“But—”
Before he could say anything else, the Queen stepped towards him and cut his throat.
The speed of it forced Flynn back a step. His pulse quickened as he watched a red line spread across his neck, blood quickly gushing out of it.
To watch it turned the back of Flynn’s knees weak. He had to lean against the wall to remain upright. He looked at Rose and saw she’d turned pale too.
The man fell to the ground in a dead heap. The Queen stood over his corpse for a second, a tight grip on her knife, blood dripping from its shiny blade. “Spit-roast the cunt,” she said.
Several hunters rushed over and dragged the corpse away.
Chapter 31
Although already standing back from the window so as to remain hidden in the corridor’s shadows, Flynn pulled even farther back after the Queen had killed the young man. He leaned against the crumbling wall and stared at his feet. Having already seen too much, he wanted to avoid any more of the brutality. Especially as he could do nothing to stop it at that time.
A few seconds later, Rose moved to be next to him. She’d clearly reached the same conclusion.
They might have stepped far enough back not to be able to see outside anymore, but they still heard everything.
“Do you want him skinned?” one of the hunters asked.
Despite everything he’d been through and seen over the years, the question still turned Flynn’s stomach. Bad enough skinning a rabbit, it must have been brutal to do it to a human.
“No,” the Queen replied, the silence hanging for a moment before she added, “I like the crackling.”
Flynn relied on the wall more than before, letting his exhausted body press against it, parts of it puffy from where the plaster had swollen and burst. An urge to sit down tugged on him, but if he did that, he might not get back up again.
A deep inhale and he listened to the sound of what must have been the body being dragged over the concrete. How could they leave the pregnant woman out there with that lot? Although, how could they not leave her? There was no fucking way he’d risk getting thrown in that damn water pit. And even if he did feel brave enough to face the water, he and Rose had no chance against the army outside.
A soft touch from Rose pulled Flynn out of his thoughts. When he looked at her, she said, “We can’t help her at the moment. We wouldn’t last two seconds out there.”
The hunters huffed and puffed as they clearly prepared the body. Several slaps of flesh against stone before a wet squelch came through the window at them. Flynn’s stomach turned over on itself to listen to what must have been the spit going in hard and fast.
The sounds died down outside and Flynn’s nausea eased slightly. “I’m guessing this town belongs to the Queen,” he whispered.
So close to Flynn their shoulders were touching, Rose looked at him and said, “Huh?”
“Well, she made a big deal at the games about leaving the bodies as an offering for the people who run this town. From what we’ve just seen, I’m guessing the people who run this town are her and her guards.”
After nodding at him, a detached glaze in her eyes, Rose said, “It seems that way, doesn’t it? That’s probably why they look so much healthier than the other people in the royal complex.”
“All the protein?”
“Right. I’m sure if you can accept the trauma of it, it’s probably quite nutritious.”
Flynn felt colder than before and shivered. “Although, to look into their sunken eyes, I’m not sure they have accepted it. Eating another person has to come with consequences.”
A female voice ran through the plaza outside. “When will we attack Home?”
The Queen replied, her sharp tones now so recognisable to Flynn, he had a Pavlovian response to them, the flesh along his spine pulling tight. “I want a feast before we go.”
“So when’s the next games?” The royal guards seemed to be in that privileged position where they could ask the Queen questions without fear of reprimand.
“We have twelve people in the dungeon. It won’t be long before a few more idiots follow the signs into our spider’s web. We would have had two more were that bitch not pregnant and were her partner not a fool. We’ll do the games, cram all the events into one day to speed everything up, and then make our move.”
Flynn moved farther away from the window and Rose followed him. “I can’t believe we didn’t see it before,” he said. “The games are just a ruse. It’s not about giving one person a chance—”
“It’s about giving a group of people a feast,” Rose finished for him.
A deep breath filled Flynn’s lungs with the dusty decay of the hotel. “We need to put an end to this.”
