Shackled Serenity
Page 68
“With Gunther dead, we’re free to do whatever we wish,” said Desmos. “Honestly, I haven’t got a clue what to do now…but I do know this. You’re free to go, Serenity. You don’t have to come with us.”
“What are you saying?”
“For so long, you’ve dreamt of this day. The day you got your freedom. I know you’ve wanted to run away all this time. I’m giving you the chance.”
It was a tantalizing offer, and Desmos was right. But she couldn’t.
“And where would I go…?” she murmured.
“Up to you,” said Desmos. “Wherever.”
“I don’t think a teenager enough to be in high school can live out in the world herself,” said Serenity logically.
“I’ll go with you, then,” Kyler offered.
“You’re my age,” she said pointedly.
“Then you guys can tag along, if you’d like,” Desmos shrugged. “Garen, I think you’ve been promoted. You might be in equal standing with me. I heard you dropped their strongest fighter.”
“It was nothing,” said Garen, with a jerk of his head.
“Lies,” Agno declared, with a laugh.
“Yeah, he was beastly,” Garen admitted.
All the brothers laughed. Serenity couldn’t bring herself to smile yet. She wasn’t ready to even laugh any time soon. Not for a long time.
“Where should we go?” Cackle asked.
“Moscow,” Agno suggested.
“The upcoming Superbowl,” Garen said.
“No, no! Chernobyl!” Cackle said fervently.
“Well, we’ve got a good enough portion of the spoils,” Desmos reminded. “We can go anywhere, basically. Though, you’ll never see me in Disney. So, don’t count on that.”
“Serenity, wouldn’t you want to go back to school?” Kyler asked.
“Maybe,” she said uncertainly. “I don’t know…”
She also debated on returning to the estate to search for the sisters. But she figured their chances of survival were slim-to-none. She dismally pushed the thought of them from her mind.
“We’ll discuss this in the morning,” Desmos said ultimately. “But I’ll have you guys know, we’re still going to be training once we all recover completely. We still need to hone our skills. Not all the Venators are dead. There’s still more of them out there, and I doubt they’ll leave us alone.”
“So you can torture me more?” Serenity asked scathingly.
“I’m not expecting you to train with us anymore, I’ve given up,” said Desmos firmly. “Anyway…do you know the time?”
“No…why…?”
“Because it’s midnight,” Desmos grinned. “Happy birthday.”
THE END