Page 57 of The Sinner and the Scholar
“Just a little longer. Wait for it…”
“Envy!”
“Party pooper.”
They sound like bickering siblings. The vigilante behind me must make a face because Envy rolls his eyes and then pushes off the dumpster to grab my other wrist.
“Don’t push it,” Envy warns me but keeps his grip loose.
“Bugger off.” I wrestle out of his hold, but he’s quick.
He snaps me back up and mutters, “I warned you.”
Electricity jolts into me, zipping into my body and seizing my lungs. He’s a walking taser. I bite my tongue as the current runs its course, and I’m left breathless and dizzy, hanging between two lethal men… if that’s what they are.
“Whoops,” says Envy. “You good, Pride?”
“Fuck’s sake.” Pride lets go of my other hand and shudders. “You could have warned me.”
I smile as I convulse. At least the big guy received a jolt through that metal arm. Hopefully, the robotics are fried. But he’s barely affected while I’m dying. A thousand thoughts run through my mind as I recover.Breathe—chiefly among them.Don’t piss your pants,the next. I’d heard rumors of genetically modified heroes while I was in Europe, but I’d dismissed them as inconsequential. Thea said we were coming here, but I didn’t understand what we’d face. My mind has been filled with Thea, Vepar, and Zeke.
“I thought you were her friends,” I rasp. Tension rolls off them, but they stay silent, so I add, “Why the bloody hell are you okay with this?”
“You don’t get to question us,” rumbles the big one.
My wits slowly return. I have one avenue left—my palm tattoos. I clench my jaw as my nails pierce my skin, bringing blood into contact with the sigils marked there. I mutter the spell, thinking I’ll get away with it.
Somehow, Pridehearsabove the noise of the fight.
“Why are you speaking in Latin?” he asks calmly.
I can’t break the chant. Every drop of blood, every syllable, enters the atmosphere as my secret fuck-you to these vigilante pricks. But I also didn’t account for Pride understanding Latin, and he seems to know exactly what I’m doing.
His big palm covers my mouth. I glare at him and try to continue, but he tightens his grip and holds his scowling face before mine.
“Idiot,” he growls. “Your friend isn’t in danger.Look.”
He shoves me ahead of him but holds me by the scruff like I’m a toddler. He forces me to watch the women fight.
“Look at her face,” he urges.
I zero in on Thea as she deflects a punch to the head. She’s smiling.Grinning. Her eyes are bright, her cheeks are rosy, and her lips move like she’s trading insults with her attacker and loving it. Her cries of pain are more mocking than real… as if the hits to her ribs tickle. I stop struggling.
“What the bloody fuck?” I gasp.
Pride lets go of me. “They do this sometimes.”
“Beat the shit out of each other?”
Thea swipes her opponent’s legs, upending her, then Thea’s shin is on her attacker’s throat, pinning her to the ground.
Pride steps forward, but Envy slaps him on the chest. “Don’t be a dick. She’s fine.”
A grumble of acquiescence rolls out of Pride. He folds his arms and watches, but his need to protect the fallen woman remains a tangible warning in the air.
“Yield, bitch,” Thea says to her pinned attacker.
“No fair, you went for my bad leg.”
