Page 245 of Fangs
I stared at the passing trees without seeing them. I remembered now. I remembered Juck talking about the Fangs, one of the most sought-after groups of bounty hunters, talented trackers who never failed, and lethal killers who were capable of taking down an entire garrison by themselves. Rumors of who paid the Fangs to take out Mad Dog had been flying, and the delicate balance of alliances had become even shakier for a while. Juck had bitched about it—how so many jobs were put on hold because no one was sure if the warlords were going to turn on each other.
“Was it a job?” I whispered.
“No,” Wolf sounded darkly pleased. “That was revenge.”
I sat quietly, absorbing that. It was jarring to think of my straight-laced older brother executing someone out of revenge, but I had to admit I was still holding onto assumptions about him. We’d both changed so much in the past twelve years, and I couldn’t blame him. Not after what Sable had gone through—Sableandhis sister.
“Sable and I…we bonded over the fact that we’d both lost our sisters,” Wolf finally added in a low voice. “He didn’t ask us to help him take Mad Dog down. We volunteered.”
“Did you free the slaves?”
“Yes.”
I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat. “The first time Juck took a load of slaves to him, I’d only been with him for about a month. I tried to sneak out at night and open the trailer, but I got caught. In front of all the Reapers, he stripped me naked and beat me with his belt until I passed out.” I pressed my trembling lips together.
His arms tightened around me, and I could hear his teeth grinding. We rode in silence for almost a full minute before I spoke again.
“Do you ever feel guilty about killin’ people? Even bad people?” I whispered.
He was quiet for a few seconds, then answered, “Yes.”
“I do, too,” I confessed.
“About Madame?”
“And Juck.”
“You killed Juck?” he asked.
I couldn’t tell from his voice what he was thinking, but I wondered if he was remembering how they found Juck’s dead body. “Yeah.”
“Good,” he said in a low, vicious voice.
It felt like a weight fell from my shoulders, and I took a deep, shaky breath. Trey and my crew had all said similar things when they found out I killed Juck, but for some reason, Wolf’s reaction was the one I’d needed.
“Wait, go back to the tunnels,” I said, realizing I’d derailed what he’d been trying to tell me. “You saw a golden light?”
“Oh, right. So I saw the thread and somehowknewit was you. So I followed it. The tunnels, more like caverns, had so many branching paths, but that golden thread led us straight through the maze. When we got aboveground, I thought for sure it’d fade in the daylight, but it didn’t. It led us to you. In a few places, it got snarled, and once it disappeared, but I found it again. It stopped at the Voiceless camp, though. I don’t know why it didn’t show me where you were in the woods.”
“Do you think it’s a power?” I asked, my mind spinning.
“It felt… otherworldly, but…” he made a frustrated noise. “I don’t know how to describe it, but it felt so familiar at the same time.”
“I understand that,” I murmured, thinking of Mac.
“So it’s me, Zana, Mac, Clarity, Hawk, and Sky who got powers?”
I remembered Hawk’s screams, and my stomach turned. “As far as I know.”
“We should probably have a serious talk with Nemo when we get back.”
I made a noise of agreement, but my mind drifted back to Menace. I wished I would have asked him his name. I desperately wanted to ask Wolf about him. If he’d been friends with Dune, Wolf would have known him. But before I said anything about Menace to my brother, I needed to talk to Mac.
Mac.
I could still hear the fear and desperation in his voice as he called to me when Sax was taking me away. He was probably beside himself, and I wanted to let him know I was okay.
I’m comin’, sweetheart. Hold on.
