Page 131 of Creatures that Breathe

This situation is exactly what I was afraid of, exactly why I wanted to send her away, far away. When she’s with me, she consumes me. I’d have contained the grenade, I’d have heard the attack, I’d have pulled Luke back from the blast. All I could think was Leni. She chose me, said she'd follow me, threatened it, my dangerous pyro. If I were strong enough, I’d leave her.

There’s no amount of ambrosia I could drink to give me such strength.

“Okay,” Leni encourages quietly. “Yes. Just like that.”

Less than ten minutes ago, the attacking sentries retreated at the whistle from the Queensguard, ran to join the line of poisonous green in the lawn. Kleio, their commander offered us a truce. We relinquish the princess to their hands in the next fifteen minutes, and she doesn’t send us all the Tartarus.

The Blackguard are bleeding, exhausted, woefully unprepared.

Everyone down except for Leni. Her plan is in motion thanks to Drake’s and Meda’s steady hands.

“Like that?” Meda asks, hairline covered in crusty scarlet.

Leni nods, blue hair oddly serene among the surrounding disaster. “Yes. Light it.”

Lev’s the first to start sprinting, grabbing a fistful of my shirt as he shouts, “It’s going to blow!” A still smoking match clutched in his palm.

We scatter. I grab Leni by the waist, Luke by the arm, and run. Atlas throws a bleeding Rune across his shoulder. Drake helps. Meda slams Zeke in front of her.

The explosion rocks the earth, shakes the very foundation of the building.

We smash through the second-story windows, tumbling onto the grass as brick and glass rain down around us.

Then the real bomb goes off. The force of the blast knocks out the Queensguard, their bodies flying backwards like rag dolls. Success is bitter as we too flatten under its sheer power.

It’s too big and we’re too close.

Coughing and bleeding from the impact, we struggle to stand while the Queensguard regains their footing just inside the tree line. They do not charge, instead watching as their despicable Blackguard fail to rise.

Leni’s strewn over me, motionless, her eyes shut.

I push myself up, pulling her with me as Atlas crawls towards Rune, desperate to keep him conscious. Luke frantically reloads his gun, calculating the number of bullets he has left and how many enemies remain.

“There’s no way to win this,” Leni croaks to me.

Not an assessment, a forgone conclusion, as if she’s done the odds, considered every possible outcome.

I have, too.

I just don’t accept them.

Normally, the Blackguard could thrash Draven’s sentries three to one. With the Queensguard at their sides, warriors equally gifted as us, with no curse stalking them, Leni’s right. There’s no way to win.

The Queensguard commander pulls back her cowl, showing off thick blonde hair braided to her lower back. “Give her up,” she calls.

Lev growls, knocking fits into his palm, hair whipping like a war flag.

“Stay behind me,” I say to Leni under my breath. Protest shines brightly in her frosted gaze, but I silence her with a look. “You said you’d follow me anywhere. I’m staying here.”

“No,” Atlas shouts back to Kleio, rigidly rising to his feet. His perpetually neat hair is tousled, the honed tips of his ears exposed. He casts an appraising glance around our wounded, fucked circle, and lands on Leni. “It’s been too long since the Blackguard protected someone. And I won’t stand by and lose another innocent life.”

His words ricochet in my chest, sink in that my family chooses my happiness over they’re security, a male they can’t always remember, but one they love.

Kleio scoffs, rolling sooty eyes. “Come on! It’s not nice to keep things that aren’t yours. She took a vow, she promised to marry him.”

“As if she had an alternative,” Atlas shouts.

“Death is always a possibility, don’t forget that.”

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