Underland(55)

Zeke looked over at her, his eyes alit with fire.

Kira shivered from the intensity of his gaze.

“You can’t enter Kira.”

What was he doing? Zeke was bargaining for her so she wouldn’t die in an event? Just hours ago, she could have escaped, and he wouldn’t let her. It was a bit endearing of him to speak up for her, but she didn’t need someone to fight her battles.

“That’s not your call,” Den snapped. “It’s hers.”

“It is now.” Zeke said.

“What’s wrong with you? Don’t tell me you’re getting attached to a human. Think about what they did to your sister.”

“That has nothing to do with this.”

“It has everything to do with this. Don’t be a fool like her,” Den growled.

The air was packed with suffocating tension. Zeke looked like he could hurt Den at the moment.

And Zeke had a sister? But then, really, what did she know about any of them? Nothing.

And they knew nothing about her.

“Fine,” Den growled. “I won’t enter her for now. But you can’t coddle the girl. She needs to do her part if she wants to stay here. Remember, she can’t go home. Ever.

“Fine.” Zeke answered.

Both guys looked at her. Clearly the truce was only temporary.

They spent the morning bringing supplies into the silo. Den had gotten a whole cart full—weapons, wood, pots and pans. She found matches, so she cleaned the old ashes out of the wood stove and found enough broken pieces of wood to get a fire going. Maybe she could cook something for them. She picked up the can of food Zeke had tossed at her earlier but couldn’t find a can opener. So maybe banging the can on a rock would work.

Zeke stopped her noisy assault and took the can. With a crunch and a flick of his wrist, his fingers ripped right through the top, and he pulled the lid back. “Sorry, we have no use for can openers.”

“Yeah, I guess not.” She took the mangled can and dumped the contents into the pot. The can had long ago lost its label, but it looked like it was chili. She hoped it was chili. It was hard to tell. But after a few minutes of cooking, it was warm enough to eat.

Den was eating jerky out of his pack. Kira offered some to him, but he waved it off. “No, it’s fine. You eat it.”

She looked at Zeke and offered him some food. “Hungry?”

He looked into her pot and then deep into her eyes. “Yes, but not for that.” His eyes flashed again and she took a step back.

Zeke looked conflicted at her reaction. He swallowed and headed for the door. “I’ll be back.” He didn’t open it so much as blast through it. The door swung shut behind him with a bang.

“Should you go after him?” Kira asked when Den didn’t move from the crate.

“Why?”

“Aren’t you scared he’s going to run away?”

Den looked at the door and then back to Kira. “Nope, not when I have what he craves most.” He took another bite of his jerky and chewed it in silence, staring at her with a satisfied smile. That smile chilled her. Was she leverage against Zeke?

“When do we start training again?”

“Not worth my time. Unless…” He looked at the door Zeke had gone through and then back to her. “You get him to let you fight, and I’ll train you again.” He closed the bag of jerky and went to crawl into his own hammock.

She took the pot and a spoon and crawled up the ladder to eat her meal on the floor of her “room,” watching Den from afar—with uncertainty.





Chapter 25

Den and Kira had unpacked most of the goods and the various weapons, and they set them up near the door in the space Den claimed as his.

They didn’t talk much. In her mind she had gone back to calling him Butt-Chin.

Zeke returned later that day with more color in his cheeks, less wild in the eyes. There were dark spots on his jacket, and Kira tried not to think about whose they were. Where he went or what he ate wasn’t really her business, but honestly? As much as she wanted it not to bother her, it did. What did he prefer if human wasn’t available?

When he came over, she shot him a hurt look, quickly went up the ladder, and retreated to her hammock. She refused to speak to him. It was more out of jealousy at his freedom than anything else he did. She felt trapped here, and if she couldn’t make it to the surface, she wanted to help Zeke with his goal, whatever it was. If Den thought they had better chances of fighting together, she wanted to do that. But they didn’t trust her out by herself, so she was under house arrest.

How was it okay for Zeke to forbid her from fighting but demand that she be part of their team? She’d just have to find a way to make him see the light. Kira smiled to herself at her new outlook. She’d have to prove that she was a part of the team.

And that meant fighting.

She knew that Den wouldn’t train her unless Zeke would agree to her fighting, but—wow—did he spend time on Zeke. They trained and drilled most of the day and most nights went to the fights. Sometimes they didn’t come back until the next morning, worn out and tired and bloodied.

And of course, when they left, Den locked her inside the silo. He said ‘for her own protection,’ but she knew it probably had to do with her one failed escape attempt. She had tried to find a way to climb through the hole in the ceiling but couldn’t reach. She didn’t have that sort of agility.