Page 76 of Abducting Sarah

“It’s alright, Jac. Everything is going to be fine,” she lied, her voice eerily calm. “Let them into the house.”

“How do we know you won’t change your mind and fight us?” the conduit asked.

“If I did that, you would slaughter everyone here,” Sarah said accurately. “I don’t want that.”

The conduit nodded once, but Mother Portend put a hand on each man’s shoulders as she called out, “When I opened my pit, these boys were sharpening bones to kill us. I take offense tothat. I am impressed that you would offer yourself up for them, contra. But would you offer yourself up for only one of your men?”

My fists balled as my body tensed. I wanted to spring at them, but that would get everyone killed. We were alone in this, and I had to be smart. But I wanted to be stupid and release the rage simmering inside of me.

“Yes,” Sarah answered.

Portend smiled evilly. “I am glad to hear it. Tell me, which of them—”

“Jac,” she answered instantly.

Portend scowled, looking aggravated at Sarah.

“Oh, did I step on your moment?” Sarah boldly challenged the crone. “You were going to make some big speech about making me choose between them, right? I choose Jac. Hand him over. Now.”

Portend glared at me. “She’s got spirit, like the dead one. Good. It will be fun breaking your consort before I kill her.”

The crone lifted Jac to his feet with her power and sent him on his way to us. Then she forced Tiger to stand.

She taunted Sarah, “You get to choose the way this one dies, but we will wait to do that in private. More intimate that way. I want you to have time to think of something truly painful. Do you like fire? I like fire.”

As Jac passed by Sarah, he demanded, “You can’t do this!”

“It’s done,” she said sharply. “Take care of each other for me, okay?”

“Don’t go,” Jac begged her, all of us feeling helpless at the situation and what we were up against.

She kissed him, then shoved him toward me. I caught him and kept him on his feet. Then, she offered her hands to the conduits.

“Now what?”

The conduit nearest to Sarah smirked and said, “I’m first in line.”

She peeled back her hood, revealing herself to be Omen Ayext. Then, shocking everyone, she drove her bone knife into the conduit next to her, clearlydefendingSarah. The conduit struggled, but the bone knife was driven through her belly, and she fell to the ground.

Omen stood between Sarah and the rest of the conduits, protecting her. "Get back in the house,” she told Sarah.

Sarah shook her head. “No, I—”

An explosion distracted us all, as Fan and Bell rode down the path behind the conduits on their onworlder. Fan drove, while Bell threw another grenade at the conduits. It must have been filled with bone fragments, because when it burst, the nearby conduits fell to the ground.

The rest of them scattered, including Mother Portend, who left Tiger behind. He seemed to have been hit by the fragments, too—he’d fallen to the ground with the others when the grenade went off.

Omen laughed at the sight of Fan and Bell, then produced a whip from her robe. It was spiked and ivory colored. She swung it around herself, cracking the air and hitting two more conduits with it, slicing through their necks and killing them both.

Father handed me and Jac bone knives, and we ran toward the fray. He gave one to Sarah on his way into battle so she had something to defend herself with. Jac and I stood on either side of her, prepared to protect her with our lives and ready for the next conduit to come at us.

Fan and Bell must have run out of grenades—they drove up to us and Fan asked, “You got more weapons? We’re out.”

Suddenly, the conduits vanished, seemingly into thin air, all but Sarah and Omen. Omen warily backed up to where we wereby Sarah. Father had one of the conduits down on the ground, but then she vanished with the others.

He turned to Omen and asked, “What is happening?”

Omen looked just as confused, and concerned, as we all were. “I don’t know—”

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