Chapter 113: Where’s Sam?
The table groaned once, and then the floor beneath it began to fracture in a spiderweb of cracks radiating outward from the point of contact.
"C’mon, Rook," she hissed, eyes blazing. "Don’t tell me that’s all you’ve got."
Steel bent inward under the pressure of their locked arms, the center dipping like it was about to cave entirely.
Rook’s arm was silver to the shoulder now, muscle bulging as he drove it downward with an inexorable force that couldn’t be stopped.
The air pressure in the room dropped and Emma’s grin widened. "Oh," she breathed. "Now we’re talking."
She pushed again. And this time, Rook pushed back harder.
"You’re overextending," Rook said calmly.
Emma barked out a laugh. "And you’re underestimating me," she said as she fed more blood to her No. 8.
The table gave with a deafening CRACK and the center split downward, steel tearing apart as both of them remained locked in place, elbows still planted on what was left of the surface.
Paul stumbled back. "Oh, come on—!"
A shockwave burst outward as chairs flipped. A nearby light fixture shattered, the walls rattled, and Kurt leaned slightly to the side as a piece of debris flew past his head. "Yeah, this is about right."
Riley’s ears were flat against her head now. "They’re going to bring the whole place down."
The broken remains of the table exploded outward as both of them surged with force, their locked hands acting as the epicenter of a violent clash of strength.
"How exciting," Cassandra observed as the ground beneath them collapsed inward by a few inches.
"Fuck..." Emma’s arm descended a centimeter. "Fuck..." another centimeter, "fuck!"
Boom!
Her gauntleted fist tore clean through the table and cratered into the floor beneath, concrete splitting in a jagged ring around the impact point. The shockwave rolled outward and rattled every loose object in the room.
"Mother fucker!" Emma’s voice bounced off every wall as she pulled her arm out of the floor. "God-fucking-dammit, Rook."
For half a second the room went dead silent. Then it exploded into cheers, laughter, shouts of "Pay up!" and "I told you she’d lose!"
Rook stood straight, the silver receding from his skin as he reached down and pulled Emma to her feet. "A deal’s a deal. Call Megastone. Tell them we won’t be taking their quest."
With her grin already returned, Emma rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck. Then she dismissed the Blood King which made the gauntlets dissolve.
Rook’s eyes moved just slightly. A subtle shift to the left. Emma caught it immediately and turned to follow his eyeline.
And there they were. Kurt, Lizzie, and Cassandra. Her gaze landed on Riley next, and something clicked behind her eyes. She’d recognized her from the Silver Tail attack.
In one fluid motion, she drew her semi-automatic from her holster, racked the slide with a sharp click-clack, and levelled it straight at Riley’s head. "What the fuck is she doing here?"
Riley’s forearm went orange from the wrist up, heat rippling off her skin in reaction. "Believe me," she said, voice tight, "last place I want to be is here with you thieves."
"Alright," Kurt raised both hands, stepping forward, "maybe we all just—"
His words died as Cassandra drew her blade in a flash, sword resting just below Riley’s jaw, and the temperature in the immediate vicinity dropped.
"Control yourself," she said to Riley, whose orange glow began to fade reluctantly, and Everyone in the room went still.
Emma’s eyes narrowed slowly. She looked at Cassandra, the blade, Riley, back at Cassandra. Then she holstered her gun and sighed.
Lizzie dropped into a vacant chair and propped her chin on one hand. "Okay," she said, eyebrow raised. "Now even I’m confused."
"What the fuck’s going on?" Emma asked.
"Kurt’s back." Lizzie pointed at him lazily.
"Yeah, I can see that." Emma’s eyes swept the room. "I’m still getting used to Necro-bitch, and now there’s another one?"
Lizzie shrugged. "I don’t know."
The elevator dinged again and Zaza stepped out, tilting her head. "Wait... this isn’t the study." She stopped, looked around, and took in the fractured floor, the destroyed table, the drawn blade, and the faces.
Emma pressed two fingers to her temple. "Speak of the Necro-bitch..." In the same breath, Cassandra sheathed her sword with a soft click.
"Huh?" Zaza touched her lips at the room’s collective tension.
Then she found Kurt and her cheeks flushed deep red immediately, the way they always did when he’d recently died. It was as though she was a compass and his resurrected soul was magnetic north.
She stared at him with that same particular expression that sat somewhere between deeply aroused and fascinated. Her purple eyes widening with hunger.
Kurt saw the look and forced a grin. "Good to see you again, love."
