Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,32

person who might know something is Gawain. And you lost control, and now you want to pick a fight with me.”

Kase looked around at the chaos and death she’d caused. “He’s my dad,” she whispered, but her voice was still angry.

“I know that, Kase. He’s my friend, and I die a little every day that we can’t find him. But this is a mission! You’re done here,” I said. “I can’t risk you losing control again.”

“No,” Kase snapped, punching her hand through the wall.

“Yes, Kase,” I said softly. “If you want to be angry at everyone for having done nothing, we’ll have this conversation later. I thought that by keeping you busy, you’d keep it together, but honestly, I just think you need time away. The beast is too close to the surface; it’s too close to being let loose. I can’t risk that. I really hoped that the mission might help you focus, but I didn’t realize just how close to the surface the beast is. You need to sit this one out.”

“You can’t,” she said.

“I can,” I told her. “I can’t send you back to the base—certainly can’t do it with you covered in blood. So you’re going to have to stay here.”

“I want to help.”

“No, you want to hurt people, and while we are going to do that, I can’t risk you running in and tearing Gawain’s head off before we’ve even had the chance to talk to him.”

Kase looked at me in a way she never had before. There was nothing but contempt in her almost wolflike eyes. The beast was gaining control.

“So I just stay here?” Kase asked.

I nodded. “Until I say otherwise, yes.”

“And if I don’t want to?” Kase asked, the growl in her voice rising as she took a step toward me.

“Do not push me, Kase,” I said, my voice hardening a little.

The beast only knew a pecking order. The only way to stop the beast from thinking of me as prey was to make sure it damn well knew what would happen when it came out, giving Kase time to take it back under control.

“Push you?” Kase asked, taking another step. “You have left my father in the hands of Avalon. You have condemned him to torture and pain. Push. You. You have no idea what I want to do to you.”

“Do not do this, Kase,” I said, my voice holding more than a little anger now.

Kase shoved me in the shoulder. “Make me.”

Diana appeared in the doorway. “Hostages on this floor secure. Twenty-six in total, all human. No guards out there, so I assume they didn’t deem the humans dangerous enough to need more than the dead ones in this room. Thankfully Kase killed them all without a single shot, so we still have the element of stealth on our side. Still more hostages on the floors above, but it’s a start. They’re going to stay where they are until we’re done clearing the place out.” She looked between Kase and me. “Kase, I would seriously consider stepping back,” Diana said.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” Kase snapped without turning away from me, her eyes now very much those of a wolf.

“Fine, but if you pick a fight with Nate, he’s going to bounce your skinny ass across the White House lawn like a fucking tennis ball.”

Kase remained where she was for several seconds before turning and walking away, pushing past Diana into the Blue Room.

“She’s angry,” Diana said.

“Yes, she is,” I said. “She’s angry, hurt, scared . . . and all of that has let the beast closer to the surface than we’d thought. It’s not aimed at anyone in particular, but she needs to get the beast under control, or she’s going to hurt a lot of people.”

“I know that feeling well,” Diana said sadly. “She wants a fight. The beast wants a fight even more so. You were trying to get her to swing at you, hoping you could put her down and calm the beast?”

I nodded. “Didn’t work out so well, but hopefully benching her has given her time to think.”

Sky entered the room from the door behind me. “Kase will calm down.”

“I hope so,” I said. “Because if she sees Gawain, I can’t trust that she won’t kill him. Or try to and have to be stopped.”

“I’ll stay with her,” Diana said. “Send any hostages you find back down this way, and I’ll make sure they’re all kept in one place and that