The safehouse was an old smog test shop: small, cozy... and abandoned for what looked like years. The posters and signs on the walls were faded by age. Less than half the lights actually turned on. Anything useful for testing car smog was gone, save for a red, standing toolbox-- and all its drawers were either half-opened or missing completely.

  Monty sat at the edge of one of two man-made pits, legs hanging down into it. He said it was where a ‘hydraulic lifting system’ would have been. His sports car was behind him, parked over the other pit.

  They were safe. They were hidden from whatever might have wanted to hurt them.

  With having a safehouse to go to, it was like Tyvan was still protecting her... even though he was probably sitting at home watching the food channel.

  ...She wished she was there with him.

  She wished she could break down and cry in his arms and whine about everything she probably did wrong over the past few days. It was probably her fault that the mission failed. If she thought about it long enough, she knew she’d be able to figure out exactly how.

  --but since the shop fit two cars max, there wasn’t enough privacy for her to have a total meltdown.

  In order to avoid getting interrupted (and verbally abused) every five seconds, Shay explained the situation to Raia in a quiet whisper.

  Raia was in professional-mode, so she wasn’t mean or anything. She only interrupted to ask clarifying questions, not to mock her.

  With that out of the way... and maybe inspired by Monty’s pained grunts and sweat-covered face, Raia grabbed a first aid kit from the very small side-office.

  They needed to take off Monty’s suit jacket.

  He was not at all pleased about how that was done.

  It would probably have been easier and safer if they cut or tore the jacket off. Why didn’t they do that?

  Monty’s twisted arm...

  It...

  It was bad.

  Still, Shay pressed on. Water and rubbing alcohol. Clean and sterilize. Maybe she was getting desensitized to blood and grossness. Or maybe she was okay because her stomach was empty.

  After the dried and cakey blood got washed away, there was just a tooth-sized hole in Monty’s forearm. Of course, his arm was still horrifically broken-- but the bite-mark wasn’t too bad. Raia sprayed a bottle of something on it that bubbled up like a freaky, nightmare monster.

  Magical, maybe.

  Then, Raia fed him a glass bottle of red drink.

  Magical, for sure.

  That was how they were going to get out of there, too... using Tyvan’s mysterious magic.

  The ?Sigilla? in the safehouse wasn’t fully activated nor did it connect directly to Elysium. Apparently, that was for security reasons. Or maybe it cost money to keep them active.

  Raia had called Tyvan about what was going on. So... he was in the process of doing some magicky stuff. Once he was done, they’d all be home in two or three portal jumps, max. There was even someone codenamed Bastion on their way to escort them.

  Everything was going to be okay.

  They just had... to wait.

  “So, Shay,” Monty said... “Tonight, you somehow managed to inspire the only daughter of the biggest Korean conglomerate in Archangel to declare a fucking war on our organization. And that--” He gestured at his broken arm, “was only one of the ways you fucked up.”

  Shay took a deep breath. “Nuri was already planning to attack us from before, numb nuts. And please don’t forget, Mister Jiang, that we have you to thank for outing us both. And now ?The Kingdom? is also inexorably linked to both the Sun Group AND Majestic.”

  “Seven hells,” Monty said. He leaned back, lying on his good side. “Well, I’m fucked. At least you’ll be fine, Xue Song.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “The Song family’s not doing so great either,” Shay muttered. “I dunno if you fucking heard, but we were basically screwed before the martial tournament against the Zhangs.”

  “Pff. The tournament. Right,” Monty said. He coughed a bit, spitting on the floor like the degenerate he was... and he grunted in pain because of it. “I still don’t get it. What fucking use are you, anyway? I mean... at least Raia knows how to fucking fight. All you do is suck harder than that Clarence guy sucks dick.”

  Shay wanted to argue back... to say that she absolutely can fight-- that Monty was just a one-in-a-million type of talent. But... it wasn’t worth it. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of showing just how bad his words hurt.

  She looked over to Raia. She was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, waiting next to the one phone in the shop.

