The Whispering Dead (Gravekeeper #1) - Darcy Coates Page 0,61
“You okay?”
Keira kept her eyes on Gavin. The tense, anxious sensation she’d felt when she first met him prickled at her skin, and her instincts screamed for her to be wary—he was no longer a null threat. Gavin glared at Mason’s back. A muscle jumped in his throat, and blotches of color stained his cheeks. Something moved behind his eyes: a decision being formed. One hand twitched. A small, shiny-silver object appeared in it.
Knife. Keira’s pulse kicked up. Mason had his back to Gavin. He wouldn’t be able to move in time. Gavin was already stepping forward, hand rising to slice the blade across Mason’s shoulders—
She responded on instinct. One hand smacked into Gavin’s outstretched wrist, redirecting the knife toward the boxes of cereal on the shelf. Her other hand came up and stabbed into his neck, crushing his windpipe. Her knee connected with his stomach. He gagged and keened forward. With his balance thrown off, it was all too easy to sweep her leg behind his and send him crashing to the ground.
He landed in the spilled orange juice with a wet, smacking sound. The knife bounced off the cereal and clattered to the floor. Boxes of cornflakes tumbled from the shelf to scatter around him.
Keira took a reflexive step back to keep herself out of his reach, but her opponent was helpless. He curled into a fetal position, one hand clasped around his throat and the other to his stomach as he pulled in whimpering breaths.
The shop was perfectly silent. Mason looked from Gavin to the knife to Keira. With a faint note of surprise tinging his voice, he simply said, “Oh.”
Zoe, meanwhile, grabbed Keira’s arm. Her owl-like eyes were still rimmed red but had widened in awe. Color flooded into her face as she grinned. “Freaking. Amazing.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Gavin lay curled into a ball, his expensive shirt soaking up the orange juice he’d spilled, moaning as he writhed between boxes of cornflakes.
Keira swayed. Taking down Gavin had brought back the thick, sickening emotions from her first encounter with him. Her hands felt dirty, like they were caked in tacky oil residue. Her mind buzzed, warning bells chiming, and it was a challenge to breathe deeply enough.
Mason put a hand on Keira’s shoulder to steady her and cleared his throat. “Hey, Zo? The store has a back room, right? It might be an idea to get away from here for a minute.”
She blinked, then beckoned. “Yeah, of course, this way.”
They slipped through a small metal door at the back of the store, and Keira only let herself breathe more deeply once it had closed behind them. The back room turned out to be a small, dim office space. The single bulb hanging from the ceiling was enough to illuminate two desks and stacks of boxes packed along the wall. Mason pulled a folding chair out from the desk and placed it next to Keira, nodding for her to sit.
He carried a package of chocolate cookies under him arm; he must have grabbed them on the trip through the store without Keira noticing. He tore open one end and shook two out, which he placed on the desk beside Keira.
“For the shock,” he explained.
“I’m okay.” Her hands were shaking. She forcefully tucked them into her pockets so they wouldn’t make a liar of her.
Mason held the cookie package to Zoe, but she waved them away. She was pacing, bouncing on the soles of her feet every time she had to turn in the narrow space, and her broad grin bordered on manic. “Ho-lee flipping heck. You destroyed him.”
“Sorry,” Keira managed.
“Are you kidding?” Zoe batted away the cookies a second time. “Highlight of my year. You’re paying for those by the way.” That last comment was directed at Mason, who resolutely shook the sweet treats at her.
He reluctantly gave up on Zoe and instead nudged the cookies closer to Keira. She caved, removing a hand from her pocket to accept the offering. “What happened back there… I didn’t know I could do that.”
The nearest desk was covered with scattered papers, so Mason swiped some aside to make room and perched on its edge. “It was…surprising.”
“It was fantastic,” Zoe corrected. She continued to pace, burning up her apparently endless energy. “People will try to tell you violence is never the answer, but those people are wrong.”
Mason pulled a face but didn’t argue. Instead, he asked, “Zo, what was Gavin doing? I didn’t think he shopped here.”