Dance in Shadow and Whisper (Marionettes of Myth #1)

Chaper Three

CHAPTER THREE

 

Blackness flooded us. Panic set my blood on fire. My gears shifted to automatic and my hand shot to the rim of my boot where a concealed switchblade rested—

“No, no, no, Tails, don’t do that.” The cold barrel of his pistol pressed against the back of my skull. I froze. My heart slammed my chest. The static of perfect silence clogged my ears. I almost couldn’t comprehend him as he said, “We’re in my realm now, you know that. I can swim through the shadow like water.”

I swallowed. Conjuring up my voice through the constriction of my windpipe almost hurt. “I’ve seen it done before, thanks. But I know I didn’t misjudge you. If you’d wanted to kill me, you would’ve found a way to do it already.”

“Very true. And it would have been painfully easy for me to manage. Your guard’s been down all day, letting me compel you here and there. I could have slithered right into your brain and left you helpless.”

Sweat stung the back of my neck and the crown of my forehead. I tried to focus on my breathing to keep from feeling the unforgiving metal against my skull. “I get it. You made those humans distract me after the bell so that the gym could empty first. You wanted a cozy alone moment with me. Why?”

“Here’s the thing, Kali.” He spoke so airily, as if we were sitting together in the parlor room and discussing over tea the issue of hedge trimming. “I’ve been waiting all day trying to figure out why you, you, were chosen. You’re hardly clever or witty, you know nothing about the world today, you’re only mildly strong, your guards against mind control are as effective as blubber—”

“Okay, thank you.”

“But I saw something just now.” The silence hovered thick between us, and I could only imagine what he was thinking.

In that moment, I realized the initial panic of a gun aimed at my head had dribbled from my system. The quivers left my fingers. My throat loosened.

I could survive a bullet to almost anywhere in my body, but a simple trigger to my skull was easily enough to end me. I knew that. I needed to be thinking of battle strategies to get myself out of this compromising position.

But I still believed that he wasn’t doing this to kill me.

My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth when I said, “The basketball, you mean? Did I finally impress you?”

“I’d say you’re a natural.”

“Not really, I’ve just…had training to build up skills, and—”

“You made the shot effortlessly, Kal.”

“…Lots of training.” Frustration clawed its way up my throat. “If you saw my other two brothers, you’d get it, it’d make sense. They’re just as good as I am, and I think Toivo is actually a lot better than I am, and—anyway, does putting a rubber ball through a netted hoop really warrant having a gun against my head?”

A chuckle got him, but his voice was completely cool when he said, “It warrants a closer look at this ‘lots of training’.”

I sensed it. His trigger finger tightened.

My body moved automatically.

I twisted and sliced my forearm around, knocking his aim away. He didn’t fire. Wasting a bullet would garner a quick response from the patrolling security guards in the hallways just outside the doors, so he had one bullet to spend, and he had to make it worthwhile.