Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 112056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
The blade in my hands spoke to me; it whispered how easy it would be to stop him from touching her. How quickly I could prevent him from taking her and delivering her to the same sort of fate so many other girls had suffered.
Like I had suffered.
Like I never would again.
I didn’t think.
I just acted.
Instinct took over, and I leapt on him.
My weight shoved him to the side, dislodging his hold on the staff member and delivering a precious moment of surprise. Left unarmed and undefended, I didn’t hesitate as I sank my blade into his soft abdomen. He buckled over, blood seeping, turning his black clothes an inky maroon.
Fighting through the pain, he cursed in Japanese and wrapped fingers around my throat. His nails dug into my windpipe in a move so fast, every cell in my body forgot how to operate.
My knife was useless.
My confidence shattered.
But Tess had done what I had and let a lifetime of being hurt by men overflow, snapping with pissed off power.
She mimicked my attack, lodging her dagger into my assailant’s throat, ripping through it like chewy steak, exposing the very same thing in him that he tried to squeeze in me.
As the Chinmoku’s hand’s lost strength, I tripped backward and landed on my ass, bruised and neck-swollen, unable to talk once again. My blade scattered on the carpet covered in blood.
Tess gave me her hand, helping me from the floor, only for the window to smash fully open and women to scatter as another Chinmoku landed in the room.
The two guards fell on him but it was too late.
In a flash of red gloves, the guard holding the gun had a broken neck and the guard with nothing was shot between the eyes with the stolen weapon.
Killed with no fanfare or salutation.
Women had taken down one Chinmoku while men had failed. In that moment, I was proud of my sex. Proud at how I’d attacked even if I’d fallen prey. Tess had had my back and together, we’d won.
The two Chinmoku cornered us, stepping over the bodies of the guards and their fallen comrade. Women banded together, standing as one against our enemies.
The ultimate standoff.
We outnumbered them and I no longer doubted my power just because I was a girl. But it didn’t help that we had very few weapons and they were weapons in every breath.
Looking into the eyes of the black-shrouded mercenaries, we made a collective agreement to be smart not reckless. We might win in a fight thanks to sheer numbers, but the cost of winning would be too high.
They had the gun.
We had three knives.
No one else would die tonight.
Instead of sacrificing ourselves in combat, we all rallied together, placing Suzette with Lino in the middle, acting as a living wall between innocent and evil.
The Chinmoku merely laughed at our display of defiance, crossing their arms, in no hurry to reprimand or disband our fortress.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” one said in accented English. “We’ve got much better plans than that.”
I wanted to laugh at how predictable they were—regardless of race or age, a man who believed they were untouchable treated everyone else as disposable.
My heart raced, tasting a plan half-cooked and unproven. The only chance we’d have at stopping this would be to run. And the only one who had a direct line to the open door and freedom was me.
As a collective group of women—compete strangers but entirely on the same wavelength when faced with monsters in black—I reached backward into the throng and waited for a hand to grasp mine.
Tess.
I didn’t need to look to know it was her, and I didn’t need to speak to know she understood I was about to bolt.
Goosebumps sprang down my arms, filling me with nerves and fear.
If I ran, I had to commit.
If I ran, I would suffer whatever consequences came with it.
But I couldn’t stay.
We needed help.
I will bring that help.
With a squeeze of my fingers, I promised I would come back.
I sucked in a breath, ordered my legs not to fail me, and took one last look at the men, both alive and dead. I snapshotted the entire scene, a tintype reminder never to fade or discolour no matter how many years I might live.
I was a woman.
And I would never wish that away again.
I squeezed Tess’s hand one last time.
Then…I flew.
A shout signalled one man gave chase, but I didn’t look back.
I forgot everything but the rhythm of how to gallop.
I leapt from the room and scurried down the spiral stone staircase as fast as I could. Around bends and tripping down uneven steps, I focused only on finding someone. Finding Elder. Finding a weapon better than a knife.
My breathing came noisy.
My throat throbbing from strangulation.
I ran so, so fast.
And I would’ve reached the landing if something hard and agonising hadn’t flown from behind and wrapped around my ankles.