Page 123 of Wings of Ebony
The General hunches over in pain on the ground, his skin blotchy and bloody. His lips are swollen and his trembling fingers conjure a flame that keeps shorting out. I cut a glance at the place where the recorder disappeared. It’s getting all of this. But what I need, what I want is him admitting what he’s done. I let him get up.
“TELL ME WHY!”
Confess.
He scowls as if he has no plans to say a word.
I pull at the threads of energy sizzling through me and shove with both hands. The air ripples like waves, slamming into him.He flies backward, lands hard, and howls in pain.
I’m over him now and rage flows through me instead of blood. A flame dances from my fingertips and I hold it to his throat. “Say it. Say what you’ve done. I wanna hear it.”
He flares his nostrils, glancing both ways.
“No one’s coming to save you.” I hold the flame closer to his throat. “Confess!”
“Confess?” A deranged look, then a smirk flit across his face. “What do you want to hear, huh? How I came to your mother’s doorstep looking for you? How I have more drugs running through that one high school than in half the city? That’s what you want to know, huh?”
“I want the truth. All of it.”
“You want to hear how it’s cheaper to buy a cop in this town than a pair of courtside seats? How many faces I’ve buried for not doing what I say? Where I’m going to hide your body too.” His jaw clenches.
He’s trying to scare me.
“Irun your neighborhood. Me! That’s what you want to hear, Rue—Rue from East Row? I do things to people like you that make nightmares seem like sweet dreams.” He laughs to himself. “Your mother thought she was tough too. But she bled to death like a piece of meat. And so will you. The Chancellor ordered you to be killed as soon he found out what your father did. But we couldn’t find you. He was gonna give up searching, thinking you’d never seek out Ghizon.” He glances at my cuffs. “But he showed me the books.…”
What books?
“And I knew what kind of threat you’d be. I saw it all my life;I told him, give Coloreds a little power and they’ll want to start changing shit.”
Wait. “What do you mean you saw itall your life?”
He flinches, but I catch it and I let the flame lick his face. The spot it touches turns from gray to pink.What the?I slide a finger down his pasty skin and it’s gritty on my fingers, like makeup.The fire’s peeling away his gray complexion?
How… unless he’s… no way…
I gasp, the realization sending shockwaves through me. “Y-you’re human?”
“Not completely stupid, I see,” he says. “But I guess even dogs have brains.”
I glance at where the recorder disappeared, and I let out the tiniest sigh of relief. I’m getting all this, all this proof. The Ghizoni won’t be pleased.
Looking away was a mistake.
Something slams into me and I fly backward, skidding on the ground. Prickles of pain shoot up my spine and I can’t feel anything. My head pounds, throbbing, when a familiar girl’s voice swirls in my ear.
“No!” the voice screams.
Tasha?
No!I told her to stay back. The girl yells again, louder. Thoughts tangle in my head as I try to pull myself up on my feet.
“Get off my sister,” she yells, slamming into the General’s back, her nails digging into his face. She catches him off guard for a split second.
And it’s the second I need.
I’m up, still woozy, but I channel every fragment of humminginside me to my wrists and shove. A roar of energy rolls through me, bursting from my hands and slamming into him. He stumbles, but latches onto Tasha by the hair. She howls in pain.
Shit! NO!
