Page 63 of A Sky of Storms
“What do you want, Victoria?” I repeated, tired of her dance already.
“Intel. Have you seen Fallon?”
“Why do you want to know where she is?” I asked. “Had a change of heart and feeling the need for a sisterly bonding session all of a sudden? Have the monsters in the marsh got you all frightened?”
“More like I don’t want to waste the opportunity this place has presented,” she replied. “And maybe I am feeling a little like helping my family.”
“She’s not going to join you. Even I can see how much she despises you.”
“Who said that’s what I want?” She chuckled. “I want to help my family, and if that means eliminating an embarrassment then I’ll do just that.”
I whistled. “Still as ruthless as ever.”
“Don’t say that like you wouldn’t do the same thing. You’re constantly touting shit about strength over weakness. We are the same, you and I.”
“How so?”
“We both want the same things,” she said as a woman I didn’t recognise entered the room with a smirk on her face. “Power. The only problem for you is that there is no future in which you will have it.”
I slowly rose from my seat, cracking my neck and focusing on keeping my temper in check. I shoved down the reaction she was trying to provoke out of me, forcing it to remain hidden so she wouldn’t get the satisfaction she so desperately wanted.
“No one from the Crimson Steppes is ever going to amount to anything. House Mars? Your sad excuse for a ruling house? It’s the most pathetic of them all. You have nothing to offer the people who follow you. Your people deserve to die out in the desert.”
“Get the fuck out,” I said through my gritted teeth. “Flynn! Get in here!”
Victoria grinned with a mouth full of white teeth. “It’s comical, watching you trying to rise above your station. Just accept that you are the shit beneath my boot. You’ll be happier once you realise your worth.”
“Flynn!”
“So sad,” she said through a pout, though the cruel glimmer in her eyes told a different story.
“Get out or I’ll have you leave in a body bag,” I growled, striding towards her.
“I think I’ll stay, actually,” she replied, slipping a knife from her pocket and pointing it towards me. “I want this garrison and everyone in it but you.”
I laughed at the blade. “You think your butter knife is going to save you? Turn around and get the fuck out. I’ll even pretend you didn’t make this huge fucking mistake coming here.”
“You just don’t know when to quit, do you?” Victoria replied, pushing forward, and I let her have the ground as she backed me up towards the window. I’d let her think she was winning, give her that false sense of security before I brought her down a peg. “I offered to be your ally and you turned it down. Now you are going to feel the consequences of your actions.”
I looked to the doorway as the sound of something being dragged came to my attention. The smirking woman stepped aside and two guys hauled someone into the room, leaving a trail of blood. One of the guys nudged the body’s head to the side, revealing a familiar face and slit throat.
My heart leapt into my throat. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. They’d killed Flynn.
We were meant to own these trials together. He’d been my right-hand man for so long.
Red filled my vision and I roared, charging as my skin shifted to stone. Victoria stepped out of my way but only by a hair’s breadth. It didn’t matter though, my fist collided with the smirking woman and I knocked her back into the wall with a loud crack. She dropped to the floor, blood running from her nose, and I turned to find my next target. The other three were already moving, drawing larger weapons. I wasn’t afraid of swords. They couldn’t cut through my stony skin.
I made for Victoria.
She laughed, swinging her sword. The metal hit my rocky skin with a clang as I blocked her blows, my back absorbing the hits from one of the guys. I spun around to swat him away when I noticed the other guy holding a fucking pulse gun directed at me. Where the fuck had they gotten weaponry like that?
“Make it count,” Victoria shouted from behind me. Then the guy fired.
BANG.
The pulse slammed into my chest, propelling me backwards. I smashed through glass, flying through the window to the sheer drop below. Pain shot through my chest, and I thanked the fucking gods I had my rock skin on. If I hadn’t, I’d have blown up rather than been thrown from the tower.
I landed outside, pain shooting through my limbs as I hit the ground. I groaned, my skin turning soft again, and squinted to look up at the hole in the tower I’d just made. The Auger bitch stared down at me, a wicked grin on her face.
