Blood Supermoon

27. Lost on Fire Road

With courage and pursuit...all I know, leads up to this moment...

Sometime during the scuffle, Josandra had lost Jackson. When Lue and Upton parted ways with them, she and Jackson were so preoccupied with trying to not fight the soldiers that they ran off in opposite directions. Now she wasn't sure if anyone was looking for her or if the palace's main goal was to capture Lue and keep Zaria behind bars. She wanted to go to this west wing cell, but didn't know where that was. She decided it'd be easier to find Jackson—he couldn't have gone far.

She stayed mostly in the shadows, keeping her back to the wall, tip-toeing around rooms with her finger on the trigger. Sweat perspired her upper lip as her heart raced. In the far distance, she could hear people fighting. Underneath her feet, the floor rumbled. Was that Lue? Where they several floors below her?

Keeping her free hand to the wall, she moved silently until she got to the end of the hall. She was about to turn the corner and head down the stairs when she spotted Jackson being held at gunpoint. He was on his knees with hands in the air. She couldn't see other the person's face because their back was to her, but the person looked familiar. Where had she seen that form before?

She held her rifle correctly, aiming at the person, but for the first time in a while, her hands were shaking. It was peculiar. Why should she be so nervous to shoot a stranger?

Her eyes widened when it clicked in her head and her heart went into overdrive. She smacked her back against the wall and hid, trying to breathe, but air refused to come up.

It couldn't be.

What was happening?

Was that Clay? But Lue had killed her.

It came crashing down on her. That's how Zaria was captured. It was because of her. Even after they left her in Cedar, she was haunting them. She had brought them all here. Josandra's finger tightened around her rifle as she gritted her teeth.

Was all the moments they shared a lie? Even back at the underground tunnel, when Clay turned her back on her and those other bounty hunters shot her, it still hurt to see when Lue injured her. And now karma had caught up to them. Clay was owed lots of it and her cards had been dealt in front of Josandra's lap.

She couldn't take on someone like Clay. That would mean death and although things ended bad between them, she didn't want to battle it out. She'd just have to pose as a distraction to get Jackson out of there. She glanced down the hall at two exit doors that led to the maze garden. She tip-toed over and leaned her rifle against the doors. Then she slipped out her pistol from her boot just as Clay removed the safety lock from her gun.

Leaping into the light, she fired before Clay could shoot Jackson. The bullet grazed Clay's ear so she crouched down. She tried to grab Jackson, but he moved quick and away from her, gasping for air. He turned around and faced Josandra.

"Oh, thank God," he said, grabbing his chest. "When I heard that shot, I thought I was done for."

Josandra didn't say anything. In the time that Jackson had been speaking to her, Clay had grasped that her shot had been a warning shot. She stood up straight and met eyes with her.

There was no malice in her expression nor disbelief. Blankly, Clay stared at her as though this outcome that was bound to happen.

Josandra didn't know what to make of this. Over and over, she kept thinking about that day of betrayal and how it changed everything. She still couldn't believe that Clay didn't stop her comrade from shooting her. How could she confess her feelings and then turn her back on her?

Without pulling her eyes away from Josandra, Clay raised her arm and aimed the gun at Jackson.

"You fucking dick, all for some bounty money, really?" Jackson said.