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“How you holdin’ up?” Whiskey asks me as I trudge towards her. She hands me a pair a’ sweats covered in mud. I shove ‘em on, stumblin’ as I do, but manage to keep upright and walkin’.
“Fine. Numbers?” I say, gaze fixed on that swatch of red hair, shinin’ bright. My heart beats hard and proud at the sight of her lookin’ up at Barbero and Peate. They’re talkin’ about somethin’. I wanna hear what she has to say.
“Not sure yet. Looks like we lost about half the original eighty we started with. The reinforcements Shadowlands sent fared better. Looks like they only lost a third, maybe less. Hard to tell.” She kicks an undead arm, one that’s been dismembered from the rest a’ the body because the only way to kill ‘em is to tear ‘em apart. “Echo’s right. They really are zombies.”
Sixty lives lost by Whiskey’s estimate. Leaves our numbers at about a hundred combined with Shadowlands’ forces, if she’s right. That ain’t enough to take on the Mirage City Berserker and his Four Fates. Four Fates against two Omegas…not enough to take ‘em down, but workin’ together, we might be able to get close enough to their Berserker to vanquish him. After that, the Fates are sure to turn to our side. Surely…right?
“Call Karamoko and get his status. We need the extra seven soldiers guardin’ Trash City to help us here.”
“I tried calling, but I didn’t get through.”
“Call him again.”
“What should I tell him to do with Trash City once I get ahold a’ him?”
“Kill ‘em.”
I march forward into the clearing where Peate and Barbero stare down at Echo and the witch, concern etched into their expressions. The witch is kneeling on the rocks, her body blocking my view a’ Echo. She looks over her shoulder at me as I approach and her eyes flash into something more feline — no, serpentine. I don’t hesitate, but push forward, even though there’s an energy rollin’ off a’ her that makes my skin crawl.
“Echo,” I say, voice scratched, and it has nothin’ to do with my injuries at all. I’mnervous.
“She is unwell,” the witch snaps.
“Back up, witch.”
“I don’t answer to breeders. Not like your Omega…who gives her power away. Stretched herself too far…too thin…all to defend a breeder like you. She should have killed you like she said she would.” The insult slashes, but not as hard as the implication behind her words. Echo mighta wanted me dead at some point…but not anymore. Not if she was lookin’ out for me. “She is weak because ofyou.”
“Weak? She hurt?” My heart. Jesus fuck, my heart… I surge forward, but the witch rises up to block my way. “Back the fuck up!” My voice is a roar that echoes. Somewhere in the distance birds crow. A flock takes flight into the daylight, blotting out the sky.
“I don’t take orders from breeders. I will stay — she has answers I want — but she needs rest. Her powers drained her…took more than she had to give…foryou.” The witch steps back and my heart takes a runnin’ jump and dives straight outta my chest as Echo comes into view. She’s got red blood on her hands and smeared across her ashen face. Her eyes are closed and she’s got one hand pressed against her left temple.
“Echo!” I surge forward and the world vanishes as I drop to my knees beside her. I slide a hand beneath her hair and cup the back a’ her neck. I grab her waist and then lift her gently and lower her onto the ground on her back. “Peate, what’s wrong with her?” I shout.
“Couldn’t see a wound…and the witch wouldn’t let me near her to do a deeper…”
“Okayo! Need a medic!”
“I’m a medic,” Peate rumbles. “And I’m telling you…”
But I’m not listenin’. “Echo…where you hurt, baby?” My hands canvass her body underneath her jacket. It’s one a’ mine. In any other circumstance, the sighta her in it woulda made me half wild. Right now, all I can see is the blood leakin’ outta her nose and her eyes blinkin’ triple time. “Echo…”
Echo blinks her eyes open, but doesn’t seem to see me. Freaks the shit outta me. “Baby, you hurt? Where?”
“She isweak,” the witch snaps over my shoulder.
Gettin’ on my fuckin’ nerves. “You’re still here?”
She manages to look pissed at my words and hisses a response I really don’t need. All I need right now is my fuckin’ wife in my arms and a medic at my side. “I want to know what the man in the cave said to her. Why he even spoke to her…he could have told me, but he chose to tellhereven though I am strong and she is weak.”
“She isn’t fuckin’ weak,” I shout back, lettin’ myself get riled. “She’s a goddamn fortress and if I hear you say it again, I’ll rip the legs off your fox and beat you to death with ‘em.”
“She is weak!” the witch shrieks, her face transforming as she yells, becoming half-animal and fully monstrous. She shrinks back down to size and throws her finger accusatorially at Echo. “The Omega in the cave said so himself. He said she has no chance to defeat the Earth Fate by herself! I can defeat mine! Why didn’t he tell me?” She thrusts forward and my Berserker comes out to play.
I’m all fangs as I roar back at the witch, talkin’ down to my Omega this way. “I don’t give a fuck if you’re an Omega, a Fate, a fuckin’ angel — you take one more step towards my wife and I will crush every bone in your body… You!” I point angrily at Okayo, who appears in the valley between the bodies at Whiskey’s side. She’s holding off what looks like the entire rest of both Yaron’s and my armies as they attempt to peer in at the spectacle taking place here on the stones. “Get your ass over here.”
Okayo smiles timidly at Whiskey, who responds with a sarcastic-ass thumbs up and a big-ass grin. His smile falls and he shuffles forward more meekly than Ward ever would.
I hold the witch’s eyeline for another moment. It’s a strange sensation. I’ve never met the gaze of an Omega for more than a split second before — every Omega I’ve ever met has been meek, cowed, collared and owned. But in the span of four months, I’ve met two who look at me like they’d like to gut me.
