Dear readers,
You voted for the giant to join Q's team. I hope you enjoy the results! Here's Josiah: Segment 6 of Q's Story with a brief lead-in from Segment 5 (or read from the beginning).
-Lillian James
The
dragon flew over her head, lighting the dark with its breath. Under the golden
glow, she could just barely make out a man in the distance, so large he looked
as if he could pick up the dragon with one hand. He walked over to the wall and
braced his back against the white brick. He clenched his fists so hard that the
muscles in his shoulders popped out in stark relief. And he roared again.
A
crack ran up the wall behind his back and then across the ceiling. Another
piece of plaster fell and nearly pinned the dragon. Q shot out her hand and
shouted, “Sleep!”
The
giant fell, and it seemed that even the weight of him was enough to quake the
floor. As the cacophony began to die around them, Q called out for Min. He limped
over, panting, and rested his hands on his knees.
“Dette’s
gone. So is Mee-Kyong, probably before we got here. And now we have no way to
know where they took her.”
He
rammed his arm against the cage behind him and then leaned against it, his
forehead on the cool metal. All around them, supernatural creatures stood and
stared, but Q barely noticed. Failure was a lead weight in her gut, and for the
first time, she feared that everyone else was right. That she should forget the
Somnus and leave the world’s victims in someone else’s charge.
But
that wasn’t actually an option. Inadequate or not, she was the only one here.
Heart racing, she called the dragon to her side and walked over to the sleeping
giant.
And then she woke him up.
He woke slowly, his brown eyes blinking against the
light of the dragon’s flame. At the sight of Q, he opened his mouth, but the dregs
of the Somnus sleep slowed his power so that his voice was only an ineffectual
mumble.
Q shook her head at him. “It’ll take a few minutes
for your power to come back. Using anything more than your regular speaking
voice will only slow that down.”
He studied her in silence for a moment, and then he closed
his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand.
Q said, not entirely unsympathetic, “The headache
will take a little longer. But you can still answer my questions. What does
Dette want with all of these supernaturals?”
He only sat in silence.
Q frowned. “Why are you helping him? The minute he
has what he wants, he’ll turn on you.”
He opened his eyes and said, his accented voice
still unsteady, “You know nothing, white girl.”
“Then tell me. What is this place?”
In response, he closed his eyes again.
Min growled in frustration. “This is a waste of
time. He’s not going to tell us anything, and Dette is getting away. We need to
go now, or we’ll never find him.”
The giant opened his eyes and looked around, his
brow fiercely furrowed. “Dette’s gone?”
Q nodded. “Any idea where he went?”
He stared at her for a long moment. Then, “He ran
from you?”
“He ran from the dragon.” The dragon stretched its
long, golden wings, and they clanged against the cages surrounding them. Q
said, “You really should answer my questions. Where did he go?”
“I don’t know.”
“Have you seen this girl?” Min crouched and held out
his phone. Mee-Kyong smiled from the screen, but a streak of blood was smeared
across her cheek. It took Q a moment to realize the blood was Min’s, his
knuckles seeping from where he’d struck Dette.
The giant looked at the picture and then back at
Min. “She’s your kin?”
“She’s my sister. Dette stole her.”
He studied the cages beyond them, his dark face
grim. And then he seemed to come to a decision.
“She was here,” he said, his voice beginning to
strengthen. “But they took her. Four, maybe five days ago.”
“Who?” Darcy asked. “Who are ‘they’?”
He shook his head, and his smooth scalp reflected
the glow of dragon flame. “Mercenaries. Three men and a woman. They wore suits,
but they were armed to the teeth. I don’t know who they work for.”
“Where did they take her?”
“Dette has an estate in France. Maybe there.”
“France.” Min stood slowly, his hand dropping to his
side. He turned haunted eyes toward Q. “How are we going to find her now?”
“I’ll take you.” The giant stood, and the others
backed quickly away. Standing, he nearly topped seven feet, his shoulders twice
the width of Min’s. The dragon roared, and the giant held up his hands, his steady
movements suggesting that the slowing effects of the sleep had worn off. “I
mean you no harm.”
Darcy shook her head. “Hard pass. You tried to kill
us.”
“I had no choice.”
“Funny, I didn’t see anyone holding a gun to your
head.”
He gestured toward the prison behind them. “This
whole place is a death threat – one he’s promised to aim at my family if I
don’t follow orders. Either I stop you now and protect my family until the next
time Dette threatens them, or I stop him and protect my family for good. I’d
rather stop him.”
Q looked at Darcy and Min. Darcy stared at the giant
for a moment and then shrugged at Q, though her dark eyes were uneasy. Min
said, “Whatever we have to do. I’m in for whatever we have to do.”
Q turned to the giant. “The minute you break our
trust, I’ll knock you out again. By the time you wake up, we’ll be
untraceable.”
* * *
His name was Josiah. He seemed respected by many of Dette’s
prisoners, and Q didn’t know if that should make her comfortable or more
nervous. But he’d been charged with managing the prison, so he knew how to
unlock the cages. When one of prisoners charged at Darcy, Q put him to sleep
with a raised palm and a single word.
Josiah lifted a brow. “Yours is truly a unique gift.
I have not met another like you.”
“There is no one like me.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “This is a lonely burden for
you. Perhaps it is good that we work together.”
Q studied the back of Min’s head as he walked ahead
of them, surrounded by supernaturals.
“As long as we stop Dette,” she said, “it’s
definitely a good thing.”