“Besides,” the Queen said, her voice quieter for the distance Flynn and Rose had put between them, “those two lovebirds would have gone straight back to Home when they escaped. They’ll be expecting us if we go too soon. We need to give it time. Home’s been there for years, another few days won’t hurt.”
To hear the Queen talk about them directly sent an anxious spike through Flynn. When he looked at Rose, she raised her eyebrows at him. He said, “She’s not forgotten about us, then?”
“I’m not sure she will,” Rose said.
To think of the watery pit sped Flynn’s breaths up. “We need to take her down. We need to take her down before she takes us down.”
“And how are we going to do that?”
Flynn now turned his back on the window and walked down the corridor. He turned right at the end, heading towards the foyer with Rose beside him. “We need an army formidable enough to know we have a good chance of defeating her.”
They entered the foyer, the acoustics in the large space catching their steps and amplifying them. Hopefully no one heard them.
“And you have one, do you?” Rose asked. “Because twelve prisoners who may or may not want to fight won’t cut it.”
“No, they won’t. But I’ve got a plan.”
Chapter 32
No matter how tightly wound he felt, a walk always helped Flynn relax. Whenever he filled his lungs with the fresh breeze, it helped calm him down. When things had been too much for him in Home, he’d find a reason to go on a scavenging mission. Just being away from the stress of the place and out in the open did something to settle his soul. Unfortunately, the problems were always still there when he returned.
About three hours had passed since they’d left the Queen’s town. They’d walked through the July heat, the rain clouds and chill having been burned away by the persistence of the summer sun. Flynn had gone from feeling cold to being covered in an itchy layer of sweat.
For the first time in what felt like forever, they didn’t run into any trouble on their walk. No nomads, hunters, or any other reason to duck into a hostile town. The gods had obviously decided they’d already seen enough that day—maybe they knew something about what they were walking into.
For most of their journey, Flynn and Rose held hands. Even when the contact of their palms got sweaty, neither let go—a strong reassurance that they were there for one another. They were walking into the unknown, and it could go awfully wrong. But Rose had promised she would let Flynn handle it. It was his trial to face alone.
They reached the same spot he’d been in with the Queen a few days ago, and Flynn looked down over the large complex. A part of his attention on his breathing, he tried to remain calm and banish the butterflies in his stomach. It didn’t work.
Flynn glanced at the strong wooden fence surrounding the place, the complex network of tubes and pipes to collect rainwater, and the small mound that looked like nothing from a distance, but hid over one hundred bedrooms beneath it.
When Flynn looked at the wooden structure in the middle of Home, his composure slipped and he drew a deep breath to try to rein it in. “It all started with the need to get lead for that barn.” He swallowed against the grief rising in his throat. “Were it not for that, Serj wouldn’t have died and I w
ouldn’t have found out all the things I did. I wouldn’t feel obliged to help because I’d still be ignorant about the Queen and her vile existence. And maybe she wouldn’t have turned her attention on Home.”
A squeeze of his hand and Rose smiled at him, her vulnerability evident in the crooked twist of uncertainty. “But we wouldn’t have met one another.”
It loosened some of the tension in Flynn. And Angelica would have still finished it with him. Rather than having an excuse to leave, he would have had to stand by and watch her and Larry swan around together. “I wouldn’t change meeting you for the world,” he said to Rose. “Even knowing what I had to go through to get to this point.”
Rose’s mouth opened ever so slightly as she stared at him. He inched a step closer to her. Should he try to kiss her again? Although she stood there, not pulling away, she also hadn’t stepped forward. What if she rejected him again?
The moment lasted too long. Rose turned away from him and looked at Home. “What do you think they’re going to say to you?”
A weary sigh and Flynn shook his head at himself. Another opportunity missed. She’d already made it clear how she felt; he didn’t need to be afraid of her rejection anymore. He tugged Rose with him as he started down the hill towards the place. “I really don’t know. I can’t expect they’ll welcome me with open arms, but they’re not bad people. They may be arseholes and fools, but they’re not evil. They have a moral compass and they abide by it. They killed Vicky because they blamed her for the state of the world.”
