Page 152 of The Bonding Games: Part 2

ALBY WHITE

I let out an embarrassing squeak.

“Now you will turn it on and remove the reset button,” Ezla orders.

“I-I’m so sorry, but I don’t have access—”

Ezla’s hand is wrapped around her throat in an instant, her glare only promising an instant death, and I tense.

“Who does?” Cooper asks stiffly before she can tear the woman’s neck right from her shoulders, stepping closer to the two of them.

“The—the Game . . . Master!” she wheezes. She looks moments away from passing out from sheer terror as much as the lack of oxygen.

“He is not the only one, otherwise you would not have been able to work on them down here without him,” Ezla hisses. “Stop wasting my time.”

The woman’s finger points towards the dead man on the floor. “H-he could. There—”

Ezla drops her brutally on the taalk before she can finish. Yanking the citizen tablet from her hand before crouching down by the Evot on the floor, she wraps his hand around it, using his thumb to press down on the lone discreet button on its side.

The screen turns on without issue, and my eyes widen as I take in the green buttons to match the shade of my Avri cluster, standing out starkly against a black background.

There’s not many, the tablet minimalistic like all things in Techta. One is for our basic information, like our age, gender, school, and more, and then there’s another labelled ‘SCORE’. And that would’ve been it for most Players.

Except the next rectangular button reads ‘DELETE’, and another below that steals all the remaining oxygen in my lungs that the previous somehow didn’t manage to with its bold ‘RESET’.

Growling, Ezla whips her body back around as she rises to her full height. “Who else was working on this?”

“Only a c-couple,” the woman who’s still on the floor whimpers, clutching her neck. “I-I’m so s-sorry, Miss Zefron. They were only following orders—”

“I do not care,” she seethes, glaring daggers into her trembling form. “How long ago were these finished? Has anything been pressed?”

“Just ten minutes ago,” a deeper voice answers from across the room, and we all whip our heads the bearded man’s way. “I was one of the few people working on them. We were left with specific orders not to touch the buttons once they were ready. I just want you to know, I personally didn’t agree, but the Game Master said your Bonds could be unstable, and he was concerned for your safety—”

“Shut up,” Ezla snaps, and his teeth smack together with an audible clack. “Did you honestly believe that? How dare you insult me by acting as though I could not easily defeat ten men with my pinkie finger alone.”

He splutters.

“Now,” she says, and her tone is calmer now, though it’s still lacking any warmth. Like me, I can feel her stress has died down slightly at the knowledge that nothing’s been touched, but her rage continues to pound down the bond, and a good majority is directed at this man. I don’t know what it says about me when I also can’t feel too much sympathy for him as he shrinks under my Bonded’s gaze. This might not have been his idea, but it sounds as though he added that button to the tablets without much argument, if any at all. “You will remove both the delete and reset buttons.”

The man’s gulp is loud. “I am truly sorry, Champion, but I’m not sure I ca—”

A crimson throwing star slams into his side.

“You will try,” Ezla tells him darkly as he brings his hand to his side as the weapon zips back to her, his agonised cry ringing in my ears while his other palm comes to the table before him to steady himself. “If you cannot remove them individually, you will find another way. A button to override all others, perhaps? I do not care how long this takes, I will not allow you to leave until you have completed this task. If you are not fast enough . . .” Her smirk is death incarnate. “Well, in that case, you will simply bleed out, will you not?”

His face pales several shades.

I feel Ezla’s delight through the bond.

Chancing a peek behind me to see Tate, who’s still guarding the door, I’m unsurprised to see him biting his lip and rubbing himself through the sinthine at his groin as his lust-filled eyes obsessively watch our Bonded at work.

“Well?”

Ezla’s drawling word draws my attention back to the scene.

The man’s Adam’s apple bobs. “I— Will the Game Master not mind—”

“The Game Master is not here!” Ezla completely loses her cool, and Scotty wraps his arm fully around her as we feel the aggressive flaring up of her emotions, a burst of memories from yesterday with it. It’s not to contain her but soothe her, and it’s done in a way that makes it very clear Ezla still has all the power in the room as he stands at her side like a solider ready to obey any orders from his queen.