Page 51 of Level Up
“Do you want tea?” I offer. “Tea usually helps with…stuff.”
She gives me a small smile, her eyelashes still damp with tears. “Tea would be great.”
I don’t bother asking what kind she wants because I know she only ever drinksregular, the same way that I drink mine. It’s one thing we have in common, at least.
Fussing with the kettle and scrounging up a couple of clean mugs, I don’t notice that my sister has moved to my desk until our tea is steeping. When I look over, I can see that she’s reading something on my now-awake monitors, and I rush over to stop her.
“What are you?—”
“Who is this SconesOfAyor?” She looks up at me, smiling. “Is this your new friend?”
“What, were you reading our chat?” I ask, horrified as I reach across her for the mouse so I can minimize the window.
“I accidentally bumped the mouse and it was right there,” she says. “I only saw a little bit. He was word-vomiting at you. It was cute.”
“Word-vomit is not cute,” I say, though I can feel myself blushing.
“The last message says he wants to hang out when he’s back in town,” she adds, looking a bit smug, which seemsincongruous to the way she fell apart on my couch five minutes ago. “It looks like you didn’t see that one.”
“So?”
“I think he likes you, Audrey.” There’s no mocking tone in her voice, but I know she can’t be serious.
“Yeah,that’slikely,” I scoff. “We’re friends, okay?”
“Does he make you laugh?” Her question is so serious that it takes me by surprise.
“What?”
Her eyes narrow pensively as she stares at the wall behind me. “Josh never made me laugh.”
I’m struck by how sad that statement is and it makes me want to hug her again. But I don’t.
“Do you want to watchFrozen?” I ask instead.
She looks up at me again, a small smile at the corner of her mouth. “Sure.”
Hadley drives his sword through the final doomstalker’s gut before throwing it to the ground in anger. He looks back at Sammy, the only other member of their crew who got stuck with him when the wall to this tunnel collapsed, blood seeping through the rough fabric of his shirt.
“What’d you have to do that for, Luscoe?” Hadley grumbles, marching over to him and crouching to take a better look at the wound. “You ran into a doomer nest with a fucking dagger.”
“To be fair,Edwin, it’s a cursed dagger,” Sammy says, struggling to laugh it off as another of his quirky mishaps. “I thought it would do more damage.”
Hadley’s frown deepens and he shakes his head as he tears open Sammy’s shirt. He has to make sure the cut is clean enough that a simple Potion of Health will do. He worries it might be too deep, that the infuriating man will die if they can’t get to an actual Healer soon.
Sammy may be nothing more than a petty thief, but the boss chose him for their team, and Hadley has to respect that. Besides, as obnoxious as he may be, Hadley has no desire to see Sammy die. Not in a doomstalker cave. Not now. Not after everything they’ve been through.
The Potion of Health works quickly, though, and Hadley watches the gash in Sammy’s torso close right before his eyes.
“Thank fuck,” he mutters, running a hand through his already disheveled hair.
“And thankyou,” Sammy says with an easier laugh, though his breathing is still a bit ragged and it undercuts his cavalier tone.
Hadley grunts in frustration and stands, surveying the area around them. A dozen scattered doomstalker corpses and no way out, except to climb the wall. He doesn’t think Sammy is in a state to manage such a climb right now, if he ever could.
The immediate panic that had gripped Hadley’s chest when the doomer’s claw impaled his traveling companion has somewhat dissipated, but the anger at Sammy’s reckless behaviour is still churning in his stomach. Sammy always gets himself into these situations, and Hadley always has to get him out of them. It’s enough to drive a man insane.
“Help a fellow up?” Sammy says with a smirk, holding one arm up and gripping his side with the other.
