Unknotted

The Fox and the Devil

Rokan

I peeked around the corner, phone pressed to my ear. The one-way street was deserted except for a few parked cars and the infuriating woman dressed in all black. Somehow, even with her ridiculous superhero toolbelt, she managed to move silently.

“I see her,” I whispered into the phone.

“I’m closing in,” Tydeus said. “Make sure she doesn’t slip away.”

I had run dozens of missions with Tydeus and Chet and never worried our target would fly off. Cursing myself silently, I made a mental note to log in more flight time. Unless we caught Topaz… The likelihood of stumbling across another hybrid capable of flight was slim. I added that to my growing list of reasons to ensure she didn’t escape again. Why face my fear of heights if I didn’t have to?

I kicked into a jog around the corner as Topaz darted across the street toward an alley. Tydeus was less than twenty feet away from her.

From behind a parked car, someone jumped out and slammed into my side. I tumbled, crashing into the hardpacked street, losing hold of my phone. A slim, wiry figure stood over me, snarling, his face backlit by the streetlight. “Let her be.”

A growl vibrated in my chest. My dominance crept to the surface. “I can’t do that.”

I swung my leg into the back of the man’s knees, which then buckled. The man staggered forward, catching himself with his hands.

“Rokan! What’s happening?” Chet’s voice sounded distant from the phone that lay a few feet away.

I spun around and regain my feet, squaring off to face this random attacker. Though, I was learning, there was little that was random surrounding Topaz. I was half convinced she was some sort of mastermind.

My attacker was back on his feet too, and I caught a glimpse of his face. A newly familiar one.

“You’re the representative from Ruani,” I accused.

Travers Mercarde threw a quick punch. I, disinclined to be hit in the face again, ducked and retaliated with an uppercut to Travers’s gut. He grunted, warm breath billowing over my head. I grabbed his shoulders and jerked him down into a knee strike. Groaning, he shoved me away, and I warily retreated two steps.

“My fight isn’t with you.” I dared a glance toward the alley where Topaz and Tydeus had disappeared.

“If you fight her, then you fight me.” Travers kept on his toes, ready to pounce again. “She belongs with me.”

Those words reverberated through me. One moment I was carefully analyzing his stance—he certainly had combat training—the next moment, all reason abandoned me. I launched myself at him and followed him to the ground, my fist pulling back and driving down into his face. Over and over.

His words ricocheted through my body, burning down the walls that contained my dominance. My opponent, who thought to claim the one the Core had promised to me, shielded his face before my third strike landed. My fist slammed against his forearm. Dully, I registered pain in my knuckles and merely switched hands, hooking around his guard to drive my fist into his ear.

Magic from the air condensed under me as Travers drew it in. I drew back to punch again anyway. But he vanished, and my knuckles crashed into the ground. A beast, like an oversized black rat, snapped his fangs into my wrists. Growling through clenched teeth, I gripped Travers by the scruff of his neck.

His beasts form was a pint-sized bear devil, about three feet from nose to rump, with white markings across his chest. He had long legs, a fluffy tail, and gigantic ears of a bat-eared fox. In series of snaps, he stabbed his fangs into my arm with a force to crush bone.

My unleashed dominance clouded out all rational thought. I ripped him from my arm. Dagger-like teeth shredded through more of my skin and muscles. I shoved to my feet, Travers wriggling in my grip. The bear devil’s face was already swollen, one eye pinched shut like mine was. I held Ruani’s representative up to eyelevel, lips curling to reveal my fangs. “No. She belongs with me.”

A howl from the alley—Tydeus?—slapped my dominance back into place. My mind cleared and horror at my actions blossomed.

“Rokan! Where’s Tydeus?” Chet’s voice was screaming through the abandoned phone.

“Tides.” I chucked Travers aside, not quite sure what else to do with him, but knowing I needed him out of the way. I probably also owed him an apology or two for losing control again.

The Ruanian hit the ground with a yip and seemed to struggle to rise again. Wincing with guilt and sympathy, I scooped up the phone and took off for the alley.

How had I lost control so completely again? And why? Why was it that every time Topaz popped up, even in conversation—if that was what one could call my exchange with Travers—did my dominance grow in power and strength beyond what I could contain? Topaz made me lose my sensibilities. Made my focus on the mission fuzzy. And corrupted my morality until I was running on the pure instinct to dominate and even kill.

That woman would be my ruin, I just knew it.