Page 31 of Detonation
“I will let her go, if you put these on.” He removes his hand from her mouth to toss the handcuffs towards me.
With the small window of opportunity that she has, she yells, "Lana, run and find help!" before he slaps his hand back in place, muffling the rest of her cries.
Without taking my eyes off him, I crouch to pick up the cuffs, a sick feeling overwhelming me as soon as I touch them. They're made of metal but I'm not sure what kind.Why is it giving me this feeling?
I need to figure out who this is so I can think of what makes him tick.What type of bargain can I strike?
As I take my time placing the first cuff around my wrist, I feel my strength depleting but hide it behind my sarcastic mask. “So, who wants my ass delivered to them? Let me guess—Anshar? He's missing his play toy, isn’t he?” I shake my head in mock sorrow. “Poor baby.”
Clicking the first shut, I move to the next as his scoff pulls me up short. "Lord Sebastian. Anshar is a gnat on the radar."
Sebastian?
Before I can get the second one shut, Noreen bites his finger and he removes his hand with a yelp, still hanging on to her. "No, Lana! We can't lose you. I'm replaceable. You aren't!"
With his patience wearing thin, he pushes the tip of his blade into her neck, the wound bleeding under the nick, and presses in while maintaining eye contact with me. I guess he’s done waiting for me.
She opens her mouth and I cut her off with a commanding voice I don't recognize, "Noreen, stop. All of our lives are of value. I refuse to let you down again. I refuse to have any more sacrifices made for me."
When I go to the afterlife, I want to be able to look Mika in the eyes, knowing I didn’t allow her little sister to sacrifice herself.
Clicking the last cuff into place, the dizziness hits me with an unexpected strength. I sway on my feet, the edges of my vision darkening and the world blurring. He releases the knife from her neck and, in the same breath, rams the butt of the hilt into her temple. She crashes to the ground in a heap.
I hang on to consciousness long enough to make sure she’s still breathing by the rise and fall of her chest.
As my knees give out, I fall to the ground, landing painfully on my shoulder, my head banging into the ground with a hard recoil. Black dots dance across my vision and I find myself praying to Gaia for the first time since our fallout.
Please protect Noreen and get her safely back to our people.
A featherlight touch caresses my face and I know she heard me. I give up on fighting through the haze, knowing it's useless.
* * *
A ringing sounds in my ears, pulling me from my unconscious state. My stomach is queasy and an overall feeling of heaviness weighs me down. I try to crack my eyes open and find that even that is too much.
Death, is that you knocking at my door?
The ringing starts to fade and the sound of muffled voices arguing somewhere off in the distance reaches me.
"This wasn't in the plan—"
"You do what I command or have you forgotten your place in this kingdom?"
A pause. "You're right. I apologize, Sebastian."
"That'sLordSebastian to you. Don't disrespect me again."
Well, shit, someone ought to knock this Sebastian guy off his high horse.
I'd love for that person to be me but right now, I’d settle for not throwing up everything I ate at dinner. It’s the small victories.
"Take her cuffs off and shackle her to the wall like the rest of the vermin. She can rot down here until she dies for all I care."
Well, sir, I, for one, don't care what you think, seeing as I value my life.
"Yes, Lord Sebastian."
Rough hands jostle me, shoving me into what feels like a corner of a room, bile rising in my throat from the sudden movement. Something hard and ungiving hard bites into my ankles, presumably the aforementioned shackles. The handcuffs come off of my hands and are replaced with different restraints, my queasiness fading once the original ones come off. I search for my power but the well of energy feels drained.
