Page 71 of Hunted

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ADDIE

HELEN JANE LONG – OVERWHELMED

The ceremony—for lack of a better word—ended with Bodie and Sebastos joining Dakarai as Shrikes and the silent witnesses departing without so much as a glance in our direction.

Cogs in a constantly moving wheel, that’s all we were. And cogs were replaceable should they break.

“Ads,” Ethan murmured under his breath. “Addie, I’m sorry—I had no idea⁠—”

“It’s fine.”

He used the distraction of moving bodies to grab my arm and spin me round to face him—his face, a plea, his eyes, a white flag. “It’s not fine.” He swallowed roughly. “This was your designation. You worked harder than anyone⁠—”

“I said it’s fine,” I snarled. I didn’t need reminding of all the hours I spent shooting targets while everyone else hung out or slept. I didn’t need reminding of yet another thing I had lost.

“And I said it’s not,” he growled. The ferocity of his tone startled me into silence. “It’s complete bullshit that I get to go off and do whatever it is that Eagles do, while you…”

He let the sentence trail off, scarcely able to finish the thought, let alone aloud.

I got to put my body on the line in the least noble of ways. My body was a means to an end; a tool in the arsenal of the Academy.

Being a Swallow meant seducing targets into revealing their secrets or letting their walls down. It meant actually sleeping with them or at least going far enough to let them believe that was the end goal, right before slipping a knife between their ribs.

No more guns for me.

Guns were loud. Messy. Absolutely not synonymous with anonymity and obscurity.

And as if my karma was genocide-level in a past life, Sebastos sidled up behind me, offering naught but a cold rasp of laughter. It brushed past the nape of my neck and along my cheek, inciting an instantaneous wave of nausea and a nigh-on-impossible urge to resist squeezing his balls to bursting.

“What did I tell you, little bird?” he taunted. “You were never gonna be anything more than a glorified whore. But if you want some practice before you get started”—he grabbed his microdick suggestively—“I’ve got something you can swallow.”

Bodie and Eric snickered behind him—dumb and dumber, never far away.

I smiled at him—a flash of teeth more than anything else. “Sebastos,” I purred, saccharine sweet. “If you put anything near my mouth, make sure it’s not something you value.” I leaned in suggestively, gratified to see him jerk back involuntarily. “Because you can bet your last dollar I’ll bite it off, then shove it down your throat.”

His bullshark eyes narrowed in murderous fury. “As if I’d spend my last dollar on the likes of you.”

Then, in a total dickwad move, his fist snapped out and slammed into my gut.

I hissed, folding in half, clutching at my abdomen. Ethan’s arm wrapped around me, but I jerked free, resenting any kind of physical contact after such a cheap shot.

One I should have seen coming a mile away.

“Is there a problem over here?” a familiar voice thundered.

I glanced up at my ex-physical instructor, blinking away the tears that had sprung up.

“No, Sir,” I answered, straightening though it pained me to do so. “Just cramps.”

A snigger came from the direction of Sebastos, and my brows twitched in barely contained wrath. Seb was racking up a list of reasons I should kill him, long enough to rival a shopping list.

“Won’t have to worry about those much longer, little bird,” he murmured menacingly, stepping back as Varco’s second-in-command strode through the rows of recruits passing out manila envelopes containing each of our respective futures.

Mars slammed Ethan’s into his chest without ceremony. Eth clutched at it more out of reflex than anything else, his head jerking down when he registered a distinct metallic jangle. Tipping the contents into his palm revealed two sheets of paper, an iPhone, a new passport stamped with the United States coat of arms, an American driver’s licence, and a set of keys.

He looked up at me, overwhelmed, and the tension fled me at the sight. I reached out to help him try and make sense of his new life. Because he wasn’t Ethan Taylor anymore. For the foreseeable future, he would be known by pseudonyms and stolen identities.