The Gender Plan (The Gender Game #6)

The breath caught in my lungs as Morgan snapped into view a few feet behind Lena, her gun pointed at the princess’ blonde head. “Here,” she said calmly.

The next moment seemed as if it had been scripted somehow. Morgan pulled the trigger, the gunshot echoing loudly, but Lena had already sidestepped, her body spinning gracefully around as she leveled a fist at her twin’s face. By the time the punch would’ve connected, however, Morgan was out of range, her hands appearing out of nowhere to deflect the blow and deliver an attack of their own.

I could only watch, stunned. The fight was a graceful dance, their moves fluid yet strong. More often than not, they didn’t even touch, their limbs coming within an inch of each other as they anticipated and blocked one another’s moves. It looked effortless, but I could hear that each of them was straining as they let out grunts and harsh breaths. The battle was beautiful, but it was deadly, and the precision and ruthlessness of the two fighters was terrifying. The gun went off once, then twice more, to no effect that I could see—Morgan was not pulling her punches. She was trying to kill her sister.

I stared for what felt like too long, but must have been less than a minute. Then my eyes flicked back to Desmond. I saw her turning her eyes from the fight toward me at the same moment, and I lunged toward her, trying to take the advantage. But I was weaponless, and she swung her gun up toward me again, shaking her head like a teacher scolding a naughty child. “Are you reneging on our deal?”

I froze. “No,” I said, not bothering to hide the regret in my voice. “Just… testing your reflexes.”

Desmond took a couple steps and shoved the gun into my side again, dropping the cane and wrapping her arm around my good arm. “Best not to get involved in a family squabble,” she said with a flick of her head toward the sisters, pushing me forward. “It’ll be over soon enough.”

I stumbled forward as Desmond prompted, painfully aware of her gun in my side. My mind struggled to rework our plan, frantically improvising as Desmond pushed me closer to the pool, angling us toward the heloship. Two women clad in sky-blue uniforms—indicating they were royal guards—were already heading toward us, rifles in their hands, but they were still a fair distance away. I took them in, and then looked back over my shoulder to see the twins still intertwined in their delicate and deadly dance. Cody was trailing along behind us, and I focused on him.

“Wait,” I said to Desmond, coming to a sudden halt. “I told you I would come quietly… if you let Cody go! He’s still here. You’re breaking our deal!”

She started to scoff, but I stepped into her, bringing my face so close to hers that I could count every wrinkle. “Don’t you dare,” I grated out, meeting her eyes. She pushed the gun deeper into my ribs in warning, but I brought my left hand up to the muzzle, ready to push it away from me. “If you break your word right now, I will fight you tooth and nail. I know I’ll lose, but I don’t care as long as I do as much damage as possible. You’ve got a broken leg. And you’ve already seen what I can do.”

Desmond stared at me, and then gave an irritated tsk and turned around to look at Cody. “You heard Violet. Go.”

Cody’s eyes widened, and he frowned. “No,” he said, his voice high with alarm. “I want to go with you!”

Desmond watched him, bored and impassive, as tears welled up in his eyes and he began to cry. “Cody, you’re acting like an infant. You’re useless without Benuxupane.”

At her words, his tears turned to sobs, and she rolled her eyes and turned away. “Let’s go,” she said, nudging me forward. I tried to ignore the sickness in my stomach that was adding to my anger—if Desmond hurt his feelings, maybe Cody would finally believe us about her… Maybe it would be for the best…

Cody’s cries grew, and I gave up and turned back to see him still following us, fat tears rolling down his cheeks and snot dripping from his nose. “Please,” he begged hoarsely. “Please don’t leave me!”

“I’m not your mother!” Desmond snapped, whipping around. “I have no interest in being your mother! You are a weak, spineless thing, and I could never be a mother to something so pitiable. Now go away!”

Cody’s face fell, devastation and heart-rending disbelief on his face. “You’re lying,” he stammered, his voice coming out at a high-pitched warble that made it sound like his vocal cords were frozen. “You’re lying because of Violet. You want me to meet you somewhere—”

A gunshot followed by a loud splash cut off whatever Cody was going to say, and Desmond jerked me farther around, using me as a brace to look back around the curved edges of the pond. Morgan stood at the edge of the pool, her foot planted in Lena’s limp back, and as we watched, she pushed her sister’s body farther out into the water, a look of grim triumph on her face. Then she looked over at us, the satisfaction on her face vanishing, and she spat out a curse.

“Shoot her!” Desmond screamed over her shoulder just as the guards began to fire in Morgan’s direction. The dark-haired woman sprang into action, seeming to move through the bullets, her body twisting around impossibly as she raced across the ground toward us.

Desmond tugged my arm, propelling me forward a few more steps, then paused, turning to where Cody was still following us, tears pouring down his face. She made an irritated growl and whipped around, her gun leaving my side and aiming for the little boy behind us.

I saw Cody’s eyes flash up toward her face, and his name was barely a consonant in the back of my mouth when a shadow darted forward from the left, slamming into the boy and pushing him into the pool we stood next to.

Desmond’s gun went off with a loud bang, and my heart stopped as I saw Jay look up at me from the spot where the younger boy had stood a moment ago, a hand fluttering to his stomach and blood rushing between his fingers, his mouth opening in an ‘O’ of surprise.

My throat felt frozen, the muscles in my chest so tight, it was as if the scream that refused to come from my throat was trying to rip the flesh from my bones. Jay dropped to his knees and sagged back, sitting on his heels. “Mom?” he asked, his gaze jerking to Desmond, his eyes those of a young, frightened boy.