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“I don’t get on with Bryn but betraying the Brotherhood for Fleisch is not something I’m going to do,” Cosmos says. “I know you feel sorry for Katya, but this is the way it has to be.”
Says fucking who.
I’d argue with him more, but the sound of a woman screaming in agony interrupts us. I race toward the sound, which is coming from the basement, where the sheriff has been given free rein with Katya.
They try to stop me, but I am smaller, more nimble, and everybody is very well aware that I can turn into a fiery ball of rage at any moment. When I arrive at the cells, Katya is shrieking. The door of her cell is open and she is caught in what I can only describe as being a forcefield of pain. Starlight’s weapon is like a taser that doesn’t stop tasing.
“On your knees!” he’s shouting.
Katya’s refusing. She’s on her feet, even though she’s being cramped with pain, nearly bent double. Her brilliant blue eyes are seething with angelic fury as she resists him with everything she has. I am horrified at what I am seeing. If this is what he’ll do to her here, in the very heart of the Brotherhood, what will he do to her if he takes her away? My heart goes out to her, and my hand reaches for one of the wood training swords. I am putting a fucking end to this.
“Asshole!” I sweep the wood sword across the back of his knees. He goes down like the sack of shit he is. Stepping over his big body, fire leaps from my hand in a deadly blade, hovering just shy of his throat. He looks up at me in shock, as if he never thought anybody would actually stop him from hurting the woman in his custody.
“You want to use your angelic suppression device on me too?” I ask him the question fiercely. “Or do you only pick on caged women? Fucking coward.”
I’ve never understood the impulse to spit on someone before, but I have it now. I refrain, because I am still a lady, but I think about it real fucking hard.
Katya puts her hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay, Elise,” she says. “I’m not hurt. Don’t worry.”
But I do worry. I worry because we are the ones with the power, and these men keep trying to tame us and break us and make us what they think we should be. Because they keep silencing us, and carrying us out of rooms, and putting us in trunks, and because they never, ever, fucking listen.
“I’m going to work at Katya’s laboratory,” I tell everybody assembled. By this time, pretty much everyone has come down. Cosmos, Nina, Bryn, Thor, Anita. Everybody’s staring at me. Katya is still behind me, so I don’t know how she took that piece of information.
“If she’ll have me. Lab work is what I do, and none of you know what to do with a woman besides keep her on a woman-shaped shelf. Don’t try and stop me, or I swear to fucking God, I will be the enemy of your worst fucking nightmares.”
Bryn looks at Cosmos. “This is what happens when you don’t break your bride properly.”
“You’re the fucking worst,” I curse at him. “Break your bride? Nina should be in fucking college. So should Anita. I’m sorry for them. I’m sorry they don’t have any opportunities to be anything other than your little pets and playthings. But I know the world has more to offer me. And I’m going to take it. I’m sorry, Cosmos. I know your loyalties lie here. You literally just told me that. But mine don’t. And there is nothing here for me.”
Cosmos has his arms folded over his chest and is looking at me with an inscrutable expression. I will miss him. I’ve fallen for him. But I’m not going to stay here in a world where keeping women captive and handing off the best of us to be tortured is acceptable.
I wait for him to say something, to become my ally, or take a stance as my enemy. My heart is breaking with every second it takes to get a response.
“Fuck it,” he says, finally. “I’ll go with you.”
“You’re defecting to Fleisch?” Bryn sounds shocked. Of course he is. Bryn’s plan was just to get rid of the troublesome angel woman and carry on brooding around the place.
“I’m choosing my wife,” Cosmos says. “I’d go to the gates of Hell for her. I can go to Fleisch. Besides. This might be a real chance for peace. We might finally be able to stop fighting each other. People might finally stop dying. And Elise is right, Starlight is a piece of shit.”
“Hey, now,” Starlight says. “I’m just here to do a job.”
