Page 48 of Wrong Squad, Right Mess

“She knocked us out.” Shear spoke that time, shaking his head like that would wake him up, like it would get his brain working.

Of course, if Yun had done something to us, there was a good chance it would hit the mentalist the hardest.

“Why would she do that?” I asked, all the ease from earlier gone.

Funny that when I’d thought I’d lost a kidney, or some monster had knocked me out, I hadn’t been nearly as frantic as I was about the idea that Yun was somewhere alone.

“She was crying,” Shear said, wincing as he rolled over. Then again, I recalled how rough Ingram had been with him and I couldn’t exactly blame him for moving a little slow after that…

It made me wonder how Yun felt, because I hadn’t exactly been gentle with her, either. The thought of her limping through the dungeon about put me over the edge.

“She fucking attacked us. Why the fuck would she be crying?” Ingram spat, but even I could hear the worry in his voice.

“Corsa,” I whispered, the answer obvious. “She’s been acting strange for a few hours. I bet in here he could talk to her, maybe even when she was awake.”

“So? Why does that fucking matter?”

“You know that girl as well as I do now. Just think of her with Mr. Yorn. What did she do when she thought we were in danger?”

Ingram groaned, forcing himself upright as he searched for his clothing, all of it discarded and mixed. “She shouldered it all herself. So you think she, what? Turned herself into Corsa for us?”

I shrugged, hating the idea, hating all of it, but unable to deny the very real possibility. “If Corsa threatened us, if he made her think that we’d be safe if she just went to him?” I thought about the portal, about how it had reacted to her. “She also realized she’s linked to The Pitt. She probably thinks there’s no way to break that, that we’ll just get ourselves hurt or killed trying to do the impossible.”

“She hates Corsa,” Ingram said. “You can’t really think she’d just hand herself over to him.”

“She hates him, but she loves us.” I kicked Kenyon in the side, needing him to wake the fuck up, too. “Can you say you’d do anything different for her?”

Ingram pressed his lips together, his silence as good as an answer. Stil, he yanked on his pants and shirt.

Kenyon grumbled but got up, seeming to move more out of response than thought—assuming he had any thoughts in that empty head of his anyway.

“Can you sense her?” I asked of Shear. “You should be able to locate her and send her a message. Let her know that the second I find her, I’m gonna put her over my fucking knee. What I did to her ass earlier will seem like a love tap compared to this.”

“Kinky,” Ingram muttered, though his tone lacked his usual playfulness.

Shear focused, but a frown deepened on his features until he shook his head. “Nothing. She must be closer to Corsa—maybe with him already. He’s strong enough to easily block me if I’m not right next to her, and even then…” Shear winced again, but went about getting dressed as though nothing had happened. “I’m not being humble, but his powers far exceed mine, since he’s a corrupted.”

“But you’ve always been more powerful,” I countered. “I’ve seen what you can do. Like when we were testing at the base.”

“That was a fluke, a one-off that worked out in our favor. I assure you, that isn’t something I can sustain or replicate. Not to mention, in case you have forgotten, I did face off against him in her mind once and we were all nearly killed that time.” His voice came out tense as though didn’t like showcasing his shortcomings, but he did it because he had to.

And he had my respect for it. I wasn’t out there telling the rest of my squad that someone else was stronger or better than I was, even if I knew it was true.

“She had to go toward the heart,” Kenyon said, seeming to have caught up all on his own. I nearly patted him on his head for that. “That’s where Corsa was, that’s where she must have been headed.”

“Alone?” Ingram asked.

“I doubt it,” Shear said. “So far Corsa has kept an eye on her with those monsters. He probably used them to escort her back. She’s useless to him if she dies, after all.”

I blew out a breath and shook my head. How could she have done something so foolish again?

I mean, I understood how, I got what she was thinking, but it pissed me off all the same. She was supposed to trust us, supposed to work with us, and instead she incapacitated us and ran off on her own?

It felt as though she didn’t truly trust us, like she thought we couldn’t keep her safe.

No, that wasn’t fair. I knew better than that. It was just my wounded ego lashing out. Yun had proven how much she trusted us, but she didn’t want to risk anyone else for her sake. She didn’t want to see anyone else fall because of her.

I got it, but fuck, I didn’t like it, not one bit. I wanted to protect her, to keep her safe, but she kept throwing herself into danger.