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I watch the intersection out of the corner of my eye.
“I… I…” I watch as the lights turn green and the cars slowly start to accelerate. There are only four or five, but if I can chuck the phone, making it appear as if it’s his precious stone, and at least get it over one car, it would require Maximus to wait until the cars fully pass to go into the street to get it.
“I don’t want to hurt you. Just give me the Keystone.”
“If… if you want it…” I draw out my words, waiting… waiting…
When I was twelve, I was the lead in a baseball TV movie of the week. Something about pretending to be a boy to get onto the school baseball team. There were locker room scenes and general hijinks ensued. It’s not one of the movies that would be mentioned in my memorial if I were to die today. It is, however, how I learned to throw a proper fastball.
When the cars get close enough, I shift my stance subtly, moving my left foot up my right calf and gripping the phone in my right hand, obscuring it from view. I take a large step forward, cocking my arm back. Following through with the throw, I launch the phone into the air with as much power as I muster. The shape is awkward and doesn’t move at all like a baseball, but when I release it, it goes over one passing car and maybe another, and it quickly becomes lost between their speeding wheels.
Whatever Maximus’s reaction is, I don’t see it, because I am running. But I hear it. A roar, loud and inhuman. It spurs me on faster, my bare feet seeming to catch every spare rock and divot in the ground. The pain keeps me focused. I can see the open parking lot. The attendant is nowhere to be found.
Shit.
Not that I thought he could save me from a literal gargoyle, but Maximus would at least not want to murder me in front of witnesses. I think. The parking attendant’s presence would buy me some time.
I reach the opening of the wire fence. I’m so close. Cars are parked one in front of the other, blocking each other in. There is still no human in sight.
I no longer hear Maximus behind me. Still, I run faster than I have before, the uneven ground and potholes cutting my feet. I slide between two large SUVs, falling hard on the asphalt, bag hitting the ground first with me on top of it. I hear the crack of stone.The Keystone.I don’t have time to check for damage. I crouch low to the ground. I’ll wait until the coast is clear, then I’ll go to the penthouse, I decide. Eden will be there. She’ll know what to do.
I took the Keystone to punish Titan, but with Maximus here, I’ll have to find another way to satisfy my desire for karma.
I’m careful not to touch the cars in case I set off any alarms. I stay silent and still, holding the bag to my chest. The only sound I hear is my own labored breathing, and I work to control it, sliding my hand into the bag and reassuring myself with the Keystone’s rough corners. The damage done to it is minor, and only a few small chunks have broken off. I should hide the stone. My breathing slows further, and I peek my head around the front of one of the SUVs.
I see no one, but I hear a great woosh, and I feel it, the strong billow of the wind blowing through the parking lot and kicking my hair up in my face. I drag my hair from my eyes as the ground shakes with a heavy impact. And Maximus is there in front of me.
He is no longer a man, but a gargoyle as massive as Titan, with short, pointed horns that shoot straight up and match his equally long claws. His wings are shorter than Titan’s, more compact to his frame, making his body look huge in comparison.
“I said, give us the Keystone,” he roars, long fangs dripping with spit.
Us?
I stumble between the SUVs. Clutching my bag to my breast, I fall backwards to the ground. My eyes dart around wildly. The plan I had to hide and wait wasn’t much of a plan to begin with, but it was something. Now I’m shit out of luck with a monster who seems to have no compunction about being seen by humans and likely has no issue harming one. There is no one here to save me. There is no one here to even hear me scream. I look for something, anything to fight back at, but then his claw grips my ankle and pulls me out from between the vehicles.
I scream.
“Will you hand it over willingly?”
Maximus grabs my upper arms, pinning me to the ground, and leans down hard on me. I can feel the bruises blossom on my bones. His heated breath warms my cheek, his sharp fangs, so many more than Titan, grazing the sensitive skin of my neck. His body brackets mine, and I’m held prisoner between his arms.
Rocks dig into my hair and scalp. If they’re cutting me, I can’t feel it. Every fiber of my being is consumed by the pain I feel searing through my upper arms. How my bones aren’t broken, I don’t know. I try to break free. Thrashing my legs, I kick at stone flesh and scream out in pain.
Maybe, just maybe, if I can get my arms free, I can slip out from under him and roll under one of the cars.
He can’t lift a car, can he?
“Where is it?” he growls, vicious and unyielding. “If you think we won’t hurt you to get it, know that we will do anything to get back what is ours, including tear you limb from limb if that’s what it takes to get you to talk.”
There he is with the “we” again.
I should talk, I need to talk, anything to distract him, anything to give myself more time. I try to convince myself to just give him the Keystone, to think about myself first. I learned young that that is what I needed to do for survival, and it’s never failed me, so why can’t I do it now?
Because I’d seen the way Titan and his men had talked about it and the Relic Room. They didn’t just want to have it above all others, but because it was their home, they were literally tied to it, drawn to it. They were made for it. I can’t deny them what is theirs.
I’m angry at Titan because he made me feel things I didn’t want to feel and then stuck to our agreement. I’m right in my anger, but I can’t cause the brotherhood that pain.
“Fine. Then we’ll do it the hard way,” Maximus says ominously as he looks to the sky.
