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Liorah

The tall man with white hair and dark clothes almost hurled Quin out of the way. He was sent reeling halfway across the room.

My eyes widened in shock. Why would anyone–

He grinned. Actually grinned.

I was going to wipe that smug expression off his face and plaster it on the ceiling.

I peered after Quin and tried to step past the man, but he stepped aside as well, into my way. I looked straight up at him, shock and fury blending together.

He was smiling down at me, apparently impressed with himself.

“I’m Sasha,” he said, in a tone that was too off-handed for someone who had just hurled my friend halfway across the room.

“Do you come here often?” he asked, trying to look casual.

This was a joke, right? Nobody could be that numb-skulled. I peered up at him, narrowing my eyes, waiting for him to announce some punch-line. He didn’t.

Was he flirting with me? Here? Now? Me?

He must be completely out of his mind and I decided to treat him as such.

“I often frequent hell-holes like this, only in search of people like you,” I said, the sarcasm strong enough to knock out a horse.

He missed it, completely. I was astonished and borderline impressed that someone could be so blinded by their own ego.

He smiled, flattered, right as I heard approaching footsteps, running, quickly.

I took a step backward just as a petite girl plowed into Sasha. Good for her.

He crashed into the ground and I grinned. That must have hurt.

He didn’t even seem to care. He grinned up at her as she towered over him. Considering that he was almost a head taller than I was and she was almost a head shorter, this was quite the reversal.

“I knew you’d be jealous!”

“What in blazes are you even on about?” The exhasperation in her voice was admirable and I instantly decided she was the right sort. Unlike whoever that idiot was.

“I’m so sorry about that,” the girl said.  “Name’s Skia.  If he gives you anymore trouble, give me a holler and I’ll try to take care of him.”

It barely registered. I was staring over at Quin. I could see him wince from here, holding his shoulder as though he were injured. Sasha had done that and Quin had done nothing. No, Sasha had done this specifically because of me. It was my fault that Quin was hurt.

I turned to Sasha, my anger blazing, blocking out any rational thought left.

He had just started to sit up and I didn’t give him the chance. I rammed the heel of my riding boot into his shoulder, right above his collarbone, right where it would hurt most.

He slammed back into the ground but barely seemed to mind. He gazed up at me with the same cow-eyes as Lorcan and Yila had exchanged. Nausea rose in my throat as I glared down at him, strongly considering ripping out his eyes just to get him to stop.

“What is wrong with you?” I hissed, my voice dangerously low. “How dare you.”

He grinned up at me with an expression that even Lorcan hadn’t been able to achieve. That was it. He wasn’t supposed to like the attention, I was going to rip his throat out if that was what it took for him to wipe that expression off his face.

This time I drove my boot heel right into his diaphragm. This time I saw him wince but I put my weight behind the pressure, driving the breath from his lungs.

The earth quivered, a soft trembling like a frightened animal.

I would make him pay for it.

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And I adopted @inkhorn ‘s idea of making the powers appear gradually because that’s really awesome!

@calidris

I have no idea whether their engineering means they don’t feel pain as much so you can change it if you have to XD