Webb's a dead guy with no memory of his life, and that's how he likes it. He'd sworn he'd protect After, the city of the dead, from monsters, but the monsters have all been killed off. Now he has only one thing left to do: go through the Gate and fi...
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I writhed in the net to no avail. Ryder just kept grinning, as if excited by the prospect of fresh-spilled blood. My sword bit my throat.
A shout rang from every canyon wall as Jake shimmied down into the gorge much like the lizard on his head.
My heart sank in my chest. "Jake, don't—!"
But the stupid kid ignored me and jabbed Ryder's other bowie knife at the thief and demanded, "Let him go! Don't make me hurt you!"
The bandit looked from Jake, to me, and back to Jake again. The hand holding his sword twitched. My heart stilled when he lifted the blade.
"Run, Jake!" I pleaded.
Jake ignored me, as always.
Both of us gasped when Ryder sheathed my sword and his knife. "Didn't know you had a kid," he said softly to me. His mirthful grin vanished.
Celia, on the other hand, let her jaw hang open. She slapped at her brother's arm, all without saying a word.
Ryder growled at her, "No. We don't leave orphans."
Jake sidled up to where I dangled, and together, we raised our brows as the twins conversed with each other in what looked like emphatic sign language. Ryder caught me staring. "You mind, mate? Private conversation." With a scowl, he used a finger to spin the net until I was facing away from them.
I wriggled some more, trying to find a semi-comfortable position with little success. "You good, dude?" I asked the kid.
"Yeah," he whispered. "What about you?" He searched my blood-covered self, lip trembling with worry.
"Eh. Just hangin' around."
A knife cut through the ropes of the nest and Nugget and I both yelped when we collapsed into the sand. "Ngh," I hissed as I rubbed a growing knot in my head. I cracked open an eyelid to peer up at Ryder, who glowered at me. "You're letting us go?"
He breathed a little laugh as he twirled his blade in his fingers like it was a toy. "You and your kid can tell the judge to send some less scrawny hunters after us next time."
In a heartbeat, his knife was at my throat again, but this time he merely chuckled when I slapped him away. Dude was just messing with me. I stood to my full height, chest-to-chest with him. "Don't touch me! And I don't know who the judge is!"
Ryder shoved me away as if grossed out by the blood that still covered me. "You should really wash off, mate."
For some reason, that disgusted look he gave me really ticked me off. I lunged for him like a rabid dog. Jake cried out and grabbed me by the back of my jacket, holding me back.
Ryder continued to look unimpressed. He clapped a hand over my face and kept me at arm's length from him.
"Webb!" bemoaned Jake, who still struggled to pull me away from the taller ghost. "What's wrong with you?"
