Page 234 of Fangs
There was no sign of gentleness or compassion in Talmar’s face as the Voiceless, furiously holding my arm, explained Roe was gone. His metal hand grabbed my arm hard, yanking me toward him.
“Where is the boy?” he hissed.
I didn’t answer, and I heard the pistons in his arm move as his grip tightened until I was gasping in pain.
“I don’t know!” I shrieked when I couldn’t take the pain any longer.
For a moment, I thought he would hit me, but he just shoved me back into the cage and locked it. He shouted orders at the three with cybernetic legs to search the surrounding woods. Seeing them run in the daylight was even more horrifying than in the dark. They moved so inhumanely fast. I huddled in a ball in my cage, my arm aching with pain and straining my ears for any noise of Roe screaming or crying. After about ten minutes, the three returned empty-handed.
The Voiceless had a fierce argument, half out loud and half with signed gestures, but I understood enough to figure out they were trying to decide if they should stay and search for Roe or keep going. When they landed on the decision to keep going, tears of relief filled my eyes, but my stomach sank at the dark look on Talmar’s face.
He jerked me out of the cage by the wrist. “It seems you have not yet grasped the severity of your situation, Ember,” he snarled as he marched me to my horse. “We have given you every opportunity to accept your role with dignity, but come evening, you will face the wrath of the God of Death.”
We stopped beside my horse and leaned in close, his eyes flashing.
“You have chosen this path, and now you will face the consequences. By evening’s end, you will learn the price for defying your God and beg for the mercy you so foolishly squandered.”
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Iwaited until midday before I made my move. I wanted to get as far away from Roe as possible, but I was not about to go quietly. Talmar thought I was uncooperative before? I was going to make every single one of these assholes regret coming on this mission.
They stopped at midday for a rest, and the Voiceless dismount. The one leading my horse dropped the reins and began to walk back to grunt at me to get down, but as soon as he’d turned his back on the reins, I kicked my horse as hard as possible. The poor thing reared back on its hind legs, knocked the Voiceless off his feet, and bolted, bowling over a few more Voiceless who didn’t get out of the way fast enough. We thundered down the path, and I let the horse take the lead, ducking low in the saddle to avoid branches and clinging to the saddle horn for dear life.
I glanced back once to see they were pursuing me on their horses, and I urged mine faster. The reins were dragging on the ground, out of reach, and I hoped the horse wouldn’t step on them and fall. We slowly outpaced the other horses, and for a moment, elation seized me. I was getting away! If I could lose them somehow in the woods, maybe I could find my way back to the Vault and?—
Movement at my side caught my attention, and a strangled cry escaped my lips when I saw one of the metal-legged Voiceless running alongside my horse. He grabbed the trailing reins and pulled back, and the horse fought him but slowed.
No!
He had his hands full trying to stop the horse, so as soon as I was pretty sure I wouldn’tdie,I bailed off. I hit the ground and rolled, tumbling down the steep mountainside and picking up speed until I slammed into a tree. I didn’t move for a second, trying and failing to gasp in a breath, and that was all it took for the metal-legged Voiceless to catch up to me. He seized my arm and yanked me to my feet. I fought him, and the black threads on his lips strained as he hissed out an angry noise. I wasn’twinningby any means, but he struggled to get me back up the ridge. I landed a lucky kick right to his groin, and despite the metal legs, he was still a man between them because he crumpled with a groan.
I took off, but a second enhanced Voiceless caught me seconds later. This one was bigger than the first and threw me roughly over his shoulder. I tried to kick and scratch, but my attempts barely got his attention. He carried me back to my abandoned horse, where Talmar was waiting. The Voiceless dumped me on the ground, and I stayed there as Talmar loomed over me, his eyes narrowed with fury. As my heart pounded in my throat, I wondered if he’d expected this to be easier—if he’d expectedmeto be easier. Maybe I would have been if I hadn’t met Trey and my crew. If the Voiceless had found me right after I killed Juck, I would’ve already been mostly broken, and I doubted it would’ve taken much to finish the job, but I’d had time to heal and get a taste of life and love and freedom, and I wantedmore.
“Get up,” he snarled.
I didn’t move.
Talmar gestured at the Voiceless who’d carried me back, and rough hands grabbed my upper arms and hauled me to my feet. I saw Talmar’s windup and tried to brace myself. The blow caught me across the face, snapping my head backward and making me stumble into the big Voiceless behind me.
“No more,” he hissed, his face contorted with rage. “We can no longer wait until evening for you to face the consequences of your defiance. Your insolence must endnow.” He glanced at the Voiceless behind me. “Bind her.”
He turned on his heel and mounted his horse as the Voiceless wrenched my hands back and began tying them with what felt like a rope. He cinched them painfully tight, but I pressed my lips together, refusing to make a noise. He knocked me to the ground after binding my hands so he could bind my ankles as well. Then he picked me up and threw me over the back of my horse like a dead deer. I hung there, blood rushing to my head, and tried to breathe as we returned to the rest of the Voiceless. I reminded myself over and over that at least Roe was safe and that they couldn’t hurt him. I was infinitely familiar with pain. I could handle pain. This would not break me.
“You’re a river. You don’t break, you bend.”
As we approached the others, I could hear hammering. When we came into view, I realized they were hammering long metal stakes into the ground. Each stake had a leather strap attached to it, and my entire body started shaking. Still, when they pulled me down and untied me, I fought, aiming for eyes and groins and flinging handfuls of dirt into their faces. I used every dirty trick I could remember Wolf teaching me, but I was no match for a dozen Voiceless. They overpowered me, securing my wrists and ankles to the leather straps and forcing me to lay spread-eagle on my back in the dirt. I snarled up at them, trying to focus on how many were bloodied, disheveled, and panting rather than the restraints on my body. Talmar appeared above me, and I was viciously pleased to see he had a fat, bloody lip.
“God of Death, we invoke you as humble vessels awaiting your will,” Talmar recited with cold fury. “May your shadows guide us and bear witness.”
I spat out every horrible curse I knew, and a vein pulsed in his forehead.
“Ember, Goddess of Life,” Talmar continued, raising his voice over my swearing, “you stand before us with a heart hardened by pride and defiance. You have turned from your divine path and rejected the sacred union with your God.”
I tried to brace myself, even as each breath came jagged and uneven.
“Tonight, you face the consequence of your defiance. You have challenged the will of the God of Death, and you will atone in agony.”
I tried to suck in deeper breaths, shaking.You don’t break. You don’t break. You don’t break.
