Page 92 of Ravage
Our members start to move when they can, mobilizing as they’ve been instructed for that escape plan. But too many are still stuck in a fight and can’t turn their backs.
I pull the extra metal from my sword back into my other hand and mold them into throwing knives. I start targeting the fighters keeping the Guild members from escaping, either taking them down or distracting them enough for our members to get the upper hand.
I’m forced to change the halberd into more knives, and then the remaining metal on my body until only my sword is left.
Kellan’s in the thick of them, knocking through them two at a time. But a circle is closing in around him. His chest heaves with exertion, and it’s only a matter of time before his skin reverts and he’ll be vulnerable again.
“Dane.” I turn to check on him for the hundredth time and freeze when he’s not there.
Sharp pain sears into my shoulder, and I fall to the ground. A man steps forward with a spear of ice in his hand as he readies to throw another one. I yank my whip sword behind me. Where it would normally curl and fall short, I curve it back and sharpen the blade, then score it across his chest and shatter the ice.
The man screams and falls back. I hurriedly search for Dane where he’s fighting off two men who have blocked him off from getting back to me.
I pull the ice from my shoulder and push back to my feet to start toward him, but the ice man yells behind me, and I spin around, flicking my wrist up in time for my sword to crash into the next spear of ice.
Fuck. I don’t have time for this. I’m not losing anyone else in our group.
I whip my sword out and sharpen the blades. It crashes back to the ground and cuts the floor in the impact. “I don’t have all day. Let’s go.”
He starts conjuring and throwing ice at me left and right. Damn it, do I wish I could conjure metal like that. I swing my sword back and forth in a tiring but effective maneuver to keep cutting through his ice until he’s tapped out.
I throw my sword one last time and stretch it thin so it reaches him and cuts his head clean off.
I try not to kill them if I can help it, but if he’s going to get in the way of me getting Dane back or helping Kellan, then it’s an easy choice to make.
Screaming erupts behind me, and I pivot hard as Raegan ravages the two men who had Dane from behind. They drop to the ground with skin so fractured and split it looks like parched dirt in a desert with blood running through the cracks.
She doesn’t even give them a second more notice before she’s rummaging through their gear and pulling two guns out. She tosses one at Dane and runs toward the crowd around Kellan without waiting to see if Dane would catch it or not.
He does, but he stares at it and the men at his feet.
“Dane, move!” I snap at him. Gunfire echoes behind me as Raegan takes on the men surrounding Kellan while I wait for Dane to catch up to me. When I turn around, I notice the large group of GE fighters who I’d been blocking from the Guild members is long gone. Probably while I’d been distracted by the ice guy, dammit.
Our members should be gone by now though.
I grab Dane to make sure he stays with me and because I’m not sure if Raegan saving his life will qualify her for a free pass from him right now. We start working through the crowd around Kellan when a voice cuts through the fighting.
And then everything stops.
Everyone steps back. I look at Dane, who is as confused as I am, and then we push through to Kellan’s side. Raegan is standing in front of him. I turn to snap at her for running blindly to him without backup, but the words catch in my throat at her pale face. It reminds me of how she looked when I confronted her about her secret. I swing my head around to look for the cause.
“Ah, pet. How I’ve missed you,” a man says as he steps through the parted fighters. Then he comes into the light and recognition dawns on me. He was one of the scientists on the island. He ran the tests on us and made us complete different exercises for his research.
Gordon?
“You’re supposed to be dead,” Raegan whispers fearfully. I look back to her and her body’s taken on a full tremble.
“On. Your. Knees,” Gordon demands slowly.
She drops to her knees instantly, and a sob slips free.
What.
The.
Fuck.
The scientist walks confidently up to Raegan and then he strokes the side of her face. My muscles clench with anger and the desire to intervene, but I force the urge at bay to wait for the right moment.
