The Eden Projects (FINAL EDITING)

Chapter 44. Dismal-land.

- Kasper - 

"I'll kill you." Kasper shouted. "You hear me?"

"Stop looking at me like that." 

"Not today, but a month from now, a year, maybe a few days, when you don't expect it. I'll kill you." 

Ace ignored him and pulled a syringe from one of the padded pockets on his vest.

"HEY-" Kasper splashed water at him.

"Yeah I hear you-" He moved to Zak and found his neck under his mess of curls. "-do what you want."

Two skeletal wings protruded like half dead spiders from Zak's back, they twitched and shuddered as he breathed. "-unfortunately for you-" He flicked the vial. "-or fortunately for me... You'll kill Zak as well. You may not need me, but he does."

"Ace-" Kasper tried his best to slow his crashing heart as he searched around the second bullethole for that tiny fragment that was turning his blood into razor blades.

"This is your fault."

Kasper's gaze snapped toward him. "What did you just say?"

"Exactly." Ace's voice held an almost casual certainty. "You brought this on yourself."

Every so often, Kasper flinched—a grimace, a shake of his head, his eyes darting around the room as if searching for something that wasn't there anymore. Whatever he saw, whatever he understood, was lost somewhere between them. "You aren't good for anybody."

Ace only looked at him. "Truth is absolute."

The needle slid into Zak's neck.

"Truth doesn't matter when you're a snake."

"Oh, it does."

Silence settled between them.

Ace drew his knife.

Two clean cuts opened down Zak's back.

Then came the waiting.

The first movement was almost imperceptible—a twitch beneath the skin, a shift of something that didn't belong there yet. Ace gripped the emerging wings and pulled as they forced their way outward, bone grinding against bone as they expanded and locked into place.

The room fell silent except for the terribly gritty sounds of a slow transformation.

New muscles formed around them, stretching and anchoring. Zak's posture changed.

Even from where he lay, Kasper could see it—the way his shoulders settled, the way his chest rose higher, the way his entire frame seemed to realign itself into something stronger, something taller.

Ace watched the change patiently.

"You proved my point about that a long time ago."

"Tch-" Kasper gritted.

If there was one thing Ace was—when it came to anyone other than himself—it was honest. "What is this?" he said. "We had the depressed, quiet version. Then the repressed and confused one. And now we've got a manic asshole. You're giving me whiplash."

"I'm not manic."

Ace's brow lifted. "This is better than that pathetic, cowering dog you were." His eyes flicked over Kasper. "Archer must've been the moral compass, huh?"

Kasper's anger sparked, then faded just as quickly.

"A thank-you for cutting that tether would be nice."