Page 128 of Creatures that Breathe

Slowly, Cross sets me down on the unforgiving floor and I feel a dozen sharp shards of glass pierce into my skin. Grunting through fragile clenched teeth, I turn my head backward to examine the damage and my heart lurches.

The fury Cross lit in me, the pure magma anger flowing in my veins changes into a numb stillness.

We’ve gone through not just one wall, but two. Dust and plaster fill the air as we lay amidst the destruction, tangled in cords and wires that sing with dangerous electricity. And just a room away, an ominous olive green grenade spins lazily on the floor.

I didn’t feel a thing, which means …

I wiggle, needing to see for myself how badly Cross is hurt.

“Stay beneath me.” His voice hits me in distorted echoes, blotchy and wrong. “It’s too late to run.” He tucks me tighter to him and in a whooshed snap, my hearing returns.

I’m blasted with chaos. Violent blaring alarms, shouts and screams, gunshots.

His grip tightens around me, pulls me closer to him, shielding me from the wreckage. “I’m sorry,” he whispers, breathless, lips against the crown of my head. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry.” Regret cloaks him.

Horrified instant regret.

Clarity grips me. Damning and honest and inevitable.

He dove for me. When he should’ve handled the grenade.

Now it’s too late.

There isn’t enough time to run.

Wild, bone-deep horror seizes me by the throat.

“Get away,” I croak, thrashing in a frantic attempt to break free of him. But his hold on me is unbreakable and all I can do is close my eyes and plead. “Let go of me! Please, get back while you still can. You must get away from me—”

A shrill whistle cracks overhead and I turn just in time to witness the fiery trail of a rocket streak through the blown windows. The screech of the explosive blackens my ears as it plummets into the woods outside.

“Hey!” Luke shouts after it, rocket launcher perched on his massive shoulder. “You fuckers lost this!” With a savage grin, he hurls the live grenade out the window.

Relief floods me sharp and quick, shooting air into my blood. Bleeding Gods, we’re—

Before I can finish my thought, a blinding flash and earth-shattering boom erupt. My eyes are forced shut against the bright light and Luke shouts as he’s tossed across the room.

In my ear, Cross is offering his life to Zeus in exchange for my survival.

Through the haze of debris, the rocket finds its target, and a wall of fire explodes upwards. Rocks the entire building. Makes the grenade’s explosion seem like a firecracker.

In a blur of motion, Cross hauls us upright, and drags me through the devastation toward Luke’s prone body. My worst fears are confirmed when Cross immediately searches for a pulse.

In shock, I wrap my hands around my elbows. Ruby red trickles down Luke’s dark chin. “He’s mortal,” I whisper, and it sounds eerily like he’s dead.

Seething, Cross refuses to accept it, pushing on Luke’s carotid as he jerks me to a squat. “There’s a dungeon.” He glances down at my bare feet, swallows. “Take a left out of the east stairwell, then make two right turns. In the last stall—” He seizes my jaw, yanking my attention from Luke’s unmoving chest back to him. “Are you listening?”

Am I? My heart thumps. “Left. Two rights.”

“In the last cell, there’s a safe embedded in the floor. It leads to a stocked bunker. It’s impenetrable, and it locks from the inside. You go there and you don’t leave for three days. No matter what you hear. Three days. The code is eleven”—he shakes me violently when I peer back at Luke—“Listen to me, Leni. Eleven—”

Something wilts inside me under the frantic rasp of Cross’s orders. My last secret. “I can’t be contained,” I protest weakly.

The response drives him into a full-blown fury, a tone he’s never dared use with me. “You will, dammit. I will not lose you.”

The back of my eyes sting. “I really can’t.”

Overwhelmed, frustration pulling his features, Cross stops feeling for Luke’s pulse and slaps across the face with a resounding crack.

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