“Do you think they had a point?”
Another deep sigh and Flynn shrugged. “You obviously do.”
Before Rose could reply, Flynn quickly said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.” He then added, “I can see why they did what they did, but they killed Vicky.”
Rose didn’t respond and she let go of his hand. He might have apologised, but he couldn’t take back the hurt he’d clearly just inflicted on her with his snappy response.
Chapter 33
When they were no more than twenty metres from the gates, they stopped. Hard to tell who, but one of the guards on watch stood up from their post and shielded their eyes as they looked over at Flynn and Rose. Suddenly the reality of what they were walking into hit Flynn, his nerves buzzing with electric anxiety. He broke the silence between them. “You have to let this play out however it needs to happen, okay?”
“What if they try to kill you?” Rose said.
“They won’t.”
“You know that for sure?”
“No, but I’m pretty confident it’ll be okay. Besides, we’ve got to trust everything will work out, right? My intention is good, that’s all I have.”
Rose didn’t reply.
The large gates shook for a second before one of them opened wide enough to let someone out. It took a few moments before Flynn recognised the man. “Dan,” he said.
Rose spoke to him from the side of her mouth. “One of the ones you tied up?”
“Yep.”
“Oh fuck.”
“Yep.” When Flynn felt Rose tense beside him, he added, “Don’t get involved. He needs to do whatever he’s about to do.”
She didn’t reply.
“I need you to promise me, Rose. I don’t want you to get involved.”
Although Flynn kept his attention on Dan, he had an awareness of Rose’s frame loosening. Again, she didn’t reply.
Dan marched towards Flynn and Rose through the long grass, his arms swinging, his feet stamping down with his purposeful gait. “You! What the fuck are you doing back here?”
But Flynn didn’t respond.
A look from Flynn to Dan, and Rose said, “Why aren’t you telling him?”
“He won’t listen at the moment. He needs to vent first before he hears anything I have to say. He needs to tell me how much of an arsehole I am.”
Dan continued towards them. Tension coiled through his frame and he had a baton strapped to his hip, but he hadn’t pulled it out yet. That had to be a good sign.
Now only about five metres away, Flynn felt Rose’s tension wind up another notch. “Everything will be okay. Don’t put yourself in harm’s way by trying to help me. You have to trust me on this. They’ll listen eventually and you’ll only make it worse if you get involved.”
“I don’t like it. It feels like suicide.”
“They won’t kill me. They’re not like that. They may be many things, but they don’t kill unless they feel like they have to.” Flynn raised his hands above his head in surrender. “I’m no threat to them at the moment.”
Now he’d gotten much closer, the swish of the long grass accompanied Dan’s march. Red-faced and twisted with rage, he stared at Flynn as if Rose didn’t exist.
As much as Flynn wanted to raise his guard, he kept his arms in the air and stared at Dan. The words sat on the edge of his tongue. They were there to save them. To give them a heads-up about the Queen. But he could tell Dan wouldn’t listen to him. Not yet.
Just a metre between them, Flynn smiled as he said, “Hi, Dan.”
A flash of light crashed into Flynn’s left cheek. It sent tendrils of fiery pain through his face. But it didn’t knock him out.
Flynn blinked against watering eyes and smiled again. “Is that all you’ve got?”
The second blow connected with Flynn’s temple and his world turned dark.
Chapter 34
Hard to tell exactly how long had passed because Flynn had been unconscious for a time before he came round. Maybe a day, maybe longer. When he first woke up, he thought he’d lost his sight. The bruising on his left cheek and temple hurt as a dull throb. Although when he became fully conscious, he realised he’d been locked in one of Home’s dark rooms. No electricity anymore, if they wanted to lock him up, the room would inevitably be pitch black. They certainly wouldn’t leave a prisoner with lit candles.
