“It was stupid!”
A man came at us with a crowbar. Sebastian ducked under the swing. I grabbed the weapon mid-arc. Twisted. Bones snapped in the man's wrist. He screamed. I drove the crowbar into his knee. He went down. Sebastian put an arrow through his other leg. Insurance.
“Showoff,” I muttered.
“Says the man who jumped off a roof!”
We were back-to-back now. Four attackers left. They'd learned. Were keeping distance. Raising weapons with better aim.
“On three?” Sebastian asked. Breathing hard.
“On three what?”
“Trust me. Three. Two. One—go!”
He ran forward. I followed on instinct. He dropped into a slide. I vaulted over him. His arrow took the left shooter in the throat. My boot caught the middle one in the temple. Skull met concrete. He didn't get up.
The other two broke. Started running.
Sebastian was faster. He closed the distance with speed that should've been impossible. Grabbed the first one by his collar. Used momentum to slam him into a wall. The man's head bounced off brick. Once. Twice. Went limp.
I caught the second runner. Put him down with two rounds. Center mass. Professional. Clean.
Silence fell.
Just rain and our breathing and the sound of bodies settling into stillness.
Sebastian pulled off his hood. Blood streaked his face. His shoulder bandage was soaked red. His knuckles were split. But his eyes were bright. Fever-bright. Adrenaline and pain and something else.
Like this was where he belonged.
Like this was the only time he felt real.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked.
“Saving your reckless ass.” I moved closer. Saw how he was favoring his left side. How his breathing was too shallow. How he was bleeding through at least three bandages.
“Had to be done.”
“Had to be done?” My voice rose. “You were nearly killed yesterday!”
“I wasn't hunting. I was stopping a weapons shipment?—“
“By getting yourself shot?” I gestured at his shoulder. “That is fresh blood.”
“It's fine.”
“It is not fine!” I was shouting now. Couldn't stop. “You are bleeding. You are injured. You went out alone when you should be resting. What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking people would die if I didn't act!” He shouted back. “I was thinking this shipment would arm gangs who prey on the weak! I was thinking?—“
A groan from one of the bodies. The man Sebastian had slammed into the wall was stirring. Reaching for something at his belt. Gun. Small caliber but deadly at close range.
Sebastian moved without hesitation. Put an arrow through the man's hand. Pinned it to his own thigh. The man screamed.
“Stay down,” Sebastian said. Voice empty. Cold. “Next one goes through your skull.”
The man went very still.
