Free Reckoning (The Watchers Book 5) by Verónica Wolff Page B

abdominal muscles shredding.
    And still, my hands couldn’t reach my boot.
    “You reaching for your stars?” Brian was wiping his mouth, leaning back toward me. He shoved Rob aside and crawled between my legs. “I guess you’re a bitch and an idiot, because the laws of physics tell me that you can’t do jack while you’re tied like that.”
    I wrenched my shoulder in one last thrust, felt a small pop, and plunged my fingertips into the top of my boot. I felt the cold steel of the misericordia waiting for me. Cold as death, calling me, as though the metal sang a song only I could hear.
    I strained to get purchase. “Not physics. Geometry. Angles, dipshit.”
    I fantasized where I would plunge the misericordia first. The average neck of one average Trainee was in definite danger.
    My fingertips swept the butt of the blade. Almost there.
    But then Rob dove onto my leg, and I’d have sworn he tore my groin muscle wrenching me flat. “Don’t let her.”
    Brian looked outraged. “What’s your problem? Dude, she’s tied .”
    “Yeah,” Josh chimed in. “She’s just an Acari.”
    That so? I was done taking crap from these guys.
    “She can’t do—”
    I torqued my foot inward and clenched, freeing my leg. In a single fluid motion, I wrenched my thigh over Brian’s shoulder, knocking him off-kilter, and slung one foot, then another over his shoulders, hooking my ankles. I tucked my legs, drawing his head down between my thighs.
    “Dude, she wants you,” Rob shouted.
    My knees were locked tightly, Brian’s face in my crotch.
    The guys’ glee faded the moment they realized what was happening. And then it was too late, because, keeping my ankles hooked, I kicked my legs out hard and snapped his neck.
    I kicked my legs until he slid awkwardly onto the dirt, toppling unevenly like the dead weight he was.
    “What the fuck?” Rob shrieked. “Did you kill him?” He shot a wild-eyed look to Josh. “Dude, she killed him.”
    “Wanna go next?” I panted.
    “I’ll fuck you up.” Rob lunged at me, grabbing my face, smashing my cheek into the gravel hard enough for me to feel the tiny rocks slicing into me.
    “Fournier said to keep her alive.” Josh shoved him away.
    “Fine, I’ll keep her alive.” Rob’s cheek ticked as he leveled his eyes on me. “But I’ll mess her up first.”
    I mustered my best smile. “You’re messing with the wrong girl.”
    “You think?” He popped his knuckles.
    I couldn’t help my eye roll. “Is that supposed to scare me?”
    “You’re the one pinned. You tell me.”
    “Rob, let it go.” Josh’s fingers were like talons digging into my shoulders. “Let’s just get on with this.”
    Rob guffawed. “ Get on this is more like it.” He leaned down and stroked a thumb across my lips.
    I snapped my jaw shut, and Rob let out the most satisfying little yelp as I sank my teeth down to the bone. For one glorious second, my eyes met his and I grinned at him around his bloodied thumb.
    He smacked me again, harder this time, and it took me a second to get my breath back.
    “That all you got?” I managed a bloody smile. “Because, I swear, I will get the best of you.”
    And then I tensed every muscle in my body as I watched Rob draw back his arm to strike me again.
    “Enough,” Josh shouted. “It’s not your place, Rob. Fournier wants her untouched.”
    Rob was seething and took a moment to visibly calm his breathing. “Fine. But you play nice,” he said to me, “or I’ll overrule Josh and take you for a test drive before we bring you in.”
    I froze at the oddly specific phrase. “In where?”
    Josh pulled me to my feet. “It’s time for you to visit the keep.”
    A scream erupted from deep in my gut as I exploded into a violent whirl of kicking and shouldering. I had to escape them. I’d been in the keep before, though the Trainees had no way of knowing that. I’d seen what happened to girls like me. They were drugged and killed, their hearts consumed in a