"Two... three days," Zaza said softly, exhaling in a slow, measured breath. Her eyes went luminous, focused somewhere just past his body. "Your soul... the shape of your soul has changed."
"Thanks?"
Riley turned at the sound of Zaza’s voice, her ears lifted. "Zaza?" There was skepticism on her face. "You’re here?"
Before Zaza could respond, Rook cleared his throat. It wasn’t loud, but it reorganized the room around it as all heads turned. "Okay. Let’s take this from the top."
He walked over and fist-bumped Kurt. "First off, it’s good to see you."
"I wouldn’t use the word good," Emma said from behind him, but her grin said otherwise.
Kurt looked at her. She looked back. The look covered everything that neither of them was going to say out loud, and both of them understood it completely.
Rook folded his arms. "Now. You mind filling us in on where you’ve been and why a former Silver Tail—"
"Not former." Riley corrected immediately. "Still a Silver Tail."
Lizzie leaned sideways toward Paul and whispered, "she’s more delusional than I am."
"Right," Rook said, letting the point go. He turned back to Kurt. "Floor’s yours."
Kurt reached into his coat. He tapped the bottom of his cigarette pack against his palm until a single one popped up from the rest, caught it between his lips, and lit it in one motion.
Then he took a long, slow drag and exhaled. "Like any good story," he said, smoke curling upward, "we’ll start from the middle."
***
"Damn." Emma looked serious for approximately one second before the loud laughter broke through. "You got your ass handed to you by a tin can?"
"Come on, Emma." Lizzie waved a hand in Kurt’s direction. "He said it was a really *strong* tin can."
"The Black Heaven is formidable," said Cassandra. "And I’ll admit, it would have given even me some difficulty."
Zaza had a different reaction entirely. Her cheeks had gone a deeper shade of red somewhere around the part where he described the beam, and by the time he got to the sun part, she was practically drooling.
She drifted closer, fingers brushing Kurt’s arm in that soft, examining way. "You got thrown into the sun?" she murmured, eyes wide and glowing faintly. "Wow..."
Riley watched this exchange and sighed through her nose. "It’d make sense that she joins you guys. Birds of a feather and all that."
Rook, who had been quiet through all of it, processing, finally spoke. "Good thing is, we know now your abilities still work in a dead zone." Then he looked at Cassandra. "And you said Eli is coming?"
"Yes," Cassandra confirmed.
"Hmmm." Rook grunted. "I’m not sure I like this."
Kurt quickly grabbed the wrapped dish from Cassandra and thrust it toward Rook before he could build any momentum on that thought. "Here. Have a bite before you make any decisions, big man."
Rook looked at him. Then at the dish. His eyebrow arched up and Kurt could tell he recognized exactly what was happening and was choosing to allow it anyway as he took a piece.
Emma and Lizzie both watched. Neither of them reached for anything yet. They were reading him and waiting for his reaction.
Rook bit down, chewed, and swallowed. "Fuck," he said. "That’s good." He took another piece.
Rook didn’t curse easily. Anyone who’d spent more than a week in this guild knew that. Emma and Lizzie moved at the same moment, reaching in from either side in sync as they grabbed one.
Emma bit into hers and stopped chewing for a second to look at Rook. "Son of a bitch." She looked back at the dish. "Fuck me. It is good."
Lizzie held her piece up and examined it first, turned it once, sniffed it, then took a bite. Her legs immediately swung up onto the arm of her chair and she made a moaning sound.
"~Mmm~" She took another bite without further comment, which was, for Lizzie, the highest possible praise.
Zaza accepted a piece with both hands, took one small, careful bite, and her eyes went wide and stayed wide.
Everyone looked at each other for half a second. Then the stampede happened. Hunters lunged for the tray like starving wolves as pastries disappeared in seconds.
"Courtesy of our ice queen here, you bloody vultures" Kurt said, nodding at Cassandra. "Turns out, she’s also a demon in the kitchen."
"It’s simply about making the ingredients submit to your will," Cassandra replied with that cold, elegant grin of hers.
Rook looked at Riley with the measured expression and exhaled slowly through his nose. "I suppose we should be expecting Eli. I’ll let the barrier room know."
The mood was light again. There was laughter, crumbs everywhere, people talking over each other. Until Kurt’s eyes swept the room properly for the first time.
Sam was missing.
"Where’s Sam?" He asked with a smile. The laughter in the room died instantly, and with it, his smile.
Emma’s brows furrowed. Lizzie’s jaw tightened. Rook looked away. Even Zaza’s dreamy expression faltered.
"Where’s Sam?" Kurt asked again, voice quieter this time, and laced with real worry.