Sapphire Bones

Flight

Updated: April 11, 2019

Corvo

It could've been a flash of east coast sunlight or my brain convinced me something changed, but somewhere deep inside L's eyes a switch flipped and sent the hazy fog over her iris' and pupils away. My attention flickered to Cole and Roddy beside me who stood at the ready, ready for what I didn't know. But in that second I looked away a blur passed by my peripheral, too quickly for me to notice at first. I whipped my head back around to see L's foot against Jeffries' back, just between the shoulder blades. She was whispering something into his ear. Her left hand held on tight to the rope keeping the blade in its holster ten feet above the block. A sharp intake of breath went across the massive crowd surrounding the podium. Other council members stood on guard ready to attack if necessary but one of their most valuable assets hung in the balance. L stood tall up on the podium. She stared down at the defenseless man pleading for his life. After years of the kind of torture she endured, there wasn't a shred of empathy left in the girl. Her one other kill in life had been in self-defense, and if she allowed the glistening curved blade to fall into Jeffries' neck she'd lose the last bit of innocence left inside her. And she knew that. The seconds passed in a hypnotic haze. Everyone froze while they waited for the next moment to happen. Guards stood with their weapons drawn, cattle prods and rifles ready to attack as soon as L let go of the fraying rope. Cole clutched my arm, the first time he touched me since we met back in New York several years ago. His grip dug into the muscly flesh of my bicep, and a burst of pain went through my arm but I didn't bother with it. My focus trained on the stage.

"What is she doing?" Cole hissed beside me. "Did you have anything to do with this?" His hand latched to my forearm as I tried to pull away.

"Of course not!" I replied, a blade at the tip of my tongue. Cole stepped back, hands falling as his wolf cowered at Zane's influence. "I had no idea she'd pull something like this." I shook my head and went back to look at the girl up on the stage.

"May this be a lesson for all of you," she started. But whatever came out of her mouth didn't belong to L. No, this exuded the kind of authority that the Chancellor wishes he asserted. "Your council will fall and it begins with him!" At her last word L let go of the rope. Whizzing, and a blunt strike all in the span of a second. A shower of blood fell onto the aged wood below her. Jeffries' decapitated head rolled just to the edge of the stage where an inch-high barrier stopped it from toppling to the floor below. It may have blinked once more, I couldn't tell, but as soon as the blade sliced clean through Jeffries' flesh the council members swarmed. His body limped and slid from its place, and settled at her feet in a flopped, fleshy mess of spurting blood and deathly convulsions as his nerves hay-wired. The guards took up their guns and headed for the stage. L hesitated a moment, possibly to see the damage done to one of the men who ruined her life, but just as a grin started its way to her lips she averted her attention to the oncoming crowd of Mercenaries and guards. They went for the stairs. Fingers on their triggers, threatening to squeeze. I broke contact for just a moment, hoping to find reason in the former Alpha and Beta next to me, but they were gone. Vanished in the crowd. Screams, chaotic voices echoed around me. People ran for the exits but with their minds solely on escaping a deranged criminal many ran in circles, unaware that L's targets weren't them. My limbs froze up as I looked up to her. Our eyes connected for a second, and her reasoning behind rejecting me flashed in my head.

"Cole!" I yelled but my voice was swallowed whole by the chorus of others searching for safety. "Roddy!" I yelled again but came up empty. With no other choice, I shoved my way through the crowd. Peoples shoulders ripped past mine but I ignored the growing pain in my muscles as I fought through the endless supply of onlookers. "Cole!" I yelled as I moved but nobody turned their heads. All faces were on the woman on the podium. She moved effortlessly to the edge of the stage and looked out over the crowd.