The Monsters We Feed (A Luminaworld Story) by Thomas Howard Riley

Author:Thomas Howard Riley [Riley, Thomas Howard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Howard Riley
Published: 2022-12-05T16:00:00+00:00

10 Gangers

JATHAN WOULD HAVE SHIT his pants if they weren’t already around his ankles.

Ressic was waiting at the end of the alley. Just shy of ten long strides would have put them face to face. He had all three of his enforcers with him—Pranji, Torp, and Graekor. They were all dressed in their ganger colors—dockwork trousers and blue vests over ivory tunics, sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Ressic had his hair in a topknot, his golden beard catching the lamplight.

Jathan stood staring. Frozen. Unable to believe it. Unable to move. Unable to think. Trousers like shackles about his ankles. His arms and legs were on fire, his hands ice, his knees water, his heart a block of lead.

“Looks like we’re just in time,” Ressic said, eyeing Jathan and then Nessifer. They sauntered down the alley, hips out, leaning back, laughing grotesquely.

You piece of shit. Don’t you dare look at her.

Jathan’s heart raced. His mind was flying, searching for a way out of this. He yanked his trousers up and tried to tie them, caught his finger in the knot, stopped, tried again, tied them some kind of terrible, but it held them up at least, freed his legs for movement.

He exchanged a glance with Nessifer. Her eyes were wide, afraid, but her brow was defiant. She would dare them to come anywhere near her.

They made a half-circle about them, hemming them in against the same wall they had been fucking against.

“I hope you didn’t think we were done with you, boy,” Ressic said.

“I didn’t think about you at all,” Jathan said, puffing up his chin.

Ressic’s gaze fixed on him. “Well, I think you are going to remember this time. For the rest of your life, every time you try to chew you are going to remember what it was like to have teeth, every time you try to walk you are going to remember what it was like to have legs, every time you think of a woman you will remember what it was like to lose one.”

“At least I’ll be able to remember,” Jathan said. “If you try to remember a time before you were ugly, you’ll be doomed for eternity.”

Ressic’s eyes blazed with rage. His knuckles turned white on his fists.

Yes, focus on me. You want me, so hit me. He hoped he could get all their fists onto him at once, such that they would ignore Nessifer and let her slide from their minds, slip away. The door to the Bottlebottom was so close, around the corner. He heard the people inside. There was time. She could get away. She had to get away.

Jathan could take a beating. He had survived enough of them from the time he was a child that he knew how to best cover himself to prevent the most severe damage. They couldn’t hit him forever. Someone would hear. Nessifer would warn people inside. He could take it.

But no matter how angry Ressic became, his eyes always glanced over at her, mouth dangling open as he looked at her bare shoulders, her ruffled dress, her unkempt hair.

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