“Give me a minute—”
“We don’t have a minute. Give me the gun so we can evacuate the island.”
My hand shook. The barrel of the gun vibrated against her skin. “Your mother. Your aunts. Your cousins. Anyone you know and love. Your fucking neighbors. That’s who you really sold. And I’m going to take my time killing them while you watch.”
She screamed, “No!!!!”
I rose and handed the gun to Reo. “Everyone you ever cared for will die!!”
She turned to me. “O-only if you win, and you won’t.”
“Oh really?” I rushed for her and Hiro, Reo, and three of my Scales grabbed me. They had to drag me out of there. I wanted to choke her until her eyes bulged from her sockets and there was no more breath in her traitorous lungs.
Once out, Reo holstered the gun that he’d gotten from me and spoke to the Scales, “Surround the Dragon until he calms.”
“There won’t be any calm coming from me tonight. Akiro is on the way.” I sneered. “That bitch brought the war to the island!”
“The battle will be tonight.” Hiro ran both his hands through his hair. “He won’t wait until the morning. They’re loading up as many men as they can get and coming our way.”
Another Scale helped Kiko up and out of the bathroom. That was when we all noticed the pinkish fluid soaking the front of her white pants. The fabric clung to her thighs. A thin trail of morepinkish fluid ran down the inside of her left leg and pooled along her feet. The puddle was still spreading.
One nurse looked at it and her bottom lip quivered. "Her water has broken. She is in labor. The twins are coming."
The room went quiet.
The fire was still crackling somewhere in the east wing of the clinic. The doctor was still making his small wet sounds on the bed in the next room, barely holding on.
Hiro's breath was loud in front of me.
Reo went silent.
The twins were coming, and Kiko hadn’t reached full term. They would be early, small, and born in a clinic that was on fire and near probably the only doctor on the island—one their mother had tried to kill.
What a fucked up way to enter this world.
I looked at my brother.
Hiro's face was unreadable. His chest was rising and falling fast. There was blood on his cheek that was not his. His blade was still in his left hand. His eyes flicked to Kiko's belly, to the puddle on the tile, and then to my face. “What the fuck are we going to do?”
The fire in the east wing crackled louder.
I looked at Reo.
For the first time ever, my Roar looked defeated. “We’ll. . .”
I gritted my teeth.
Reo cleared his throat. “We’ll start with the evacuation. We have to get the women and children off the island. All men will get weapons whether they know how to fight or not.”
Kiko began to scream. Her hands tightened on her stomach. Her head tipped back against the nurse as her face crumpled. “I-it’s so much pain.”
I sneered at her. “Good. I hope those twins rip you from the inside out!”
The nurse rushed over with bloody hands. “Is this your first contraction?”
“I-I don’t know.” Kiko cried. “It’s just been pain while I was on the phone.”
Reo turned to the nurses. “Are there any more medical staff?”
