Page 123 of Code Bound
The snowball hits him square in the face, cutting off his words and making me cover my mouth to hide my laughter as the snow slides down and reveals his shocked expression.
And then I catch sight of it. Them? The creatures?
It’s small, less than a meter tall, as it rushes from one tree to the next. It’s white like the snow, blending in so well, I almost miss it. It giggles as it rushes behind the tree, peeks out, and throws another snowball at Locke.
Locke whirls and heads right toward the tree where the creature’s hiding, clearly having spotted it, too. “Why, you little?—”
“Stop!” I call.
Locke freezes, his hammer in the air as if he’d been about to beat the ever-loving shit out of the thing. “What do you mean ‘stop?’” he spits. “It’s taunting us.”
“It’s a baby,” I reason. “Look at it.”
Locke looks from me back down to the creature he towers over. Its eyes widen, giving him the best innocent look I’ve ever seen in my life. Locke hesitates, and his hammer lowers just a fraction. The big eyes narrow just before another snowball hits Locke in the back. The two creatures giggle and rush away, teasing Locke further.
Locke glares at me. “I’ve never been a child person.”
I grin. “What’s the matter? Not paternal?”
“No,” he grumbles. “I hate kids.”
“Bugs, kids,” Svetlana says. “You do a lot of hating, Bone Breaker.”
“There’s a lot to hate,” he replies, storing his hammer away. “So, what do we do about these heathens, then?”
“Ignore them?” I ask, just before a snowball slams into my face. The frigid cold as snow falls down the eyeholes of my mask makes my face go numb immediately and I screech, pushing my mask up on my head and wiping the snow off my face.
Svetlana starts going off in a language I don’t know, but I figure she’s complaining about the cold of the snow as she tucks in tighter to my hood and tries to avoid the snowballs.
“You know what?” I say, leaning down to scoop up some snow. I form it into a ball carefully and look around for the creatures. One of them appears in front of me, giggling as it runs by. “Fuck that. Get ’em!”
I laugh as I throw the snowball and hit the creature on the back of its head. It falls face first into the snow, still giggling as it starts to move its arms and legs, making a strange print in the ground. When I reach down for another, I’m plowed in the shoulder by the other creature. Laughter tumbles out of my throat as I scoop up more snow.
“Come here you, little trouble maker!” I say, running after the creature.
Locke watches me for a minute, his brows high, before he shrugs. Only then does he reach down and scoop up snow. Only then does he start throwing it. When his laughter joins with mine, something in my chest shifts.
Something dangerous.
“Mistakes are made in the Harrow all the time, Vespera,” Cipher pops in. “You are making many.”
“Oh, yeah?” I reply, grinning as I throw a snowball at the creature in front of me. “I assume you’re talking about Locke.”
“Partially,” he answers. “But also, you called these creatures babies.”
“Yes. And?” I say, running away as it throws a snowball at me and misses.
“Ask yourself,” he murmurs, his voice slowly growing more serious. “If a creature is a baby, then it must have a?—”
A violent roar fills the air around us and the snowball I’d been just about to throw drops to the ground in front of me. The trees shake, icicles raining down around us, forcing us to cover our heads.
The two small creatures look into the distance, jumping up and down in excitement, shrieking for whatever is coming.
“—parent,” Cipher finishes. “Every baby has a parent.”
The ground shakes as something large starts to walk toward us.
My mouth goes dry.
