SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

14 - one-eyed uglies

BRIAR'S MIND COMPLETELY blacked out, but she remembered flailing around and screaming until she was being gagged. She remembered trying to break her and Jason out of chains but she couldn't reach her knives. She remembered the Cyclopes eyeing her. And the welt on Jason's head . . . gods, she'd wanted to throw up right there.

She was a fucking idiot. The biggest idiot in the universe.

The Cyclopes gathered around a cooking fire. Two were standing, stoking the flames. They were each ten feet tall, with hairy muscular bodies and skin that glowed red in the firelight. One of the Cyclopes wore a chain mail loincloth that looked really uncomfortable. The other wore a ragged fuzzy toga made of fiberglass insulation, which would not have made Briar's top ten wardrobe ideas, along with the chain mail loincloth. Other than that, the two monsters could've been twins. Each had a brutish face with a single eye in the center of his forehead.

The largest one crouched with her face to Briar. It was a female. She was several feet taller than the other Cyclopes, and even beefier. She wore a chain mail muumuu that was the ugliest thing Briar had ever seen. Her greasy black hair was matted in pigtails, woven with copper wires and metal washers. Her nose and mouth were thick and smashed together, like she spent her free time ramming her face into walls; but her single red eye glittered with evil intelligence.

The Cyclops in the chain mail loincloth walked over to Briar, who, naturally squirmed and tried to head-butt him in the eye. She hated being upside down, she realized. The blood was all in her head, and she didn't like the feeling. Or the thought that blood was in her head. She was literally about to freak out. "Can I take her gag off now? I like it when they scream."

The question was directed at the female Cyclops. She grunted, and Loincloth ripped the gag off Briar's mouth.

She didn't scream. She took a shaky breath. She needed to stay calm, and figure out how she could get out of this situation. It was hard when one of her biggest phobias was there right now, but she's Briar Lovelace. She can handle it.

The Cyclops in the toga poked at the fire, which was now blazing away and billowing noxious black smoke toward the ceiling. His buddy Loincloth glowered at Briar, waiting for her to do something entertaining. "Scream, girl! I like funny screaming!"

Briar took another shaky breath before her diplomat voice came out. "Oh, Mr. Cyclops, you don't want to kill us. It would be much better if you let us go."

Loincloth scratched his ugly head. He turned to his friend in the fiberglass toga. "She's kind of pretty, Torque. Maybe I should let her go."

Kind of? Briar wanted to hit this dude in the face.

Torque, the dude in the toga, growled. "I saw her first, Sump. I'll let her go!" Sump and Torque started to argue, but the female Cyclops rose and shouted, "Fools!"

She stalked over to Sump and pushed him aside, knocking him over the conveyor belt. Torque backed up quickly.

"The girl is Venus spawn," the lady Cyclops snarled. "She's using charmspeak on you."

Yes. The information sounded right. But that didn't matter right now. Briar started to say, "Please, ma'am—"

"Rarr!" The lady Cyclops grabbed Briar around the waist. "Don't try your pretty talk on me, girl! I'm Ma Gasket! I've eaten heroes tougher than you for lunch!"

Briar winced. Ma Gasket dropped her and let her dangle from her chain. Then she started yelling at Sump about how stupid he was.

She shook her head. She needed to focus. That was hard when her entire body throbbed, and the thing she hated most was rushing to her head, but she'd manage.