27. Ember #3
He clobbers me with another brutally strong slap, this one carrying more force. My teeth clack together, causing fresh blood to seep across my tongue. I blink past tears to laugh in Gael’s rapidly darkening face.
“Nolan’s gone because that’s what rats do on a sinking ship. He knows your time is up and he left you behind for the wolves to tear apart, Antonio.”
“You will not call me that!”
“Once you’re dead, it won’t matter what you’re called.” I hawk blood in his face. “I’m going to erase your stain from this planet until everyone forgets that you ever existed.”
His skin is nearing purple, turning the handsome, suave businessman into an enraged demon who would frighten even a grown man. It’s fitting. The true Gael finally shows himself to get his hands dirty for the first time.
The next punch makes my ears ring. I gasp through shockwaves of pain, trying to find air that seems determined to evade me. Another series of strikes hit my kidneys and rib cage, worsening my ability to breathe.
“Do I need to march back there and kill the girl myself?” Gael threatens.
“Leave h-her alone!”
“Then learn your place. It’ll be little hardship for me to cover her purchase fee just for the pleasure of bleeding her dry in front of you.”
“No!”
Muscles locked tight, I abruptly smash my head forward to crack into his. A shit move that hurts me as much as it hurts him, but the effect is tremendous. Gael hisses and slumps, now bent low over me.
I twist my head to sink my teeth into his earlobe. Cartilage battles against me, causing him to howl like a wounded lion caught in a trap. With my teeth sunk deeply into his skin, I jerk my head to create a delightful, skin-popping tear.
“Argh!” Gael’s hands fly to his damaged ear.
Blood sprays across my mouth and face, pouring from the deep wound. My fist sails into the side of his head, making his screams amplify. Then I deliver another. Over and over. Crunching bone and splitting skin to create a picture of human destruction.
Shoving Gael’s heft off me, I scurry upright to continue my attack. He’s writhing on the carpet in a frenzied attempt to locate his gun. But it skidded just out of reach, leaving him with no choice but to fight me bare handed.
“Ember.”
The light baritone freezes me, overcome with surprise at his use of my actual name. I halt halfway to Gael’s body to look up at Gunnar. His hand is mid-air, clasping a familiar hunting knife by the blade to offer me the handle.
“I…” His voice seizes, prompting him to hesitate. “You were right. I was that boy in the cage. And I know exactly how it felt.”
Gunnar waves the blade, urging me to take it.
“You sold us out,” I manage through gulps of air.
His shoulder lifts in his usual shrug. “I’ll pay the price for that. Please make this right.”
That flash of brokenness in his honeyed shards emerges again. I take the blade then adjust my grip, turning to face the half-scrambling man who dared to lock me in a cage. Just like Gracie. Just like Gunnar. Just like all of us.
Gael hisses and kicks a foot out, colliding with my stomach. I groan at the impact but push onwards, prising his legs apart so I can straddle his wide, flat stomach. He halts at the twinkling blade hovering a breath from his throat.
“You took my freedom.” I search his face for the reward of his terror. “You took my choice. My life. My voice. You took it all and more from all the others who did not escape.”
“Ember—”
“No. You don’t get to call me that.”
“Perhaps we can?—”
I cut off his bargaining with one fell swoop to the throat. Ear to ear. Easier than slicing melting butter left out in the sun. His skin parts beneath the deadly sharp blade without a single complaint from my muscles.
Bone scrapes against the knife, Gael’s throat resembling a comical smiley face peppered with muscle and veins. Copper-scented death sprays over me, a torrential misting that hits every bit of skin in range. Yet I don’t balk at the dousing.
Because I’m not 768.
I’m not enjoying it.
I’m Ember… and I’m fucking loving it.
The knife clatters beside me as I relish in the sight of Antonio Gael choking on his own lifeblood. He spits and gargles, those hateful yellow eyes filled with existential dread. I’m an angel of death taking every last second of consciousness from him for my own glee.
All I offer is his own words back to him.
“There’s no deal left to be struck. I will show you no mercy.”
Caught beneath me, Gael suffocates in a puddle of his own blood, unable to strike any more deals or bargains. Only his entrance through the gates of hell.
As his gaze grows glassy, I let myself slide sideways through sticky warmth. His blood trickles over my mouth, neck and chest as I scoot my aching body up against the nearby wall to stop myself from collapsing.
“Better?” I ask the sullen shadow.
Wearing nothing but pain and misery, Gunnar lowers his head. “Yes.”
“Then you can go ahead and help your brother. There’s a tracker stitched into his waistband. I activated it before we came out. Backup will be here any moment now.”
“A… tracker?” Gunnar’s eyes widen.
“Did you really think we were going to let you take him?”
He stares. Blinks. Falters.
“Well, yes.”
Pulling my sleeve cuff down, I wipe it over my eyes to clear the layer of blood.
“Gunnar… You have a lot to learn about family. We never leave anyone behind. Not even those who lie or take the wrong path. We forgive. We forget .”
His eyes fill with tears, that tiny crack in his armour growing to a full-blown mountain crevasse. I’ve broken the famous Hunter. At last. All it took was showing him what he’ll never have.
A team.
A fucking family.
And together, a future.
When the restaurant’s windows collapse inwards, I find the energy to tilt my head to watch the broad shoulders of a violently vengeful angel storming inside. Olive malachites seek me out, blowing wide as he takes in the scene all around.
“Red?” Hyland exclaims.
Stretching out a trembling hand towards him, it drips with blood.
“I found her, Hy. I found Gracie.”