  “Hey Raia,” Shay gestured to Monty. “This guy really likes talking about dicks.”

  Raia lazily held out her palms. “Don’t look at me. That doesn’t interest me at all?”

  “If it wasn’t for my suit,” Monty said... “I woulda got turned into a zombie. So, tell me, Xue, what were you trying to do tonight? I am legitimately curious. What were the thoughts-- what was the logic process for fucking everything up?”

  Shay turned to Raia for help. Raia immediately turned away.

  So... even she must have thought this was somehow her fault.

  That shouldn’t have been surprising.

  It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did.

  Shay sat on the dusty floor, curling up and hugging her knees. She just had to wait-- a few short minutes, a few short hours. Tyvan would come for her.

  Whenever she was in his presence, she felt like everything would be okay somehow. There was no safer place in Archangel than by his side. He knew things. He could guide her. He could help her figure everything out, no matter how crazy everything got.

  “Let me guess,” Monty said. “You tried your fucking best.”

  “Yeah. I did. And it wasn’t good enough. Nothing fucking new.”

  “What was your fucking plan? You must have had... some kind of plan.” Monty looked over at her with a sneer, “You’re not a genius-type who can just think shit up on the go.”

  Shay already knew that. Before, she thought of that as a kind of strength. But hearing that in Monty’s voice, dripping with cruelty, was a deep, twisting cut.

  “I thought Nuri could be reasoned with,” she said, her voice small and pitiful. “I just didn’t know her reasoning would lead her to trying to destroy everything I’ve ever cared about.”

  “That’s not a plan,” Monty said. “Tyvan has plans. He has whole fucking strategies. He has second and third strategies. And then he has three exit strats on top of that. You need at least that much if you wanna account for how stupid you are.”

  “She took a risk,” Raia said out loud. “It didn’t work out? It fucking happens. Can you be done now?”

  Yeah. That shut him up... for a little bit.

  “......Does it happen to Tyvan?”

  Raia crossed her arms and turned away again. “He’ll find a way to fix this... He always does.”

  “Yeah. That guy’s made of straight-up bullshit,” Monty chuckled. Then, he hunched over in pain and went back to cradling his arm. Idiot.

  He let out an exhausted sigh... and he cleared his throat. He had more to say. Of course, he did.

  “Xue Song~” he said in a sing-song voice, “I don’t fucking get you. You had all the resources of the Sun Group available to you, yet you’re outclassed by your sect’s outer disciples. Can you even handle what we field agents fight on the daily? I’d like to see you take on a zombie. And since you’re weak as hell, you should at least be smart-- but you’re obviously not.”

  Shay raised her head and took in a deep breath. “That’s not fair, Rider. I joined the sect like two months ago. And besides that, I’m nothing like you. I grew up literally poor-- if I didn’t work, I didn’t fucking eat. I don’t have any fucking talent-- not with studying, not with fighting, not with fucking making pills. I’m short as fuck. I’ve had to watch my fucking weight since I was twelve. I’ve worked... so fucking hard just to get to where I am. And yeah, I could be better-- but I’m proud of what little I fucking have, okay? So can you. p-l-e-a-s-e. Fuck. Off?”

  There. That was her heart laid bare. Was that enough? Could it ever be enough?

  Shay glared over at Monty, tears at the corners of her eyes, daring him to keep going.

  “So...... that’s how it is?” He heaved a loud, obnoxious sigh... “Yeah. Cry a fucking river or lake or whatever. Doesn’t change how fucked we are. Raia and Tyvan and whoever are gonna have to un-fuck whatever you did back there. And did you notice who I didn’t mention just now? You. So whatever shit excuse you think makes it okay--”

  He stopped suddenly. He struggled to sit up.

  Huh? Shay looked over to Raia. She had her palm flat against the wall.

  And... after a few seconds... she sighed and put on a tired smile. “Good news.”

  Shay almost collapsed, she was so nervous. Those five or six seconds were the longest in her life.

  Raia pointed at the closed door that led to the empty office. “The ?Sigilla?’s active. Let’s go home.”