Page 26 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘The fuck does that mean?’

Riley whispers, ‘Did you like the steak, Bodyguard?’

Kade’s stomach drops. ‘Riley, what—?’

But before he can ask, the skin behind his left ear prickles.

His senses alert him to something new.

Kade turns towards it.

Riley does the same.

His certainty solidifies before his mind can rationally assess anything.

Lachlan asks, ‘What is it?’

‘Something’s wrong.’ Riley rises, looks at Kade. ‘Get to the Watch.’

‘No,’ Kade says, frowning. ‘I need to—’

An explosion shatters the world apart.

The force of it slams them into the adjacent wall.

Table, chairs, coffee, steak, it all goes everywhere.

The blast steals Kade’s breath from his lungs, his body reeling.

It takes a moment to come around, but only one.

Kade pushes up from the floor onto all fours, spits blood, blinking hard. His inner ears are ringing, literally screaming. Somehow that hurts worse than anything, to the point where he wonders if it was a concussion grenade, but instantly dismisses it. The yield and blast are all wrong.

But either way, he can’t hear anything.

Shaking himself, he casts around for Riley, but it’s Lachlan he sees dropping protectively in front of Kade. He lifts Kade’s face, examining it while feeling his chest with his free hand. The silent world is screaming in a high-pitched frequency of debilitating agony.

Behind Lachlan, Riley staggers to his feet, swaying, both hands over his ears, blood running down either side of his neck.

Lachlan’s fingertips lightly brush beneath Kade’s ears.

He signs fluently.

Have you lost your hearing?

Briefly surprised, since no one but Luca speaks fluent ASL here, Kade nods, and his punishment is a violent wave of nausea that crashes through him. He clings to Lachlan’s forearm and tries to stand, but his body decides absolutely not. His knees buckle beneath him, and he collapses hard, his mouth flooding with sour saliva.

The pain in his ears is unbearable.

‘Riley,’ Kade blurts out in total silence, unable to hear a fucking thing.

Lachlan crushes Kade against his chest, pulling him close as the air around them warps again. A second charge, smaller this time, or maybe it just feels that way because Lachlan has his arms around Kade, shielding him from the worst of the blast before he flattens him, lying atop him protectively from what Kade guesses are bullets.

The Tower is under attack.

Intruders are inside; they came through the outside wall.

In a bubble of total silence, Kade tries to gain what intelligence he can from his remaining senses. He sees dust and broken concrete. He smells smoke, hot metal. He feels debris beneath him.