Bad Habit's Arc

Chapter 8 of 10

Bad Habit stood in the dead chamber with his son. Slither's body lay burned at his feet. But Slither's lieutenants had run, and they knew now that Bad Habit had children. He grabbed Koul's small hand. "We gotta find your sister. They'll go for her first." He didn't know where she was. His enemies had a head start, and the tunnels twisted in every direction. Koul tugged loose and grinned. His gold eyes glowed. "I know where Emmy is." He crossed the chamber to his little pop-up house, still standing crooked in the broken stone. Its painted eyes rolled. Koul knocked twice on the grinning door. "She's close. She's always close." Bad Habit called Bingo on the run. His childhood friend answered fast. Bingo could breathe fire that trapped a snake in a trench. He was the boss of the east end and the one ally Bad Habit trusted underground. "Two lieutenants slipped out the north drain," Bingo said. "Headed up top. They're hunting a girl. Your girl?" "My girl," Bad Habit said. "Cut them off." They climbed toward daylight. Koul's mini gremlins spilled from the house and scouted the passage ahead, chittering back what they saw. Near the tunnel mouth, the gremlins froze. Two snake lieutenants had a teenage girl backed against the wall. Brown locs. Red eyes. Gold teeth. Emmy Habits. Bad Habit's heart dropped. Then he saw her face. She wasn't scared. She was bored. One lieutenant lunged. Emmy blurred sideways, faster than a cheetah. She was behind him before he finished the strike. She lifted him off his feet with one hand and threw him into the stone. He didn't get up. The second one drew a blade. Emmy's feet left the ground. She flew straight at him, caught his wrist, and squeezed until the blade dropped. "You came for my little brother," she said. "That was your mistake." Koul burst from the tunnel laughing. "Emmy!" He flung out one hand and pinned the last lieutenant to the wall without touching him. Emmy landed beside him and ruffled his dragging locs. "You following Daddy into snake nests now?" she said. "He needed help," Koul said. "You needed help too." "I had it handled." She smiled at him with gold teeth. Bad Habit reached them and pulled both children close. Bingo landed at the tunnel mouth, unseen, only his breath warming the air. The lieutenant pinned to the wall stared at all of them. A father with killing eyes. A toddler who moved men without a touch. A girl who flew and hit like an ape. "Let him look," Bad Habit said. "Then let him run." Koul dropped his hand. The lieutenant fled up the drain. Bad Habit watched him go. Emmy was safe. His family stood together, whole, in one place for the first time. But the runner would tell every boss left in Los Memories what he'd seen. His children weren't a secret anymore. They were a legend. And the throne wasn't going to burn itself. Bad Habits chuckles “ready for some fun kids?”