Unknotted

Topaz jumped, the knife skipping against Tydeus’s neck. He hissed and blood seeped from a cut against his Adam’s apple. As if entirely surprised she had drawn blood, she gasped, then glared at me. “Look what you made me do.”

I trained the gun on her. “Harm him again—”

“He was perfectly fine until you showed up. Harm him?” She huffed. “You’re the one who made me do it.”

“I didn’t tell you to hold a knife to his throat.”

“I wouldn’t have had to if he would’ve just told me what I wanted to know.”

“Which is?”

She crouched by Tydeus’s ear. “Where’s the shipment leaving from?”

“I don’t know,” he growled, eyes narrowed.

“Step away from him.” I dared to round the counter. “Put your hands in the air.”

She put the knife to Tydeus’s back instead and crouched behind him, using him as a shield. “I’m not inclined to listen to you. Sorry.”

I aimed my weapon on the troll then. “How about now?”

“Um…” The troll’s hands went straight in the air. “Easy big boy. We aren’t looking to hurt your friend. Just get to know him better.” Her eyes traveled from the gun down my body. “Wouldn’t mind knowing you better too.”

Both baffled and surprised, I dropped my arms a fraction. Was this troll hitting on me?

“What are you doing?” Topaz hissed.

“Well, if you don’t want him, I’ll take him.” The troll batted her long lashes at me. “But you’re crazy not to. He’s even more delicious when he’s armed.”

Despite the weirdness of the situation, heat pooled in my cheeks. What kind of lunatic flirts during a hold-up? The pair was rather calm for the situation. Too calm. Unease crept up my back; Topaz probably had another crazy plan to escape, which would unbelievably work.

“Step away,” I warned Topaz, “or I’ll shoot your friend.”

The troll continued to ogle me with interest that had nothing to do with my weapon. “Seriously, friend, why wouldn’t you want to be knotted to this guy?”

Topaz peeked over Tydeus’s shoulder and rolled her eyes. “You would think, Whiskers, the gun you have trained on her would be enough to deter her, but it’s not.”

My hands were growing slick on the weapon. What kind of ploy were they up too?

“Now is not the time,” she said to the troll.

The troll jumped to her feet, almost springing my trigger finger into action, and stomped her foot. “What are the odds you see Whiskers again? You two need to have an honest dialogue about what happened last night. He’s your pragmora.”

“No, he’s not,” Topaz exclaimed at the same moment I snapped, “Don’t call her that.”

Topaz straightened, a brow rising. “Finally, something we agree on. Why do you keep chasing me? Out for the bounty?”

“Do you deny the charges against you?”

She leaned a hip against Tydeus’s chair, now seemingly unconcerned about my weapon too. These two had to be off their rockers. “Not all of them. I never hurt or killed anyone. I broke a lot of things in their factories though. Plan to break a lot more too.”

My teeth clenched. “Hybrids—my soldiers and friends—are dying on the front lines because needed supplies aren’t arriving. Their blood is on your hands.”

“My hands? Mine? Really?” She folded her knife up and shoved it into her toolbelt. “I’m not the one raging war. I’m not the one whose so greedy for territory and power that I peddle lives for it. Any losses in this war rests on the heads of your ultras.”

“If we had the weapons and vehicles and the—”

“You think the Broshots aren’t sending that same gear to the other territories? Get a clue, Whiskers. This half of the hemisphere has been locked in a stalemate for years. Ever wonder why?”

“We’re making progress,” I said through my teeth.

“Sure, you claimed a sub-territory recently. But didn’t Keadan also lose two last week?”

My breath was coming fast. I hated that she was right. For the last five years little progress had been made in expanding Keadan.

She must have known she had trapped me because she stalked forward. “A little advice? If you’re determined to fulfill that ridiculous prophecy, don’t rely on the dynamists to help you. And stopped selling off hybrids to pay for your war.” She stopped three paces away.

Surprise sucked the strength from my arms. I lowered the gun, so it pointed at her navel instead of her face. “What are you talking about?”

Her eyes hardened. “Don’t play dumb. If you’re close enough to your ultras to be their blasted representative, you’re close enough to know they pay the dynamists with hybrid lives.”

“Enough.” My body was shaking, mind reeling against her words. “You know nothing about—”

“I know everything!” Her fingers curled as if she wished to gouge out my eyes. “And Keadan will pay for it, of that I promise. Until my last breath—”

I raised the gun again, finger sliding onto the trigger. “That might be sooner than you think.”

She held her arms out to the side, inviting me to fire. “What’s another hybrid sold off to the Shadow Markets?”

I shook my head. What in the Void was she talking about? Hybrid trafficking, Shadow Markets? Next, she would probably tell me that she was part of some underground organization of vigilantes set on saving the world. She was an insane conspiracy theorist, for sure.

“I’m taking you to Keadan,” I said slowly, with control. “From there you will be sent to Tredema to stand trial for your crimes.”

“Trial.” She huffed a dry laugh. “They don’t give folks like us a trial in Tredema. They take us into the basements of their factories. Inject us with potions to make our beasts forms emerge. Strap us down and carve us apart. Piece by piece.”

“You’ve been watching too much late-night television.” I motioned with my gun for her to lie down. “Face to the dirt. Put your hands behind your back.”

“Your instructions were to take me in dead or alive.” Her head cocked to the side, curious. “Why haven’t you shot me and been done with it all?”

“Because I’d rather not kill you.” I tightened my grip, finger ready to squeeze the trigger. “Now get on the ground!”

She stepped forward until the end of the gun pressed into her breastbone. A sneer twisted her face. “The only way I go quietly is if I’m dead. Pull the trigger, Whiskers.”

A bead of sweat slid down my spine. My dominance was raging under the surface, egged on by her challenge. But the magic… It danced playfully between us, like Whisps in a windstorm. Whispering promises I couldn’t quite decipher.

Since I had met her, I had destroyed a portal terminal, had my ultra punch me in the face as punishment, was nearly drowned by Ripples and attacked by Whisps, entered a fist fight with the son of Ruani’s ultra, and lost control of my dominance—twice! She was trouble I should rid myself of. My dominance, bitter at her defiance and rejection, demanded it. So would my ultras. My territory could have the Tide Reverser, could use it to break the stalemate in the Expansion War.

All I had to do was pull the trigger.

(Chapter concludes in part 3)