Page 116 of Sohut's Protection

There was a pause and then the guards cackled. They cackled as if they’d just heard the funniest joke and their lack of concern sent a chill down her spine.

What were she and Sohut going to do?

They were outnumbered, outmatched.

She was sure they could probably outrun them and put up a fight, but she wasn’t sure how she’d fare in one-and-one combat—that didn’t mean she wouldn’t fucking try her best.

One of the guards spoke, his words slicing through her senses, making her think she’d missed a part of the conversation.

“Qrak, we’ll make you then.”

Sohut stiffened even more, and he took a backward step as something zinged in the air. It sounded like an electrical current, the sort of sound you hear if you get too close to compromised power lines.

“Don’t you phekking dare. You’ll hurt her too!” Sohut growled.

“Does it look like we qrakking care?”

That was all the warning she got before the pain.

A searing pain that felt as if she was burning from the inside out. Her entire body shook as she lost control of her limbs and she was vaguely aware of going down…

But she wasn’t the one falling. Sohut was.

He fell to his knees, his arms still locked around her as she heard him grunt and she realized that whatever the guards were doing, they were doing to him, not her. She was only receiving the second-hand effect.

As Sohut fell forward and her back hit the earth below, she was suddenly staring upward through her watery eyes into the faces of three alligator-guards.

Their cruel yellow gazes stared down at her and Sohut as the weapon in their hands glowed strangely in the light of their ship.

It looked like a power rod. A shock rod.

They’d shocked Sohut with a direct current.

A rage she didn’t know she had burst within her organs and she screamed—only no sound came from her mouth. Her scream was silent as her body shook with the after-effects of the current.

She didn’t have time to get to her feet. The gator-guards helped her with that as one moved forward and pulled her from Sohut’s arms.

No.

“No.” Sohut groaned as he tried to stand. He reached for her, but the shock rod was promptly planted into his back and another dose of the current sent through his body.

His skin was turning black.

They were killing him!

His green gaze met hers and this time the scream that ripped from her body echoed into the forest.

She tasted the blood before she realized her head snapped to the side. The pain of the slap followed but she didn’t care.

She turned her burning rage on the guard that had slapped her, kicking and flailing but as her legs connected with his underbelly, he only grabbed her to stop her movement.

“I’ll kill you,” Sohut groaned again and began to move and something inside her crumpled and wrung. “I’m going to kill every last one of you.”

He needed to stay down.

They were going to kill him if he didn’t.

The guards cackled again and the world around her began to fade.

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