Page 91 of Bizarre Bonds
How much more will it take before the foundation itself starts to buckle?
I’d suggest that if she wants to go inside, trying the door would be a good start, but I don’t think that’s what she means. What is she so furious about?
As Viscera wrenches away from Raze’s clawed hands again, a guttural sound reverberates from her throat. Her frustration smacks into me, harsh and acerbic as pure wasabi.
“If this realm is going to break me, I should get to break as many other things as I can on my way out,” she shrieks to the street at large. “It should all fall down!”
I guess there’s a certain logic to her approach, but I don’t have to like it.
My men can’t seem to contain her fury, though. Her increasingly warped and wavering form is working to her advantage.
If we can distract her until Rollick and the others get here… Maybe I can keep her talking.
“How is it breaking you?” I ask. “Why did you even come through the rift if you don’t like it here?”
She grunts through clenched teeth. “One pulled me, one pushed me—there was supposed to be a home. Everything together. But nothing’s mixed right. I don’t fit. It doesn’t work. So we’ll all shatter apart!”
She slams into the side of the tower with even more force and a metallic groan.
Pulling and pushing—like she said before. Like the dissonant energy from the rift.
I don’t understand what she means about the rest of it. What was supposed to be mixed? What doesn’t work?
It occurs to me that she might not even know. But I can’t help trying again. “There are places here that could be home. We could find somewhere that you fit. If you’d just stop and?—”
“It’s toolate,” she screams, cutting off my plea, and whips away from Raze before bashing her shoulder against the other side of the doorway.
Jonah reaches us, his breath rasping from how fast he was running to keep up. His voice comes out ragged but firm. “The others are coming. I can feel it. I just called out to Rollick and Sorsha’s men with my sorcery again.” He lets out a short laugh that doesn’t hold much humor. “Let’s hope they forgive my intrusion.”
“How far behind us are they?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “I don’t know.”
Viscera darts around Raze’s next lunge and aims a roundhouse kick at the apartment’s shiny face. When her body shivers with filminess, Hail’s wind makes the edges of it jitter even more.
Streaks of her essence darken the air. She groans but keeps swinging.
My thudding heart lodges in my throat. “They might not get here in time. We have to make sure she doesn’t send this whole building toppling over.”
So many people inside. So many lives hanging in the balance.
Viscera’s next blow knocks off a whole chunk of marble and bends the steel sideways. Sparks fly from her fists as she throws them even faster.
Fear and horror knot in my chest… but stronger than them is the swell of determination that rises up inside me.
Yes, I’m afraid and horrified. I’m pretty sure the situation warrants it.
I’m also grateful for the men who’ve followed me this far, spoken in my favor, and listened to my pleas. I hate what Viscera is doing, and I love my companions who are braving her rampage with me.
All those emotions, good and bad, twine together inside me into something even more powerful than the flare of darkly vengeful energy I spewed at my former captor or the blazing glow that seared marks into my men’s chests.
We’re stronger together, and everything I can feel is stronger if I don’t deny any of those feelings.
My power surges beneath my skin. I yell as loud as I can. “Surround her!”
Because they understand me, because they trust me, my men spring into action. Jonah dashes toward the apartment building. Raze settles into a tensed pose at its other side, beyond Viscera. Mirage and Hail close in, Mirage leaping onto the hood of a nearby parked car.
I focus on the blare of emotions inside me and let them pour out.
