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After a few seconds, he pulled his hands away to look at the scar across her stoently as he examined ouldn’t have been there had she been born to an i down the alley was the only sound other than Paden sing convulsively, as if he couldn’t get hiers still tracing the scar, Paden leaned down to kiss Ree His round shook under their feet, but Ree couldn’t tell if that was froainst hi up to cup her head while he kissed her passionately As the dust floated down to land on their shoulders, Paden leaned back to look at her before placing a soft kiss on her swollen lips
"Never again, Ree I can’t live without you Do you hearher eyes to meet his His voice cracked with emotion "Do you hear me?"
"I hear you" Ree stood on her toes and kissed hin in the tears that threatened to spill at the look on Paden’s face "We have to go"
Chapter Twenty
They made it about a block before soiant hat and knit shawl stopped walked by and openly stared at theroaned and Paden squeezed her hand To be fair, they were covered in blood and dirt Unfortunately, the little old wonition as she stared at them, and Ree felt her spike of fear
"She knoe are" Ree whispered quietly
"We look like we just fought in the battle of Gettysburg Of course she recognized us" Weylin shook his head "We look like the vagrant punks the news has been o"
Sirens sounded in the distance and Ree felt her heart plu else, just ran Ree was tempted to throw in soht see them Paden pulled her towards an alley, where he solved their probleh the witness-free alleys and dark streets, only slowing down to cross roads, or where the buildings opened up The sound of sirens filled the air no matter how fast they ran The cops were out to find the culprits
Ree wished she had just let theroup of Dark Ones She could so before they were back to the boat When they neared the shipping yards, Ree skidded to a stop Power pulsed frood waiting for theht containers To make it worse, she could also hear the crackle of police scanners and the sound of dogs sniffing
"This day is really starting to suck" Juliette ran a hand through her hair
"Tell me about it" Weylin shook his head
"What do we do?" Melanie asked
"There are other ways to the island We have other boats" Roland stepped up to take charge "We just need to get out of here without the us"
Ree opened her od with the humans, but didn’t have the chance Loki appeared behind Roland and s, he pushed his sunglasses back on his head "I went through all of this trouble to arrange a welco to skip out?"
"So, you’re just going to come out and adrowled at the god Ree’s eyes widened, surprised by Melanie’s candor She reached out to touch her friends arodling? You’re too pretty to be so angry" Loki’s eyes flashed dangerously and Ree’s storander from the sheath on her hip
"I haven’t killed anyone" Loki s in the sun "Yet"
"Fuck you! You killed randmother! You killed all of those people on the island! You want to kill all the humans Because you’re a sick bastard and you think it’s fun!" Melanie threw her dagger and it stopped just short of Loki’s face So hierous than a well-dressed surfer
The dagger clanked to the ground and Melanie was lifted into the air by an invisible force Her eyes spit fire at Loki, hate rolling off of her in waves
"Watch how you speak to irl I’ve killed better than you in my day for far less" Loki looked at Ree and sood job of controlling your little ragtag teas howled in the distance, obviously sood The fun is about to start"
"Put her down, Loki" Ree od clearly
"You’re a spoilsport" Loki looked at Melanie, and she flew across the parking lot they were standing in Ree grabbed the power and flung it at Melanie, trying to shield her from the brunt of the i containers, but was on her feet i the better of her "You need to leave, before you blow your thin cover"
"Don’t think you can order me around, Alastriana Besides, the others will assume I was only here to have a little fun It’s in s difficult I just can’t see on a wild edge
Ree felt Loki’stheet back to the muscles she hadn’t even realized she had, but to no avail He held thehter than quicksand
"BRIG--" Paden’s voice cut off
"Nah ah ah No calling your grandparents" Loki slid his sunglasses back down onto his nose "That’s just sad"
Ree tried to say soet any words to for to find a way out Rage filled her and the power responded Green energy flooded out of her body, in no way hindered by Loki’s ic The shell she had been trapped in shattered, the little pieces of his power dropping into the greening swirl of energy to becorowled deep in his throat, the sound re scored through the sky, thunder ru it away fro in thousands of little pieces Loki raised his hands in Ree’s direction and she felt the hairs on her ar he was about to strike at her, Ree did the first thing that came naturally She pulled as much power in as she could and threw a shield between her and the god She pulled and pulled until the inside of her skull felt raw
Suddenly the thunder stopped, and Loki’s eyes looked surprised The sound of running feet echoed off the walls of the surrounding warehouses Loki dropped his ar at Ree
"Shit, shit, shit" Weylin’s voice see more power than she had ever pulled before and for a second she thought it ht cause her to burst apart
Ree raised her hands and looked at the ey at theht bands of power She jerked her arms towards the alleyway, just in time to see the first of the huhty sound, shaking the ground under everyone’s feet