AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Faster than I could react, her fist collided dead center on my face, causing my eyes to instantly water as I reared back. My hands shot to my nose, checking to see if it was broken as blood came leaking out.
She could land a solid hit—I’d give her that.
Oh, but she wasn’t done. She leapt from her chair, and it fell over backwards, clattering loudly against the ground. She came at me again—her balled-up fists flying towards me. I ducked out of the way, catching her hand in mine. I shoved against her, pushing her back from me. For Kaleb’s sake, not mine, I didn’t try to hit her back. Although, the thought was damn tempting—I’d like to return the favor for her nearly breaking my nose.
Kaleb jumped between us.
“Enough!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. It was loud enough that it made my ears ring—loud enough that it made both of us freeze. “You two are acting like children.”
The door that led into the hallway suddenly swung open, its rusty hinges groaning in aggravated response. “Sage, are you al—” Ryker’s sentence fell short.
I turned to look at him. We all did.
When the towering fire twin removed his helmet, his expression was that of pure shock—like he’d just watched a ghost peel itself from its earthly carcass.
“Fallon?” he rumbled in disbelief.
I turned to her, my hand still holding my leaking nose. Like Kaleb, my mouth was slung open.
“Hello, Ryker,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. “It’s been a while.”
Sage
Iwouldn’t consider myself an expert on Ryker’s facial expressions, even though we had spent a good deal of time around one another over the past so many months, however there was no mistaking the way he was looking at Fallon right now.
Surprised. Curious.
But most of all—hurt.
Then it clicked.
This Fallon wastheFallon. The one he’d told me about when we were traveling to Belamour—the Fallon who he’d been willing to sacrifice his Curse for, so that they could live a normal life together. On the day the Elders decided to break her unconscious mind barrier, she had disappeared, along with theCrown of Thorns. I shuddered at the thought of it. Ryker had said that Von broke her out.
But now . . . she was a reaper.
So what had happened between that day and now?
“I don’t—" Ryker shook his head in disbelief. He raised a large arm, his stiff armor sounding as he ran his gauntleted fingers through his dark hair. His eyes shifted from some undisclosed spot on the floor to another, flickering back and forth as he processed. His gaze finally lifted, meeting Fallon’s once more. “Where have you been all this time? Why didn’t you . . . come to find me or reach out somehow?” Ryker glanced at me, looking for answers but finding more questions instead. His eyes narrowed in on my bludgeoned nose. “And what in the Spirit Realm happened to you?”
“I think you’d better take a seat,” I answered with a sigh, gesturing to one of the chairs—the standing one, not the one that Fallon had knocked over in her haste to punch me.
My thoughts flashed back to that night, just before we reached Cent—One of the best female fighters I’ve ever gone hand to hand with. I still have the scar to prove it.Harper’s voice replayed in my mind, an image of her tipping her chin up to show the discolored scar following seconds after. I tested a wiggle on my throbbing nose, double-checking to make sure it wasn’t broken. Harper wasn’t kidding—Fallon knew how to land a blow.
Ryker closed the door behind him, then turned back to us. “I don’t have much time. The other guard just left to go to the kitchen for his meal break. He’ll be back shortly.”
I turned to Fallon, the slightest of snarls on my lips. “Then I guess you better get started.”
When we were all seated—Kaleb and I on the bed while Fallon and Ryker sat on either side of the small table—I introduced Ryker and Kaleb to one another while I blotted mynose with a blood-soaked tea towel. I looked at Fallon, visually handing her the reins.
“It’s good to see you again,” she started, her fingers fiddling in her lap. For the first time since I’d met her a wee few hours ago, she looked unsure of herself. I noted that her right hand was beginning to show bruising around the knuckles.
I bit back a smirk. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one leaving our battle unscathed.
Good.
“I can hardly believe I’m seeing you at all.” Ryker’s voice hit a sonorous low, the kind that comes from deep in the chest, like it was spoken more for himself than anyone else. “That night . . . what happened?”
She took a deep breath, her petite but leanly muscled shoulders rising in response. Upon her exhale, she began, “After we made our plan and you left to find the Crown of Thorns, a woman showed up. I had seen her with the people you referred to as the Elders and so I believed that she was one of them. She said something about things not moving fast enough, that they didn’t have a week to waste. She had the guards open the cell door, then snarled at me that she was taking matters into her own hands. I realized she had come to break the unconscious mind barrier.”
