Spades and Angels

Dead Man's Hand

Lolita

Mads is silent when I say that, I knew he would be.

I hadn't wanted to tell him that but he'd left me no choice when he'd asked me the same question for a second time. Leaving me unable to lie to him. Not having the heart or stomach to when it was his life he's put on the line. All those months trying to save me he'd put his life on the line, knowingly, and the least I could do was repay that honestly.

"LOLITA!" The voice of Connor shatters the silence, mixed in with Hawk, Talon and Scar. Blaze and anyone else the Spades had rallied to keep me here. To keep us all here, "LOLITA WHERE ARE YOU!? YOU KNOW RUNNING WON'T CHANGE THE FACTS! IF YOU RUN TO THEM IT MAKES IT WORSE TO SINCE THEY'RE HARBORING A FUGITIVE! A BROKEN QUEEN OF NOTHING AND NOBODY! SO JUST COME BACK AND WE'LL TALK THIS OUT! CIVILLY!"

"Civil my ass," Mads seethes next to me. "He better hope I don't catch him or he's paying for this," Ever the protector Mads gives me a once over, eyes angry. Stormy. "He better hope I don't find him or he's dead for what he did to you mi tesoro. Has been since he took you. Since they all did." He glances up across the dark carnival space, his eyes as stormy as his tone. "They touch you again they die. That's it. No second chance, no mercy. They touch you, they die. That's it."

"Don't kill yourself for it," I mumble, terrified of the anger he has at this moment but not of him. More for him. For what that anger could make him do and how he'd suffer if it went wrong. "Don't kill yourself for it mi amor, I-I still need you, please don't leave me again. Not when you promised we'd have forever." I give him a look, seeing he refuses to look at me. "Mads?" I reach up with one hand, tapping his shoulder so he looks back at me. Some of the anger dimmed when I must have looked afraid. "Please don't leave me. Don't martyr yourself for me, norin avenging what happened here. I need you more. We'll have another day to fight. Right now we just need to survive. Please remember that."

"I will but we're playing with a disadvantage," Mads mumbled, looking away from me to check around corners. "Come on, we need to keep moving, try and find the others."

"The...the others?" I ask, fear seeping into my tone. "Who...who else is here?" I give him a look and see him sigh as we start moving again. The voices of those who had been keeping me captive before following us even as we started running, hand in hand. "Who Mads, tell me please."

"Hali," He replies, still looking as we run. "Hali, Ash, Mal, Mir, Michael. Pey. However, we left Luci, Val, Sofia, Ri-Crimson, Hunt and Ari back at the base to give directions. It's how we managed to get here. Even with the roadblock."

"They put it there," I mumble, remembering hearing them talk about it between them coming to visit me and trying to get me to talk. "They put it there to slow you down. To stop you so they'd have a credible reason to kill me without making it look like they didn't give you guys a chance first. A chance to save me."

"That's twisted," Mads sounds angry and I don't blame him for being angry. The difference between us was that I hadn't got enough strength to be mad and keep awake. "Hey, hey stay with me Lo," Mads stops then and uses both hands to cup my cheeks, my eyes on his so the muted glow of those achingly gorgeous aquamarine orbs blind me and I have to blink. "Hey, stay with me Lo, just until we find the others and can get out of here."

"You can't," I cough, holding my side with one hand to try and stem the bleeding to try and stay awake. Mads frowns, "They...they..." I cough again and he gives a worried look for a second before I wave him off and carry on. "I heard them talking about what they did to me. They...Mads they locked every way out once you all got inside. They knew you were coming. They knew and now you're all trapped. We're all trapped and we can't get out. They won."