Page 51 of Lies That Blemish
“And you are like a rain cloud sometimes.”
I laughed as he kissed my neck.
“I’ll miss you. Please don’t stay away too long,” he begged.
I ran my fingers through his hair, but my mind was on what he’d said about marrying Maxim and not having my power, about Valor getting killed or Victory getting kidnapped.
“Kohen, what if all that bad stuff in your visions comes true?” Because there is nothing I would not do to protect my sisters.
He brushed his finger over my lips. “Don’t worry, I will always protect you.”
“I’m not worried about me. I’m worried about my sisters. My people.”
“I will protect them, too,” he declared.
“That’s valiant, Kohen, but how can you possibly? Your powers are great, but Maxim’s might be greater. You cannot come at an entire army with fire and future sight.”
He gave me a cocky grin then. “Yes, I can.” There was an all-knowing smile on his lips.
“What are you talking about?”
He eyed the tent and then Liana and Onyx. “I wasn’t ready to show you this yet. It’s still a prototype.”
Then he dipped into the tent and came out with a small wooden box.
My brows drew together. “What’s that?”
Kohen peered up at me. “This is what our future children’s children will fight wars with. I saw it in a vision from a time when I’m not even alive anymore.”
“What?” I asked, shocked. “How is that possible?”
He shook his head, unlocking the latch on the box to reveal a…
“What’s it called?” I asked as he gripped the steel base of the object.
“A gun,” he told me, and for some reason, chills raced down my spine.
“What does it do?” I stepped closer, inspecting it. It was a huge L-shaped hunk of metal, but the point of it was a barrel with an opening. There were tiny metal cylinders in the box that Kohen loaded into the back of the… gun.
“It shoots projectiles out. Like an arrow launcher but smaller, more deadly, with the force of a train. Like a cannon you can hold in your hand.”
I gasped.
“I’m still working on aiming, but here… stand behind me and watch.” He held both arms out before him, gripping the weapon with his finger on a little lever. Then he aimed at the remaining brick wall of the burned-down house.
“Plug your ears,” he told me.
“Why?” I asked.
“Trust me,” he said.
I did, and then a foreign sound ripped past my ears, like something had cracked open and echoed throughout the canyon.Even the force of it reverberated through my chest. I gasped as a small puff of smoke curled up from the back of the weapon.
“What did it do?” I asked, looking around for some damage.
“It was too fast for you to track since you didn’t know what to look for. Come here.” He stowed the weapon at his hip and then walked me over to the wall. When I saw a perfect hole punched through the brick, I gasped.
“It went through brick?” An arrow couldn’t do that.
