Page 157 of Bound By Fury

Dorothea—no, Lucille and the white man.

The battle between our kinds has gone on for far too long.

But today will be the beginning of the end.

Kai’s eyes bulge, the veins in his neck protruding as his arms go limp. I stare down at him defiantly.

That’s when I finally see them. The tears. Slipping down his face, his lips moving in prayer.

“Stop it!” I croak, my voice hoarse. But for some sick reason, I pull my power back just enough to let him speak.

“Thank you,” he groans. “If I was going to go,” he struggles, “I promised myself…”

As his eyes begin to close, relief floods his face.

A single tear snakes down and drips from the tip of my nose.

It splashes against his blue lips.

Confusion unravels inside my chest.

There’s no way he was the one in the hedge maze. I can remember it clearly, the feel of the person’s legs against my sides. Flesh and bone. No metal. No carbon fiber.

I pull back on my power a little more. Just enough to see the color return—

A sharp crack across my skull, and a bright-white light.

The magic snaps back inside me like a stray bullet.

And then, everything goes dark.

FIFTY-THREE

I WAKE IN THE PITCH black.

I am sitting in a chair in a flat, windless place that reeks of rotted wood and damp, mildewed soil peppered with spoiling mushrooms.

There’s something itching against my face, but when I try to raise my arms to scratch, I realize my hands are bound behind my back. I can see nothing beyond the blindfold.

Panic swells in my chest, I thrash my head from side to side when I feel that my legs are also tied.

I find that my mouth is already open, something stuffed inside it.

I call the magic to me, but it sputters.

A heaviness rests around my throat.

Concentrating, I bear down on the well in my core, yanking and twisting the magic to my arms, but it doesn’t come.

Vomit climbs my throat.

A shuffling behind me.

Hands against the back of my head.

Light—burning my retinas as it floods my vision when someone removes the mask.

“You’re awake,” a calm voice says.