For a second, no one understood what had happened. Both men stared at each other in shock as blood poured down Ru’s shirt and onto the man below him. With astonishment, Ru clutched his neck and toppled over onto his side, his mouth opening and closing. Juni let out a choked scream. Dano collapsed to the ground in shock.
“Shit,” Koben Ashi whispered. “Fucking shit.” The Mountain Fist dropped to his knees and clamped his hands to Kaul’s neck, trying to Channel into the young man, but it was no use. The cut had been too clean and deep, and Koben was no Green Bone doctor. Bero stared into the frightened eyes and saw the life inside them go out.
Tadino scrambled backward on hands and knees, the talon knife still clutched in his hand. His face was a ruined red pulp, his nose crushed and his lips split open, but the whites of his bruised eyes rolled about the room, trying to find safety. They landed on Bero, begging. His mouth opened to plead, but no sound came out.
Koben sat back on his heels, his hands and sleeves sticky and red. His face was draining of blood as quickly as Kaul’s body. One of the Mountain Fingers said, in a tremulous voice, “What do we do, Kobenjen? If the Pillar of No Peak blames us . . .”
“Kaul Hilo will kill everyone in this room,” Koben said.
Tadino tried again to escape. He was too injured to get more than a few meters. Koben threw a Deflection that knocked the man over, then he seized Tadino by the throat and held him at arm’s length as if taking a goose out to the chopping block. “You chose an emptyhanded duel but you drew a talon knife,” Koben said. “You dirtied a clean blade. Your life is worth less than nothing.”
“He was going to kill me,” Tadino sobbed through broken teeth.
“I’m a Koben,” the Fist breathed. “My cousin is the godsdamn heir to the clan! I’m not taking the fall for this. I can’t.” He glanced down again at Kaul Ru’s body and then at his Fingers. Bero had never imagined the faces of powerful Green Bones could look so scared and desperate.
Dano was on the floor, crying and retching. Juni stumbled up to her boyfriend, her makeup smeared with tears, and clutched his arm frantically. “Ashi, I don’t want to die. Please, let’s run away together, right now. Ashi, I love you—” Koben backhanded her viciously across the face and she fell to the ground, stunned.
“If we run, we’re fucked.” Koben dug a shaking hand through his hair. “My family will help us. My ma is on the Royal Council. We have to prove to the Kauls that we had nothing to do with this fuckup, you hear? Nothing.”
Bero should’ve left with everyone else in the club when he’d had the chance. He’d never had the good sense or normal human instincts to walk away when he should. Now Koben’s Fingers were blocking the only exit, so Bero had no choice but to watch as Koben dropped Tadino to the floor and began to break his arms and legs.
Considering that Tadino was already so badly injured from the duel, one wouldn’t think he’d last as long as he did. The man screamed and thrashed and begged for his life, but in the end, he couldn’t move at all. He was a sack of cracked bones and twisted limbs, staring at nothing when Koben finally snapped his neck.
Juni cowered in terror when her boyfriend turned away from Tadino’s shattered body and came over to her. “Ashi, please, no,” she whimpered, tears and streaks of mascara running down her face. “I only wanted to make you jealous because I love you. Don’t you still love me too?” Koben wrapped his hands around his girlfriend’s throat and squeezed with all his Strength, choking her to death in minutes.
“What do we do about them?” asked one of the Fingers, looking at Dano and Bero.
Dano was curled on the ground, nearly catatonic with fear. He’d pissed himself. Koben nudged him with a foot. “You were Kaul’s friend, weren’t you? We’ll turn you over to No Peak and they can decide what to do with you.” He yanked Dano partially upright and leaned over him. “But you have to tell them. You saw everything and you have to tell them what happened here, got it?”
Koben looked over at Bero for the first time. “And who the fuck are you?”
Bero turned his head, taking in the carnage of the Little Persimmon—the blood and bodies, the broken and scattered furniture, the smell of piss and fear. A vast and yawning emptiness swirled through Bero like a dry, howling wind in an empty town. Kaul Ru’s youthful, unmoving face seemed to stare at him sadly and with grave accusation. Bad luck, it seemed to say. Always bad luck.