The Severed Tower by J. Barton Mitchell Read Free Book Online Page A

him. And she liked it, she liked that he had opened for her, and for her alone.
    Not unlike how Holt had very recently opened for her, too, she thought.
    Holt.
    The world came flooding back, and she remembered that he and Zoey were right behind her. Watching.
    She squirmed in Ben’s grasp until he set her on the ground. Behind him, his team of Gray Devils Freebooters stood up as they slowly recognized who she was.
    Mira recognized most of them, too. A redheaded kid named Scott Norwood, the third-highest-rated Freebooter in the Gray Devils and the fifth overall. He’d always had a competitive streak with Ben, though Ben never seemed to notice. Twin sisters, both fourteen, Tara and Ranee Enright, had only been Freebooters a few months before Mira had been exiled, but she remembered they’d shown impressive pathfinding skills. Joseph Pisano, a tall, lanky kid, who had always had a crush on Mira, she thought, though he was too shy to act on it. And others, about twenty in all.
    She used to be one of them, someone they looked up to. But now they stared at her with hostility. In their minds, she had betrayed their faction, she was a Point fabricator, and things were very different now. It was another reminder of just how much she’d lost.
    The Gray Devils moved toward her.
    Behind her, Mira sensed Holt step forward, saw his hands slide toward his pistol. She opened her mouth to speak—
    “No.” Another voice beat her to it. Ben’s. Calm, soft and low. But somehow it always carried, everyone always heard it. He slowly held up a hand as he spoke.
    The Gray Devils froze in their tracks, staring between Ben and Mira.
    “Everything’s fine,” Ben said. “It adds up. If Mira’s here, then things are resolved. Right, Mira?” Whether he was covering for her or believed what he’d said, Mira couldn’t tell.
    “Yes,” was all she said. She’d tell Ben the truth later, but not with the other Gray Devils nearby. She quickly moved on before anyone else spoke. “Ben, I want you to meet my friends.”
    Mira was surprised by the effort it took to say that. It was a moment, like many others, she’d been dreading. A part of her hoped it would never come, but it had. And there was nothing to do about it now. “This is … Holt.” She forced herself to look at him. Her throat felt dry. “He’s the one who got me here. And he helped me in Midnight City, too. I wouldn’t be alive without him.”
    Ben looked at Holt. And Holt looked back.
    Ben had an amazing ability to deduce things from simple observations. He could put seemingly random and unconnected pieces of a puzzle together with very little effort, and right now his gaze moved up and down Holt with intensity.
    “He was also the bounty hunter who captured you,” Ben said. Holt’s eyebrows raised. He looked at Mira questioningly. “It’s your shoes, mainly,” Ben continued. “You don’t wear boots like most people. And yours are new, probably salvaged a month ago, maybe less. That makes it a conscious choice. Shoes over boots. Only reason you do that—so you can run . Which means you run a lot.”
    Holt’s stare hardened, but Ben didn’t seem to notice.
    “You’re clearly not timid, I can see it in your eyes, so you’re not running from anyone. You’re running after them. Chasing people … and you do it a lot. That, combined with the handcuffs on your belt, suggests you’re a bounty hunter. Someone who chases people for a living. You must be good, too. Catching Mira couldn’t have been easy.” Ben’s voice shifted slightly. The barest hint of darkness. But for him, it said a lot.
    Holt smiled slightly. “She definitely made me work for it.”
    Mira felt a shudder, almost smiled herself, but stopped. This wasn’t the place. This was a charged situation.
    Ben nodded. “I’m sure.” He looked away and down at Zoey, who was holding on to Holt with one arm and Max with the other. Ben’s eyes moved over her in the same laborious way.
    “This is