Page 96 of Of Daggers and Deceit

She had planned this.

Betrayal flooded my system, my vision blurring with tears.

“Where is Bodhi?” I screamed as she swung another fist towards my face. She didn’t bother to answer, her face flustered.

I portaled us again and again as we rolled, and she fought to grapple me onto the ground, her legs lifting around and locking mine into place.

“Sly, shoot her.”

I panicked and portaled outside of the building and onto the sand, the dust from our landing coating us. My aim was reckless now, entirely erratic as my emotions swept into a torrent inside me. She yanked my arms above my head in my distraction, pinning me to the sandy floor.

I watched her chest heave before looking up to stare her right in the face, noting a wildness in her eyes I hadn’t seen in a long time. Never before had it scared me.

I screamed in fury, jostling my body to free myself. “Where is he?”

My voice echoed viciously across the expanse.

Still, she ignored me, and I hated her more as whatever had been in that dart began to slow my movements. I elbowed and clawed and kicked, but my sister held strong. She had always been stronger than me.

I bucked my hips and pushed to turn us, desperation driving me towards chaos as I managed to push us up and over into a roll down a dune. She never let me go.

We both spluttered and coughed from the disturbed sand that coated us and our lungs.

I yanked on my arms, managing to get a hand free to swing a fist up into her gut, forcing a grunt of pain from her.

“Why?” I yelled. “Why, why, why?”

She pinned my arms again, her entire body locking me down effectively this time. Still, she remained silent, so agonisingly silent that my heart clenched.

“I hate you, Riley. I hate you with everything I have. You deserve Zander. You are a fitting pair.” I spat the words, and her jaw clenched as she drew my two wrists together at the top. I had no idea what she was doing, only that she had done something to Bodhi, possibly something terrible.

This was so unlike her.

“I’m sorry, Raya. There is no other choice.” Was she handing me in to Zander? Is that where Bodhi was?

I bucked violently, more desperate now. She was turning me in. I was bordering on feral now, so feral that as she pinned me down, I screamed and swore beneath her as tears fell from my eyes.

“I hate you,” I sobbed. “I trusted you.”

“I know,” she whispered, her voice breaking.

Then, a shot echoed through the air, and I felt the pinch in my skin as a second dart pierced my neck.

Tears streamed from my eyes as she watched me, but I didn’t stop fighting her. I wouldn’t until I had nothing left.

“I will never forgive you,” I promised, and her expression crumpled, though she didn’t relent.

I felt my muscles soften, my movements beginning to jerk and drag.

Then, my body lost its fight, and my fate fell into her cold and cruel hands.

RAYA

Muffled voices swarmed my awareness as I fought my way to consciousness.

My eyelids were struggling to comply with my command to open and see what was going on around me, and when I’d finally forced them open, they couldn’t seem to focus on anything between the darkness and my blurry vision.

My vision swam under the strain of my effort, and I groaned as my entire body fell back onto something cushiony, heavy and lethargic. What was going on? Why couldn’t I remember anything?

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