They’d dressed him in fresh clothes. That much he felt. A sweatshirt and joggers, the clean softness of them lay against his skin. The bandages around his wrists had also gone and his cuts felt much better. They were coated with hard scabs, but they didn’t hurt like they had.
Flynn then heard sounds outside. A second later, the light from the hallway flooded in and he covered his eyes against the blinding sting of it.
Brian walked in first, Sharon and Dan coming in behind him. They could have brought candles; instead they left the door open so the natural light out in the hallway illuminated the room. Dan remained close to the door. It showed Flynn that he shouldn’t consider running out of there. Not that he had.
“Well, well, well,” the bearded man said, a smug grin on his round face.
“Is that all you’ve got?” Flynn asked.
Brian turned serious and scowled at him.
“You sound like a bad villain from one of those awful action movies Serj would make me watch. Next you’ll produce a white cat and start stroking it slowly as you stare at me.”
It seemed to take Brian’s words from him. He produced a knife easily as long as the one Flynn had used on him. The smile returned. “Bet you’d rather a monologue now, eh?”
Flynn didn’t reply. Even he knew when to shut the fuck up.
“So you found the bed, I see?”
Sharon and Dan sniggered and Flynn looked from one to the other and back to Brian again. What had they done to it? He held back his reply. Whatever they’d done, they didn’t deserve a reaction.
A look around the room, his hard piggy stare lingering on the bed, Brian said, “You know whose room this used to be?”
Flynn scanned the walls and the shelves. They were empty, suggesting no one stayed in there now. “How the fuck would I know? I was unconscious when you brought me here.”
“Thought you might have worked it out,” Sharon said. “We figured you would have been able to smell her.”
“Who?” Flynn’s pulse quickened. “Vicky?”
“No, you fucking moron.” Brian sat down on the bed with him
, the metal frame groaning beneath his weight. He kept his knife raised in Flynn’s direction. “Angelica.”
“This isn’t Angelica’s room, you muppet.”
“No.” Dan spoke this time. “It’s Larry’s. She’s been in this bed quite a few times over the past year or two.”
All three of Home’s guards smiled at Flynn. Smug satisfaction twisted each one of their bitter faces.
Flynn looked from Sharon to Dan and back to Brian. He stopped on Brian and stared at him for a second. A smile then crept across his face. It soon turned into a laugh.
“You think it’s funny?” Brian said, his deep scowl showing he’d been rattled. “You think it’s funny that Angelica cheated on you for at least a year before she found the balls to tell you? That she fucked another man on the regular.”
Flynn laughed harder than before and Brian kept going. “That she probably thought about Larry when she was with you.”
Where he’d been sat cross-legged on the bed, Flynn dropped his feet over the side and leaned on his knees, having to sit up because of the force of his bellowing laughs.
“What?” Brian said and pointed his knife at Flynn. “Tell me what’s so fucking funny.”
To stop his laughter, Flynn pressed the back of his right hand to his nose and looked at the man. “I was just thinking about how you pissed yourself when I tied you up. I knew you’d be frightened, but I never thought that would happen. You were like a small child.”
Brian lurched forward and Dan jumped on him, pulling him back from Flynn, both of his hands gripped around Brian’s right wrist to hold the knife back.
As Dan wrestled with Brian, Sharon wriggled the knife free from him. Although Brian might have wanted Flynn dead, the other two clearly didn’t.
Now Dan had Brian restrained, Flynn looked at the three guards. Where he’d laughed only moments before, his stomach tightened with his anger towards them. They’d killed Vicky. “You’ve had your fun,” he said. “It’s time to stop now. If you three push me any more, I’ll make sure I cut your fucking eyes out and set you loose in the wild. I’ll let this cruel world decide your fate because I’ve already allowed you too many concessions. Remember, I could have killed all three of you on the night I left. You’re only here now because I’ve allowed it, against my better judgement.”
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