Page 102 of Wrath

“Drop your hands, boy. Don’t let me see them again!”

Bash gritted his teeth together and flicked his gaze towards a pale-faced Killian. Slowly, he lowered his arms back to his sides, his magic fizzing out like a smothered fire.

Turner…

Holy fuck.

A member of the resistance—and the asshole who hated us with a vengeance. He was the one who demanded I help free the humans from the camps weeks ago, before we had an army capable of taking the shifters on.

“I’ve come too far with my plan for you three to fuck things up,” Turner hissed, the hand holding the dagger shaking.

His eyes rapidly flicked from face to face as panic tightened his features.

Now that I knew who he was, now that I remembered him, I allowed my eyes to drift over his gaunt frame. His hair was longer than it had been before and wildly disheveled. He wore clothes covered in stains and holes. Dirt smudged both of his cheeks, and there was a ragged red scar on his chin that looked somewhat fresh.

What the fuck happened to him?

“Easy,” I said softly, holding my hands in the air so he could see that I wasn’t armed. “We’re on the same side here.”

“We’re trying to free the humans too,” Bash snapped.

Unlike me, he didn’t even try to modulate his volume or curb his anger. I knew my mage brother was trying to decide if he could zap Turner…without accidentally hitting Killian in the process.

“I’ve been working on this for so long…” A hint of something seeped into Turner’s voice, but what that something was eluded me.

Yearning? Desperation? Fear?

“Easy, man. I said it before, and I’ll say it again—we’re on the same side. You said you have a plan, correct? Well, we have an army of over one hundred ready to fight to free the humans.”

Tuner’s hand began to shake even more.

“So just lower the knife, and we can talk things out,” Bash continued, his jaw ticking.

Turner swallowed and opened his mouth?—

But he was promptly flipped over Killian’s shoulder.

He landed on the grass with a muffled “oomph,” and Killian kneeled above him, one arm against his throat, applying just enough pressure to make Turner’s eyes widen.

“Holy shit,” Bash breathed, blinking at Killian as if he’d never seen him before.

Holy shit indeed.

I hurried to grab the dagger Turner had dropped when Killian flipped him.

“Where the fuck did you learn how to flip someone like that?” Bash asked, his tone incredulous.

He forked both of his hands through his ash-blond hair, causing the strands to stick straight up.

Killian briefly lifted his glare from Turner to smile sheepishly up at us. “I’ve been training with Z.”

“Huh. No shit.” Bash blinked at the incubus.

Killian’s tail twitched behind him, the only obvious sign of his embarrassment.

I had to admit, what Killian had done was damn impressive, but I couldn’t allow my focus to waver.

I stalked towards where Turner still lay on the ground, blinking dazedly up at the sky, and stood directly over him, my arms crossed over my chest.

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