Page 33 of The Protector
“But don’t you have bone accelerators?”
“Yes, but it’ll still take at least a week for him to heal.”
I didn’t respond to that but kept my questions for Boulder, who came to see me in my room after he had been seen by a doctor.
“How serious is it?” I asked with a nod to his arm.
His arm was covered in blue accelerator spray like the one we used back home.
“It’s broken,” he said grumpily.
“I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “It’s not your fault.”
“It feels like it is. Can you forgive me?” I asked with all the humbleness I’d been taught from an early age. “Although I did not directly cause you this injury, I fear it was my reckless decision to volunteer for this journey that led to the outcome and ultimately your suffering. You have my deepest apology.” I bowed my head and waited for his forgiveness.
When nothing came, I looked up again.
“Are you done?” he asked, annoyed.
“Done?”
“Yeah, with that girly sensitivity shit. I fought a scumbag and he broke my arm. You had nothing to do with it and your apology only annoys the shit out of me.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, perplexed by his hostility.
“God damn it, Christina, I told you not to apologize. I swear, if you don’t stop, I’ll use my right hand to stuff your mouth.”
“Stuff my mouth?” I gasped.
“Yeah, so I don’t have to listen to your idiotic nonsense.”
“I was trying to be nice.”
Boulder rolled his eyes. “If you wanted to be nice you could have told me I fought bravely or that you appreciate me taking that fucking sadist out of the games so you won’t end up with him.”
“You think he was the sadist?” I asked. “You almost killed him.”
“Of course. If I hadn’t he would have killed me. And he would have enjoyed doing it by taking the time to break every bone in my body first.”
My eyes teared up. “That’s horrible. Someone like that should be detained and helped. Clearly he must have a personality disorder.”
“Nah, he’s just a mean motherfucker. He’s also one of the highest-ranked police officials in the Northlands.”
I was dumbfounded.
“What?” he asked
“Nothing, I just didn’t know you still had a police force.”
“Yes, of course. What do you have?”
“Mediators.”
His raised eyebrows told me he wanted me to clarify.
“Mediators are specially trained to calm down people who are upset. If someone snaps and becomes violent, a team of mediators will quickly secure that person with non-violent methods and take them to a safe facility.”
