AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And then it hit me. Mei-Ling.
She was out there. Maybe even now, facing down Masha.
I raced up the beach. I needed to get to higher ground. My legs pumped while I scanned the hillside for the best route up.
It was steeper here, barely a hill, almost a cliff face. I’d have to clamber on all fours. Then climb.
I sprang onto a low rock, hopped onto another, hoisted myself atop a boulder, and set to climbing. Carden’s words came to me. Trust your legs, he’d said. My legs were strong. I was strong. I could do this.
As I wriggled over the top, I sent a brief thanks to Priti for putting us through so many arduous climbing drills over the past weeks. I’d never complain about one of her classes again.
I rolled onto my feet, and there Masha sat, waiting for me, looking like Buddha on the mountaintop. “You have no weapons, Acari. ”
“Hasn’t seemed to hinder me before, Guidon. ” I was relieved she’d waited for me—it had to mean Mei was safe.
But something about that last fight had deflated me—maybe it was that I still didn’t even know the girl’s name. Whatever the reason, I had an idea and it didn’t involve weaponry.
I walked toward her. “Why are you doing this? Why are you always fighting me? Think how strong we’d be if we sided together. If the girls were in this together. It doesn’t have to be like this. ”
She looked at me like I’d gone insane. “Who’s to say I don’t like it like this? You’re so stupid. You brag how smart, how clever you are. But you are just stupid. You had a chance with Hugo, and you threw it away. ”
“This is about Alcántara? Are you kidding? We’re out here in the middle of nowhere, fighting for our lives, and you’re making this about a guy?”
“Not just a guy. ” She gave me a suggestive smile.
“Ew. Whatever. ” I put up my hands—the last thing I wanted was to hear Masha’s naughty details. “Why are you even siding with him? He’d have you as his slave if you let him. ” I stepped closer, feeling brave that her whip had yet to make an appearance. “They’re killing us, Masha. Where do they take the bodies? Don’t think for a second they wouldn’t take you there. Don’t you want to go home?”
“This is my home now. Hugo, my family. ”
It zeroed in on a suspicion I’d had. “You’re bonded with him, aren’t you?”
She flew to her feet, whip in hand. “What do you know?”
I put my hands up. “Easy. I don’t know jack about you and Hugo. ” Though I did have a million questions, like, why had Alcántara been interested in me? Had he wanted to bond with me, too? Could vampires bond with more than one person at a time, or would his interest in me have eventually meant Masha’s decline?
I sensed I was onto the reason for her irrational hatred of me, only now was totally not the time to address it with her. Instead, I said, “I’m just saying, Master Al seems like a pretty crap family. And I should know. ” I’d left a man who’d kept me under his thumb.
I’d never be under another thumb again without giving a fight.
I took a wary step closer. “It doesn’t have to be like this. ”
“You’re right. I don’t have to listen to your boring chatter. ” She unfurled her whip. “I’m going to kill you. Then I’ll find your little friend and kill her, too. ”
“Good luck with that. ” I knew what was coming and got into a fighting stance, only this time I slid my sleeves over my hands. “Isn’t that what your friend told me earlier?”
“My friend wasn’t as strong as I am. ” She gave her whip a twirl. “My friend didn’t have Hugo’s blood running through her veins. ”
“Ah, so you are bonded. ” But I smiled anyway, because I knew something Masha didn’t: I had Carden’s blood running through my veins. It’d make me just as strong.
Masha hauled back her arm and cracked her whip, but I’d seen it coming. I covered my face, and as the leather hit my palms, I grabbed and pulled. It cut into me, but my sleeves gave my hands some protection. I pulled again, and Masha held on, an absurd tug-of-war.
But years of jump ropes and schoolyard bullies had taught me a good trick. I let go suddenly, and she stumbled backward, catching herself before she toppled.
She teetered along the cliff’s edge now, and I couldn’t waste a moment. I snatched a rock from the dirt and lobbed it at her as hard as I could. “Think fast. ”
She automatically flinched and swatted it away, losing her balance as she did. Her foot slipped along the ledge, and she dropped. It was surreal, like she’d suddenly shrunk two feet. She’d landed on her knees and was sliding, grappling in the dirt for a handhold, sinking, scrambling, skidding down to her belly, finally dangling from the cliff side by her elbow, holding on to the rocks by her hands.
For a moment, everything stopped. I’d hated her for so long, dreamed of this day for so long, it seemed unreal that it’d finally arrived. More unreal was my next impulse. In that moment, I knew a flash of insight: The enemy of my enemy was my friend.
