Page 36 of Synnr's Ride

For some reason, a reason Jori was purposefullynotthinking of, he didn't want the acceptance. He wanted to stay entrenched here for weeks, months even. Stuck at the bar with Hanna at his side.

In his bed.

He forced his mind onto the ride. She was a distraction he couldn't afford. A woman he couldn't have. She wasn't in his bed. Any intimacy between them was a mistake or a ruse. He had to accept that. There was no other way.

Kark led them down a narrow alley from an even sadder street than the one that housed The Docking Station. Detritus was piled up against the buildings, and it must have been weeks or more since a street cleaning bot came through. Trash overfilled a dumpster at the back of the alley, and the rats didn't bother to scurry, despite the bikes.

Brave rats.

Or maybe they just recognized their own kind.

It smelled, but Jori could tune out the sour odor, even as it coated his tongue.

He spotted a small lightbulb outside a door with a sign mostly covered with years of grime. Fally's.

The door burst open and a skinny man in threadbare clothes stumbled out, hunched and swaying with too much drink. He didn't look at any of the Demons but managed to give them a wide berth as he lurched onto the main street and disappeared.

The guys took off their helmets and Jori followed suit, waiting to see what instruction Kark would give. Maisum glanced his way, head tilted so it wasn't obvious, so Jori ignored it.

This was a test. His every action and reaction was about to be judged. He couldn'tpuntthis up, no matter what they asked.

Bile churned in his stomach, but he ignored it. He'd been a soldier for years. He'd done nasty things in the name of the Synnr queen. This was just one more thing to add to the list.

"Maisum, guard the door out here, no one gets in," Kark instructed as he slid off his bike. "Rexx, you've got the door inside. No one gets out. Wrake, Malo, I want you at the end of the alleyway. Just in case things get dicey."

"You got it, boss," said Rexx. Maisum acknowledged the assignment with a nod.

Wrake opened his mouth to say something, but Malo smacked him on the side and they slunk off to guard the mouth of the alley, shoulders slumped in the knowledge they were on boring duty.

Maisum posted himself beside the door while Kark, Jursor, Rexx, Mardoz, and Jori headed inside. Rexx closed the door behind them and barred it.

The inside of the place was somehow worse than the outside. It was dark as the long nights on Aorsa, with only little yellow pots of light illuminating the seats at the bar and a few of the tables. The rest of the place was in dim shadow.

A terrible place to fight.

Then, one by one, wings appeared. One set, then another, then another, until Jori counted eight sets. It lit the place better, but he didn't like two to one odds.

Kark's crew let their wings out and Jori joined them. "Fally!" Kark yelled, paying no attention to the patrons. "Get your stinking self out here!"

An aura of anticipation fell over the bar. Jori could feel it in the air.

A figure stepped out from the backroom, tall and broad, but in the dim light that was all Jori could tell.

"I told you I'm not paying, Kark." His voice was low and garbled, as if someone had punched him in the throat more than once and knocked something out of place.

Kark flared his wings out wide. "Then you shouldn't have set up in my territory."

Fally let out a laughing breath that made his shoulders jerk. "I was here long before you. I'm not paying."

Kark nodded to Jursor, who sent a shot of his spark at a stack of glasses behind the bar. They exploded, shards flying everywhere. One of the patrons at the bar jerked a wing in front of himself to stop from getting cut.

"You can leave right now and we'll call it even," said Fally. He was still half in shadow and the only person who hadn't summoned his wings.

Jori was getting a bad feeling about this. Fally should have been more worried about Kark. No one would come to back him up, especially not with Maisum on the door. And even though the Demons were outnumbered, the patrons of the bar didn't look like fighters.

Kark nodded again, and this time Jursor aimed for bottles of alcohol. When the bottles shattered, the liquor ignited in a ball of flame that luckily burned fast and burned out before it could catch on anything.

"I suppose it has to be that way." Fally stepped out of the doorway and flared his wings.

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