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hours? He was like this when I coht there in the sidesee where the bruise is co up? Kid didn’t even flinch Ask , he’s either real crazy or dying"

Both Neither Bwahahaha Naked, eyes screwed shut, sprawled on the floor of his cell, Peter let go of another gargling, guttural groan and shuddered, his hands fluttering like dying e dried chunks cracked frorudging inhale, he began to jitter and flop like a dying fish, spluttering and choking, the foa to froth over his lips From the taste, there was soainst concrete and he felt a spray of pain, but it was muted and very distant

"Oh, shit, shit" He heard the tinkling chatter of metal, then a clack as Old Coot slotted in a key "Son of a bitch is having a fit Co Ears "Lang said we shouldn’t--"

"Screw Lang He’s not here The boss is back, too, fro exercise Now, you want to explain how this kid choked to death on his own dao doith our thu to stick between his teeth and coes, and then boots on concrete A hand on his forehead now and another on his jaw Jug Ears, on his left, shouting: "Okay, I got a ruler, I got a ruler Co on," Old Coot grunted, trying to hook his fingers in the soft notches at the corners of Peter’shis lower jaw sag, throwing in a choking guh guh guh for good " Old Coot wrenched Peter’s jaws open so far Peter heard the tendons creak "Daet it over his tongue, get it--"

"I got it" A rigid edge of wood sliced Peter’s lower lip, and then there was a tick-tick-tick-tick as Jug Ears tried butting the ruler between the shelves of Peter’s teeth Jug Ears wor, "I got--"

Peter snapped, hard and fast There was an audible crunch, a burst of blood in hishis jaws froy tendons down to the joints The bones snapped as Jug Ears screeched and beat at Peter’s face with his free fist: "Get hi out the ruin of what had been two fingers, Peter surged fro for theEars got out a pained gah as Peter cocked his right elbow and then pistoned fast, driving the ruler into the old ush of blood jetted, hot and wet, splashing Peter’s face and hand Through the wood, Peter could feel the harder plate of bone at the back of the ed; his hands flew to Peter’s wrist and tried clawing the ruler free, his nails and jagged splinters of bone fro Peter’s wrist Rearing up, Peter flipped Jug Ears onto his back, stabbed the ruler down like a pike, and bellowed: "Eat it, eat it, eat it!"

There was another bony crunch, this one duller,Ears flailed in a brief but violent spaser in a live socket, the connections between brain and body suddenly severed as the ruler slah to skewer vertebrae and the delicate spinal cord

All this took less than five seconds Without pause, Peter rounded on Old Coot, who’d scuttled back only a few feet and was now fetched up against the iron bars of Peter’s cage His knobbed fingers scrabbled for his pistol, but when Peter’s shadoauard screamed: "N-nuh-nuh-noooo!" Horror bleached all the color frouard’s face, and Peter had a moment’s clarity where he understood what he ore, a Medusa’s crown of jungle hair, as inexorable as fate He was sohtmare, or hell

"D-don’t look at m-me with th-those eyes!" Old Coot shrieked "I n-neverI never h-hurt you!"

"True," Peter said "But you never helped lobe of Old Coot’s left eyeball onto his tongue, he was at the door He’d strapped the guard’s knife to his right calf but taken nothing else No clothes, no coat, no boots, not even gloves He didn’t need any of that

But it’s cold, Peter It was that still-sane, dime-sized portion of his ht want a rifle and so back eye jelly, he worried the lens between his teeth, then crunched About the consistency of a slightly stale Tic-Tac, minus the peppermint From the milky color, Old Coot had been on his way to abut didn’t look back Although, yes, he had considered releasing the the doe-eyed Kate right there on the filthy concrete in the bargain But while he was nuts, he wasn’t crazy As strong as he was now, he doubted even he would survive a fight with sohis head, he listened with his oh-so-acute hearing for Lang or another guard All that cah of the wind The icy air s fro across the threshold, he plunged facefirst into a pillow of snow His heart gave a startled jump at the shock of it, a baptism first of ice and then fire as his skin shrieked After so long in the prison house, it was the , he rolled once, twice, ca to his hair; he could feel luh that was another of those breathy, ecstaticinto it but felt no cold For hi more than a farainkle of a distant star

I arowing for days now, pulse and swell Its low ed Yes He pounded his chest with a fist Yes, yes! He was butt-naked and maybe out of his mind, but this was his ti likewarrior, I’m--

A very distant, very dull thud And another His ears tingled as his brain translated: boots, on snow, co, he bulleted down the wooded path toward a bend where, if he reht, the hemlocks were thick--the perfect cover because no one remembered to look up His feet slapped snow, a dull puh-puh-puh-puh His soles should be shredded, cut by ice, but he felt no pain at all, no fingers of cold kneading his flesh Wind tugged his blond hair His heart thu and steady, fueled by theand freedolooht This was better still because its lowest li around as his thigh Backing up, he dug in with his toes, and took off in a diving run He didn’t even think about whether he reater risks The thought did flash through hisup to his tree house to read or dream or sneak his first s the strength, the sta, and leapt His pal, boosting hi a leg up and around, he seated hiot a foot under and then the other, and stood To his right, another branch jutted at a thirty-degree angle, an easy straddle The path was directly between the V of his legs

Reaching into his long blond hair, he fished out a slender spike of bone The bone, which he’d hidden between his butt cheeks, had coround the bone to a needle: perfect for popping an eye or jah a throat Of course, if all else failed, he still had the knife His hands His teeth But he really wanted to try out the bone

His ears prickled with the sound of a man’s breaths, the squeal of snow Wait for it, waitIn the well of hiswaited, too: taut, breathless Then Lang was there, passing i old man in olive-drab

Now Peter dropped There was a millisecond’s free fall, the rush of air past his ears At the last instant, Lang , because Peter saw a startled, silver oval flicker up and then the black holes of Lang’s eyes Eyes, eyes in the dark, eyes in stone Peter’s feet ha’s forehead, an impact that jarred Peter’s heels and shivered into his shins A wild ah leapt fro’s mouth Peter hit the snow, rolled, set his feet, then swar and choking against blood Lang saw hi his hands up, but Peter batted thean to buck, Peter sla’s nose caved, and led The old e at all He tried a weak punch that Peter blocked with his forear his knees in the knobs of thethe bone needle between the second and ring fingers of his right hand, Peter cupped his left over Lang’s throat and squeezed--not a crushing grip but enough that Lang’s face suddenly darkened Peter held the quivering spike of bone just above Lang’s left eye, so close that Lang’s eyes crossed "You’re a traitor and I’ to blind you You’ll hear it, that little pop" Leering, Peter dragged his tongue over his lower lip, cleaning it of Lang’s blood "Then I’ll eat it I’ll rip out your tongue so you can’t scream I’ll take you apart a piece at a tile" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">