Page 33 of Wrong Squad, Right Mess

Well, I didn’t.

I opened my mouth to say that.

“Don’t start with that again,” Shear said. “We aren’t leaving you.”

“But—”

“Not a fucking chance, Spark,” Ingram called from ahead of us, even though I hadn’t thought he’d even heard our conversation. “So stop that bullshit right now.”

I threw my hands up then crossed my arms, not caring if I looked like a petulant child about it all. “You know, it’s difficult to have a fight with you all when Shear can literally read my mind.”

Ingram disappeared from ahead of us, reappearing right beside me, all but knocking Kenyon to the side. I found he used his powers much more freely now, as though he’d accepted it didn’t bother me anymore. “Good. So stop arguing with us. The only point to arguing is—”

“Make up sex?” I ensured my voice sounded absolutely bored of the idea, as flat and deadpan as possible.

“I was going to say better communication.” He flashed a wide smile my way. “But I wouldn’t turn down a quicky.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Shear said from my other side. “You never turn down sex.”

“What can I say? I’m just a man who loves to love.”

Carter joined us, appearing from beyond the treeline. He flicked his hand, spraying purple gore everywhere. “You know, you’re supposed to be helping, Ingram.”

“I am helping! I’m helping take Yun’s mind off all this.”

Carter lifted an eyebrow, calling Ingram an idiot without having to say it. “You’re supposed to be helping with the monsters.”

Ingram pointed at me. “Well, she was trying to say we should go back and let her stay here alone.”

I turned and shoved Ingram’s arm. “I can’t believe you just threw me under the bus like that!”

“He was mad—what do you expect from me? It’s not like he’ll be mad at you. It’s better for you to take the hit.”

I rolled my eyes, having gotten to know them well enough to know exactly what he was doing—distracting me. It was his way of taking my mind off what was going on, his way of trying to keep me from thinking about things that wouldn’t do me any good.

“How long do we have?” I asked instead, because the fact of where we were and what was going on wasn’t going to just disappear because of some banter, no matter how good it was.

Shear pulled out the tablet—he’d gotten to carry it since he was less likely to break it. “Twelve hours or so. The number isn’t specific, of course, but it’s a close guess.”

“And we’ll make it to the heart in time?” I’d already asked this, but I couldn’t stop the spiral my brain had decided to try out.

“We can feel the general direction of the heart, and with the information Jin gave us, we’ll make it in plenty of time. Probably only another two hours or so to get there,” Carter assured me.

Which should give us enough of a buffer to get there and try to work out what to do. I didn’t expect that to be the easy part, of course. It wasn’t like I had any idea what exactly had been done, let alone how to reverse it.

“That’s it,” Kenyon said as though he’d just had some grand idea.

We paused to stare at him, because he rarely had grand ideas—or any ideas at all.

“Her adrenaline has been spiking since we left the portal. We need a break and some food.”

Usually the rest of the squad argued with Kenyon. He wasn’t the planner of the group, after all, but it seemed an entirely different side had emerged. It was as though he’d pulled some rank on them, something none of them could say a thing against.

It reminded me that despite Kenyon’s lack of common sense, he really was a talented healer after all.

“Fine,” Carter said. “There’s a house up the road. There might be water there, and I’d love to shower.” He didn’t wait for an okay and instead turned in that direction, still plucking chunks of purple flesh from him and flicking them to the ground like trash.

A large gouge showed over his back, through his torn shirt—not that there was any real loss of the shirt itself. A wound like that would have put me flat, but him?