The Gender War (The Gender Game #4)(94)

35





Violet





I felt the air ripple moments before clouds of fire erupted from the tunnel and the windows of the building behind me. All the glass windows shattered as the guard station in the outer courtyard exploded. “Cad!” I shouted. “Uncle Kurtis! Run!” The earth shook, and as I ducked down, pressing myself close to the fountain, I saw Tabitha drop to the ground as well, sheltering herself with her arms.

When Thomas and I had rigged the second set of explosives to the car I’d been driving, we had never expected such force from Ashabee’s private stash. By the sound, it had certainly taken out more than the guard station the vehicle was parked next to. Risking a glance, I stared as a top section of the building between the outer and inner courtyards shifted slightly. My eyes grew wider as cracks began to form in the concrete. There was a horrible sound of stone grating on stone, a whining creak of metal bending and then tearing, as the topmost level shuddered and began to crumble inward toward us.

I looked across the space toward my family. In the moment of the explosion, Cad had bolted backwards, pulling my uncle with him as best he could, and now they were backing up farther, putting the fountain between them and Tabitha. I saw Tabitha come up from her crouch, saw her furious eyes flickering from them to me and back again… and then to the crumbling edifice behind me.

“You want it this bad, come and get it!” I howled at her, and then I was up and running away from the falling building, in the opposite direction Cad and Uncle Kurtis had gone, my hands clinging to the egg. I had to hope that, as furious as she was, Tabitha would take the bait. Behind me, I heard the sound of the structure roaring as it tore apart, and then I was thrown off my feet, hurtling through the air from the massive force of the roof crashing into the courtyard. I curled my body up reflexively, the egg slipping from my fingers as a plume of dust and dirt exploded over me.

I landed hard and rolled, my uncontrolled tumble ending inside a row of bushes whose thick, strong branches snapped as I lodged in them. Dazed and winded, as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of the courtyard, I took a deep breath and immediately began coughing as the dust and smoke hit my lungs. I covered my mouth with my hand and staggered to my feet, the branches clinging to my hair and clothes.

The egg. I yanked away from the bushes and turned around, squinting against the gray dust cloud that had settled on us. I stumbled forward, pulling the collar of my shirt over my nose and mouth and holding it there with my hand, frantically searching for where I had dropped the silver case.

It was almost impossible to see anything, but I kept moving, certain that Tabitha was out there. I moved quickly, scanning the ground for any glimpse of silver. The visibility was so meager that I practically tripped on the egg.

I had just bent to pick it up when a section of the settling dust cloud shifted slightly, casting a dark shadow over me. Looking up, I barely had time to duck Tabitha’s knife as she came down on me like a hammer. I sidestepped, whirling and planting a foot in the back of her knee, and then scooped up the egg. With fallen debris still settling around the courtyard, I couldn’t take off at a dead run, so I turned and ducked again, narrowly avoiding a backhand slash from her other hand.

Tabitha screamed, her face mottled with rage, and advanced toward me in earnest. I backpedaled quickly, keeping one eye on her and the other on my surroundings, knowing that one tumble, one slip, would mean my death. The little forest that was now to our left had been mostly crushed under the falling building, and huge splintered logs and tree branches littered the courtyard, along with piles of building debris.

The air was clearing slowly. Tabitha grimaced, her fists slightly raised, as though we were boxing, a blade clenched in each one. I almost gasped as I recognized the knife on the left—it looked like the one she had driven through my hand. When she noticed my gaze drop back to it, her angry frown turned to a mad grin. “You remembered,” she practically sang, as if I were someone who had brought her a gift on her birthday.

“Trying to forget,” I said blithely, taking careful steps backward.

“Oh, Violet… you’re never going to forget me. Your life will be so short, you won’t have a chance to forget. All you’ll remember is pain. ”

I didn’t respond—partially because I knew that if she took me alive, she’d do her best to live up to that promise, but mostly because a second explosion ripped through the courtyard, sending us both flying into the air as the ground heaved.

I landed heavily a few feet away, the egg still in my hands. The earth next to me was depressed, still crumbling inward, and I rolled away a few feet more, scrambling to avoid getting trapped in the pit that had once been the palace’s generator room. Now it was buried under fifteen feet of dirt and debris, thanks to Thomas, Tim, and Jay. On the palace blueprints, Thomas had located a small back entry to the underground levels of the building through the waste disposal system, which could be accessed via a small tunnel that ran under the river. I had no doubt that, with Thomas there to cut through the security systems, the young men to protect him, and me to make the world’s biggest distraction up here, they’d gotten in and set the charges.

I checked the silver watch that I’d dug out of my bag in Ashabee’s mansion just for this purpose. My group had been right on time.

To my left, I thought I could vaguely make out Tabitha’s bulky form in the crumbling pit—if she fell to her death before I got a chance to destroy her with my own hands, I was no longer going to complain. I climbed to my feet again, my legs shaky, trying to put some distance between us. The second explosion had kicked more dust into the air, and my ears were ringing from the force of the blast. I scrambled toward what I hoped was the northern wall, the one farthest from where we’d entered the courtyard, though I wasn’t certain of my direction after all the tumbling.