"Yes. We killed her, when we were old enough. We kill all females... it's not worth the risk."
I was going to be sick, "You kill the females?" Myro and Fey had believed their race incapable of creating females… All three of us exchanged horrified glances, and Myro tightened his grip on Grymm’s throat.
"Yes," he nodded around Myro’s hand, "It's not worth the risk... but we have needs... and our sons have... strengths..."
Ugh. He actually looked excited about that. I almost rolled my eyes, but I didn't want to accidentally shoot lasers from them.
"So, they’re scared of me because I can kill them? That’s pretty obvious." I said, looking at my still-flaming fingertips. "I've got to say, I'm disappointed. I thought it would be more than that."
"You have fire shooting from your hands and you’re disappointed?" Fey asked with a laugh, exchanging the most conspiratorial look I’d ever seen with Myro. It seemed crossing galaxies, falling in love with the same woman, and saving each other’s asses had finally warmed them to each other.
Myro rolled his eyes, never giving Grymm an inch to move. Then, they shared another look I couldn’t decipher, and grabbed the old and quivering man. He whimpered as they pulled him to his feet, revealing that he had, in fact, soiled himself.
I tried not to laugh. Poor guy was genuinely scared of me. I mean, I was scared of me too...
I shrugged, "I guess it depends on what I can do with these Coxian abilities."
"Well, let's go find out." Myro grinned, he and Fey already heading toward the door.
"Wait." I rushed over to them, shoving myself between them and the door. I was careful to keep my hands down, treating them like loaded weapons. I didn't want to risk anything. "I thought we were taking over the ship and leaving?"
"Says the girl who was all in for starting a coup a week ago," Fey leaned in, his eyes sparkling even through the bruises that surrounded them. "And now you have the power to do that."
"Out of control power." I reminded them with a stomp of my foot. A stomp that sent me hovering off the ground a foot or two. "Holy fuck!"
"This keeps getting better." Fey was grinning up at me, but I was floundering, worried about what other powers I’d accidentally discover while here. What if I shot off a limb, or launched myself into space?
"Better? Someone put me back down!" Thankfully, Myro obliged, pulling me gently down like a knight before his lady. The beauty of that gesture was lost on me for the moment. "I can't fight like this."
The words had barely left my mouth when stomping echoed down the halls, coming right toward us.
"I guess they found the bodies," Myro said with a shrug; he was still easy going. I, however, was back to being one step away from exploding. All of that breathing hadn’t done shit, because waves of golden flame were running over my skin again.
"Too late," Fey's father wheezed, back to laughing like the mad man he was. "You should have killed me when you had the chance. Now you have no hope."
"Oh shut up," I snapped, over the whole Fey-gets-to-kill-him thing. This guy needed a lesson, and I had a well of power begging to be released. I slapped my glowing palm right over his handsome face, the golden flames licking up the sides and beginning to do their job. Burning him. Melting him. His laugh quickly turned to a scream, and Myro released the guy with a flinch, letting him collapse onto the floor.
I crouched down, placing another palm over his chest, trying to push my power into his heart. I hoped it was in the same place as a human’s. Burn him from the inside out. Before our eyes, his skin dried and cracked, his scream growing into a horrified moan as he turned to dark ash. I heard several gasps from his remaining crew, and I glanced up to see mirrored expressions of horror on my boys’ faces.
That look was what stopped me. Otherwise I thought I might’ve kept on bleeding my power into the evil ruler of Cox, letting it sink into the ship and eventually into the dirt of the planet that had given me this ability. But looking into their faces, the faces of the two who’d gone to hell and back for me, I stopped.
I had to.
I couldn’t become a nightmare to them, even if the power whispered to me that it would all be so easy to let go. I had to stop. And so I did.
I stood up, heart racing, staring down at the small pile of ash that was all that was left of the man who’d been about to kill us all. Myro placed a hand on my neck, grounding me. I breathed slowly, trying desperately to pull the power back into me, to restrain it before it tried to destroy everything in the vicinity. Fey joined in, placing his hand in mine, and their combined touch helped me regain control.
Holy fuck. I sighed, then smiled, having contained the power for the moment. I grinned stupidly at my boys, feeling like we’d genuinely won, momentarily forgetting that there were other threats. Then I heard the stomping of the Coxian army finally enter the hall leading to the bridge. All three of us turned.
As the army came into the hallway, the few men in front laid eyes on the pile of ash behind us. The wrecked bridge. My very human body, brimming with golden power. Their eyes went wide, and the Cox army dropped their weapons, their hands in the air as they muttered about human power.
Human bomb, more like.
"Well, that was easy," Myro said, although he didn't seem convinced.
Neither was I. I was going to either need to get off this rock, or be wrapped in iron. Although, with how things were going down, iron wasn't going to be enough.
Maybe nothing
