Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78507 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78507 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
This opinion is reinforced a moment later when the bolt ricochets off the window somehow and ends up hitting the drone. It crashes into the stairs and proceeds to burst into flames.
I’m already at the apartment door when that happens.
“I’m so sorry! You’re definitely going to be eligible for compensation!”
I hit the landing outside and go down the stairs. There’s a chance the other drone will be waiting for me outside, so I once again opt for the back exit. That leads into an alley pretty full of trash, and a wall, which I vault over.
The other side turns out to be a drop that’s a lot further than I thought it was. Eclipse wasn’t built on flat land. It’s sort of undulating in its geography and occasionally that means ground level on one side of a wall isn’t ground level on the other side.
I am falling a lot further than I intended to. Not far enough to die, probably, but far enough to give me time to think about how badly I’ve fucked up.
Fortunately, I don’t take the brunt of the impact alone. Instead, I find myself cannonballing into the torso of a guy big enough to break my fall perfectly. I hit hard flesh softened by clothing and cape. He’s got to be wearing light armor, or maybe he’s just got a softer build over harder muscle. Whatever it is, he’s about three times my size. I hit him at an angle, knocking him onto his ass as he reflexively catches me.
“Thank you,” I say, getting up to run. I’ve lost the drone, but it won’t hurt to put some distance between me and it, just in case it circles around the building and picks me up again.
“Watch where you’re going, boy!”
I swing around because my arm has been caught by the guy who seems to have a problem with what just happened. This means I have to look at him properly.
He’s tall, broad, and he has the kind of handsomeness you see in violent men. Something about the construction of his face is nature’s way of telling everybody who looks at him that he’s capable of being incredibly dangerous. It’s in the square set of his jaw, the thickness of his brow, the way his cheekbones are high and flat as if made to deflect blows.
More superficially, he has well-cut, mid-length dark russet hair that is just starting to blond and gray at his temples. Matched with flashing green eyes, he’s a very striking man. He looks faintly familiar for some reason, too. Like I’ve maybe run into him before, or stolen from him before, or…
He’s narrowing those eyes at me too, as we share a mutual silent moment of wondering if we know each other from somewhere. I don’t think so, though. I might have done a crime to him at some point, but he’s way too old for me to know him socially. He’s got to be more than twice my age.
He’s also more than twice my size, which makes his mistake make sense. He’s huge, and he’s used to being huge. Mature males are bigger than females by a long way, but I bet he’s so used to towering over other men he’s immediately not even thinking I could be a woman. Instead, he thinks I’m just a young guy.
I’m used to being mistaken for a boy, even when I’m not in disguise one way or another. Right now I could definitely pass for a boy.
It’s even possible I’ve picked up a lot of male mannerisms over the years. I’m surrounded by guys at the academy. Most of the faculty are male, too. The King’s Guard doesn’t explicitly ban women from joining; it just suggests they might like to do something else instead, like have a nice little lie down.
Of course, every rule has an exception, and I’m proof that they take girls under very specific circumstances, when nobody else can, or will, and when the girl has certain talents, traits, or bloodlines.
But most of the time, girls aren’t abandoned by their families. If they’re orphaned, someone else generally takes them in, or they’re raised by another family who wants them to be a wife for one of their sons one day.
I was lucky. Nobody wanted me.
That does mean I’m pretty much treated like one of the guys, because nobody there has any idea how to treat a girl, and even if they did know how to treat a girl, I wouldn’t want them to. I’ve heard the way they talk about women. It’s enough to make my skin crawl.
All this means I’m not scared of this guy, and I’m definitely not going to correct him. My hood is still up, and my mask is still on. As long as those elements stay in place, I’ll be safe enough.