The first raindrop hit the dirt in the courtyard so softly it almost sounded imagined.
Then came another.
Then five.
Then a curtain.
Within seconds, heavy mountain rain crashed down over the entire village.
I stood up again despite the pain in my hand.
“Wendy,” I said, “take Bella over the side wall. If you can, gather every woman in this village and get out.”
They both stared at me.
“These men are focused on me. That’s your window.”
I paused, then added, “Go to Hank’s house. There’s a child named Mia there. Bring the kid with you.”
Wendy’s eyes widened.
Bella looked like she wanted to argue, but she was too weak.
I said the last part more quietly.
“And Bella… whatever happened to you here… don’t let it be your whole life. Bury it if you have to. Survive first.”
I didn’t tell her why I said that.
I didn’t tell her that when I was seven or eight, traffickers took me too.
I didn’t tell her I had spent years grinding myself into something inhuman because becoming a machine hurt less than remembering I had once been a child.
Some things don’t need words.
The rain got harder.
Outside the gate, the men started arguing.
Their shotguns were becoming useless in the downpour.
So were my firebombs.
That meant what came next would be close.
Messy.
Personal.
I stepped through the gate alone.
The men outside went quiet for half a second, surprised I had come out.
Then Jonah laughed. “Giving up?”
I said nothing.
I only slid a custom steel tiger-claw over my left hand and looked at the men in front of me one by one.
Human faces.
Animal hearts.
“I’m Sierra Yu,” I said.
My voice was calm.
Too calm.
“And tonight, every one of you pays.”
Then I moved.
The first man went down before he got his footing.
The second dropped screaming.
Then the third.
Rain hammered my hair into my face and filled my eyes. Mud splashed up my legs. Blood from my right hand mixed with water and kept slipping down my wrist.
They were stronger than the men before.
More of them too.
I could feel my body slowing.
My left arm started to numb from impact.
My right hand reopened every time I used it.
Jonah was still trying to take me alive.
That was the only reason I was standing at all.
I heard women climbing the wall behind me and knew Bella and Wendy had gotten out.
Good.
That was enough.
I reached into my pocket during a brief stagger backward, searching for anything left I could use.
My fingers brushed something wrapped in paper.
Chocolate.
For one confused second, I just stared at it in my hand.
The piece I had given Mia.
When had the child slipped it into my pocket?
I shoved it into my mouth without unwrapping it properly, bit down, and tasted sweetness through rain and blood.
It gave me just enough.
Jonah sneered. “Still not surrendering?”
“Go to hell,” I said, and lunged.
At that exact moment, a voice rang out through the rain.
“Sierra!”
Wendy.
I looked up sharply.
She was running back toward us.
But she wasn’t alone.
Neither was Bella.
Behind them came women from every corner of the village—women who had been beaten, bought, locked up, traded, silenced. They were carrying pitchforks, hoes, cleavers, kitchen knives, wooden poles, anything they could grab.
And they were screaming.
One of Jonah’s men turned pale.
“The women are revolting!”
For the first time all night, the men looked afraid.
I smiled.
Jonah cursed and turned toward the charging crowd.
Big mistake.
I closed the distance in two steps, jumped, locked my legs around his neck, and hurled him down into the mud.
His head hit hard.
Before he could recover, I ripped a shotgun from the ground and brought the stock down again and again until he stopped moving.
When I stood, soaked through and breathing hard, I looked at the men still on their feet and shouted, “Who’s next?”
No one moved.
No one wanted to.
Their leader was down.
Their guns were useless.
The women they had terrorized for years were now closing in from every side.
One by one, then all at once, the remaining men dropped their weapons.
Some begged.
Some cried.
Some fell to their knees.
Around us, the women didn’t cheer immediately.
Some did, eventually.
But first came something else.
Sobs.
Raw, uncontrollable sobs from people who had been holding their breath for years and finally got it back.
I watched Wendy organize the women into binding the men while Bella leaned against the wall, shaking but still standing.
And then, when I knew they had it under control, my strength gave out.
The world tilted.
And I fell.