, it’s not her speaking but the universe speaking through her.
Muta swivels his head just enough to flick his tongue at her.Then with a complicated twist and another swirl of unseen energy, he’s once again a bracelet of brown topaz edged with gold, twined around and up her forearm.
Rought runs a gentle hand down Zaya’s back.She sways into his touch, still frowning at the empty doorway behind me, frowning after Reck.
Then she passes out, collapsing back.Again.
Rought catches her, then stands and crosses around to lay her gently on the second bed, farthest from the door.Beside where Doc has set the revitalizing potions.
“I suggest getting him under control,” Rought says without looking at me.
“And how do you suggest I do that?”I ask, just to say something.Because not only do I still have no fucking idea what’s going on, I’m now shaken to my core, disturbed on a fundamental level.
Did Zaya’s essence just rise to the surface and manipulate her unconscious body to stop Muta from biting Reck?
If yes, was it done to save the snake?
Or to save my brother?
And … were all our futures somehow … spinning off that moment?Would it, could it have become more than just a face-off between snake and shifter?
I’ve never seen or felt Zaya’s power manifest like that, but her aunt scared the shit out of us when we were younger.Multiple times.Even more so on that night … that night we lost our futures to the cracking sound of Zaya’s neck breaking.
Rought hasn’t answered me.He removes Zaya’s boots, then gently tucks her under the covers.She rolls to her side, eyes closed but facing him as she tucks her knees up to her chest.I can see him actually restraining himself from touching her further, maybe even from crawling onto the bed and holding her.Rought has always been the best of us when it comes to boundaries and knowing his function.His … place … in the greater scheme of things?In the universe?
I always thought my younger brother underestimated himself.His strength, his abilities.I thought he’d allowed himself to fall completely apart, then only partially rebuild.But I understand now that he was just waiting.Waiting for what he was supposed to be doing, biding time overseeing the Outcast mech and tech.
