“Back the fuck up,” Ethan says stepping forward, and Cole puts his hands up in a mock surrender taking a step back.
“Aren’t we all a bit cranky today?” he chuckles.
“What?” I say shortly, not in the mood for his shit today at all. The grin on his face only grows, further grating on my nerves.
“Seems your little boy-toy is just looking for trouble,” he tells me, pulling a hand back as he pretends to inspect his nails. “almost got in a fight with Tito earlier. Good thing I was there to stop it.”
Fury boils within me as the demon’s claw their way to the surface. Breathing deeply through my nose I say nothing, only clenching my teeth, and Cole rewards me with an incredibly pleasing look of unease.
“Fuck off,” Ethan says, stepping forward with a frown. “Shouldn’t you be worrying about getting your ass kicked in The Pit in a few days, not fucking bothering us?”
Cole’s hesitation turns to a smirk. “Worried? No. Excited? Absolutely.”
Cole’s manic smile makes me want to fucking hit him.
“I’d watch that boy of yours,” he says over his shoulder as he nods his head at his following and walks off. I feel Ethan’s eyes on me, questioning. Oldest friend or not, I don’t answer. I’m barely reigning my shit in right now. I can’t fucking believe Ana would cause more trouble after I warned her, and even more furious at the thought of Tito, or fucking anyone really, touching her.
“What do you need from me?” Ethan finally asks.
“Set up the Pit battle and see to it no one bothers me until then. I’ll see you drop day.” His eyebrows raise at my request. I can tell he wants to ask, but wisely just nods.
Twenty
Ana
“You’ve got some explaining to do,” Theo mutters as we make our way down the corridor towards his chambers. We stroll in silence until we get there and I’m constantly looking over my shoulder. My indignation at Brutus’ treatment is still strong, but it wasn’t until Cole stepped up I realized I’d done exactly the opposite of what I should have. Bringing more attention to myself was the last thing I needed.
We step into Theo’s room and he hobbles over to the single chair with his bowl of whatever. Placing it down he turns to me. “Explain.” Theo says shortly and I flush.
“Well, it might have been Cole’s friend whose nose I broke,” I begin sheepishly and Theo stares daggers at me.
“And I’m pretty sure he wanted me to be his new ‘rapey-boy-toy’ but I kinda objected to that, but before anything else happened Axle showed up. He kept me safe last night.”
Theo sputters on his bite, “Axle saved you?”
I nod. Theo doesn’t reply for a few minutes, turning back to his food while I lean crouched against a wall and wait. When he seems to be almost finished, I ask a question that seems both stupid yet elusive.
“Why is it so strange Axle saved me?”
Theo gives me a wry look, taking another bite before putting it down and turning to me. “Let me tell you a bit about our leader…”
I settle in cross legged in front of Theo, eager to hear more about my savior. Theo doesn’t fail to notice my interest and sits back in his chair ready to share.
“Axle was only a child when he first arrived here. It was right around The Split, and it wasn’t uncommon for us to get younger ones and even women back then.” Theo catches a surprised look on my face and smiles.
“Oh yes, at one time there were women here. The guards were still here back then, and it was desolate time for us here. Whatever was happening outside brought a surge of new inmates of all ages, creeds. The Tomb was a different place before then. Since the guards left us to our own device’s things haven’t been easy, but in many ways it is better.”
“Better how?”
“The guards were cruel,” he replies simply, “and although The Tomb is no haven, it is safer in many ways than it was then. At least now we can fight back.” I nod at him to continue.
“Axle was small even for his age and was practically skin and bones when he came in. Feisty thing though. The men liked him right off the bat. He was with his mother when he arrived, though I don’t know what the poor woman did to land them both in here. Back then, even being a woman was not a safe thing. I suppose that isn’t much different than today, but you’d know better than me what it’s like out there. Those first Militia making rounds after the Split though had a ruthlessness even we heard of.”
I cringe a bit at the thought of it. Dark, dark times are in our history. I’ve done what I can to claw it from my memory.
“It wouldn’t have been more than a few weeks after Axle got here when it all happened, the riot that resulted in the guards leaving us.”
My attempt is rapt on Theo as I listen to his story, the story of Axle and The Tomb.