Page 84 of The Toymaker
Riju went rigid as Kit squeezed his hand. “Get out of the way. We’re leaving-”
“The fuck you are!” Trig started coming down the stairs.
Kit pulled on Riju. “You can’t keep us here.”
“If I say you’re not going anywhere-”
“You can’t keep us hostage!” shouted Kit.
“Shut up. You’re the slave.”
“Riju isn’t a slave! You hurt him! His wrist is sprained.”
Riju backed up with Kit. “He’s not your slave anymore, and I’m not staying either. You’ll keep hurting us-and we’re not-we’re not-”
Trig advanced although he didn’t get too close. He shouldn’t have been scary in his drawers and a loose shirt, but Riju had never been so terrified of him before. The incident earlier was nothing compared to them escaping. Trig would hurt Kit too anddo it under the pretense of punishing him for breaking so many rules.
He raised his hands. “Riju, you’re overreacting, and things got a little out of control this morning. We were all worked up, and it’s best if we all go to bed like normal, and try again in the morning-”
“Spraining his wrist isn’t getting a little out of control,” Kit snarled.
“We’ll start over and pretend like nothing happened,” Trig told him. “No punishment. No nothing. We’ll all have a good talk to make sure there aren’t any hard feelings.”
He wouldn’t forget. Riju’s wrist throbbed as if to remind him of earlier, and he tugged Kit toward a cabinet. “Bullshit.”
“This is ridiculous.”
“It’s ridiculous that you slapped me and grabbed me hard enough to sprain my wrist.”
“I didn’t sprain your wrist.”
“Yes, you did. Do you think I can’t feel it? Are you going to tell me I’m overreacting about that too when it’s swollen and aching? Do you think you have so much control, you can make me forget everything or not feel the painyoucaused? Ridiculous. You promised me you’d never hurt me. You promised you’d never come in my room without permission eit-”
“If you had stayed calm and listened to me, I wouldn’t have gotten so angry,” snarled Trig. “It’s your fault for getting me upset, and a part of being mature is taking responsibility for what you did. You caused this, and running away isn’t going to solve it. Not once have I hit you before.”
“You did now, and I don’t know when it’ll happen again.”
“Get out of the cabinet and look at me,” said Trig. “I’m trying to talk to you, and you’re acting li-”
His expression dropped when Riju pulled out a coiled whip. He had his dagger which could channel his magic, but he didn’t want to get too close or kill Trig.
“Put the whip down,” said Trig.
“No.” Riju let it uncoil and adjusted his grip. “Get out of the way.”
“Kit, tell him to knock this off,” snarled Trig. “You can’t be this stupid to go along with whatever he’s thinking, and if you are, you’re more retarded than I thought.”
“I’m not retarded, and I’d trust him any day of the week over you,” said Kit.
“Put it down before you do something stupid.”
“I said to get out of the way,” Riju adjusted his position. “You know I know how to use it. You taught me. I will strike you with it if you don’t fucking get out of our way, I can have you crying on the floor with a good hit. My right wrist is fine.”
“You’re going to stand there, bitch about me hitting you, and threaten me with a whip?”
“I’m defending myself and Kit. Yes, I will strike you.”
“We can talk in the morning and get over this if we sleep and calm down. Things can go back to the way they were.”
