–choosing for me because you’re afraid!You’re as bad as THEM!
The accusation was a battering ram to his heart.
Bastion staggered backwards, struggling to draw breath.He shook his head.
“No.No,” he wheezed.Tears rimmed her lashes.The sight would torment him until his dying day.
Suddenly, all he wanted was to touch her, to reassure her, but he didn’t know how when he was ripping out both their hearts.He couldn’t bear it.He shoved the book into his breast pocket and clasped her hands in his.
Bastion made himself look her in the eye.If he could face death, then he could face her.He could take anger and pain–expected it even–but the raw, blistering sadness that came unfiltered through the bond left his soul wilted, like a sail with no wind.A hollow, sinking feeling started high in his chest and dragged him down.The broken pieces of his heart caught in the undertow of her sorrow, and he drowned in self-contempt.
He thought,Why will you fight for everyone else but yourself?
Because she deserves better, he answered.
“It’s a mercy,” he tried to reason.“I’m a tidepool, and you deserve the ocean.”
Ulla shook her head, her hands clenched between his.Her eyes met his, red and tear-filled.Then, they shifted to something behind him.
Shock widened them.A blast of fear flooded the bond, like someone had stepped on his grave, and with it, a warning.Bastion released her and spun, drawing his sword in one smooth movement.
A sharpcrack!echoed against the stone as steel met steel, and he stared into the face of a dead man.
“Hello, Bastion,” Buck grinned.
Chapter 23
Every speck of doubt and indecision left him.The familiar grip of his sword in his hand calmed his rapid heartbeat.He only had one job.
Protect Ulla.
Bastion growled, shoved Buck away, and leapt forwards to attack.The clash of their blades echoed through the steam like church bells.From the corner of his eye, he saw Taro creeping closer, daggers drawn.
“Why aren’t you dead?”Bastion seethed.
Buck laughed, his mouth pulling at the fresh scars that now marred his face and neck.It looked like someone had scraped a sheet of skin free and then laid it back over the flesh to heal poorly.
“Visara rolled her dice and saw fit to pull me from the sea,” he breathed, barely audible above the rush of the waterfall.“We have unfinished business, you and I.”
He parried a thrust, then lunged.His blade slid down the length of Bastion’s until they were locked hilt to hilt.Bastion glanced at Ulla, who gripped her bone knife, lip curling as she lowered herself into a defensive stance.
“Don’t worry,” Buck crooned.“She’s not part of the bargain.At least not forme.”
Bastion scowled and elbowed him in the face.Buck lurched backwards.
He turned to Taro and Ulla and yelled, “Run!”
Buck roared, and Bastion spun, one hand on the hilt, the other bracing the flat of the blade as it met a powerful downward slash.His boots slid over the slick rock.
“There’s no Thatian here to save you this time,” Buck said.Bastion gritted his teeth.His arms screamed beneath the force of Buck’s strength.
Impatient, Buck shoved him and let his fist fly before Bastion could recover.The impact made him see stars.Buck’s gloves must be reinforced with steel.The pirate rained down a flurry of strikes.He got his guard up just in time, blocking blindly.
The moment he saw an opening, Bastion hit Buck in the face with the hilt of his sword.His head snapped upward, and Bastion darted back, giving himself room.
Before he could calculate his next attack, movement flashed in his peripheral vision.Taro had Ulla’s knife hand in his fist, trying to draw her away.She caught him across the shoulder with her claws, leaving four jagged lines that pooled red.
Bastion jerked his attention back to Buck.The pirate captain swung at him, and Bastion leapt away.That blow would have spilled his guts.
