BATTLE
Travail (noun): a state of great suffering of body or mind.
DAY 29, HOUR 4
I woke up to sirens wailing.
Lights flashed.
I was convinced an apocalypse was happening, and we were all going to die.
Finally, my luck was turning around.
“The angels have returned from their scouting mission!” The alarm system blared over the room’s enchanted speaker system.
Never mind.
I grunted as a heavy, warm weight rolled off me.
Someone kissed my forehead gently. “You’re perfect,” they whispered in my ear.
I rubbed at my tired eyes.
They were gone.
The speakers continued relentlessly.
“The third ungodly infestation has been located, and RJE devices have been calibrated for coordinates.” Lights flashed. “All soldiers report to the cafeteria in .03 hours. Repeat. All soldiers report to the cafeteria in .03 hours. Reminder to move stealthily, quiet must be observed in open areas. Do not compromise the base.”
Whatever angel hit the preprogrammed emergency broadcast button was getting punched in the throat.
There was literally no need to rush into battle.
It was still dark out.
Men stumbled around the room, getting ready like there was a fire. The twins and the missing kings had returned sometime in the night.
My fingers froze together as ice crawled up my forearm.
The room was a flurry of activity as everyone in our legion panicked. Malum shouted something.
I blinked groggily as I rolled lazily out of bed.
“Let’s go.” Malum grabbed my arm as I pulled at the covers. His eyes were chips of steel.
I jolted as I remembered how he’d talked to me for hours.
“Wait, did we sleep together all night?” I flushed as I remembered the warm weight rolling off me.
Did he kiss my forehead this morning and tell me I was perfect? Had I imagined it?
“That’s not important right now,” he said in a clipped tone. “Get ready.” The warrior was back.
“It’s important to me,” I said as I got ready.
When I was dressed, Malum grasped my arm and pulled me out of the room, straight into a punishing blizzard.
What was with all the grabbing this morning? He held on to me like he was afraid he’d lose me.
Wind burned where it touched my exposed face.
The ground was iced over, and the pine trees were completely coated in white. Branches were frozen and made no noise.
Dangerous icicles glinted.
The only sound was our crunching footsteps, frosty breath, and screaming wind.
It was eerie.
The twins jogged in my peripheral vision, and my heart hurt as I remembered they’d left me. They were supposed to be different from the kings. They weren’t supposed to leave without a word.
Scorpius and Orion sidled protectively in front of me. Malum kept his hold on my arm.
They turned their heads back toward me. Once again, they had streaks of dried blood on their faces.
“Where did you two go?” I asked.
“We can’t say,” Scorpius said with a strange expression. Orion stared at me over his shoulder.
“Whatever.” I pushed my pipe between my lips and inhaled sharply. “I guess we all have our secrets.” I exhaled, and smoke curled around my face.
The arm pulling me along the path caught fire. I leaned closer to the warmth and narrowed my eyes up at Malum as I tried to figure out what had pissed him off this time.
His cheeks turned bright pink under my scrutiny, and he purposefully didn’t make eye contact.
I stumbled as I realized he was intentionally on fire. He was warming me. Another frozen piece of my heart thawed. I played with the edges of my sleeves.
“Be careful,” he ordered. “Keep your mittens on.”
I arched my brow at his tone, and his blush intensified.
“Don’t tell me what to do with my mittens,” I said as we moved through the trees.
The corner of his lip curled up. “Don’t be a brat.”
I stuck my tongue out at him.
The demons sprinted past, kicking up snow in their wake.
Malum’s grip on my arm tightened, and I realized he was still dragging me.
“I don’t need you to lead me like a dog.” I tugged away from him.
“No, you don’t.” He didn’t release me. “But you do need me to warm you.”
He had me there.
“Your fire is nice,” I admitted sheepishly. “Thank you.”
Malum tripped and his gaze shot to my face. He stared at my face with a strange intensity and said, “You’re welcome.”
Energy strummed between us.
When we entered the cafeteria, and the gathered soldiers fell silent at our arrival. They waited for our directions. The space was much less full compared to the first day we’d gathered.
We were losing soldiers at an alarming rate.
“Did everyone read the new battle plan that we delivered to your barracks the other day?” Malum shouted.
Soldiers nodded.
No one spoke.
“I have a question,” Knox said as the group of angels approached him.
I backed away as they started to argue.
Jax asked the room, “Does anyone else besides the angels have any questions?”
Some soldiers turned to each other, but no one else spoke up. Workers hustled around the room, handing out enchanted swords and other various weapons to everyone.
Sadie stood off to the side, whisper arguing with Cobra, and I headed toward her.
I walked into a wall of male.
It was the twins.
“We need to talk,” John said, his voice imploring as he wrapped his arm around me.
I shrugged him off and backpedaled. “You two left without a word—what the hell?” My voice cracked.
Luka made a pained noise and grabbed my shoulder. “We left a note on the bureau. Did you read it?”
“I didn’t get any note,” I said.
“Shit,” John swore. “You must have been worried.”
My stomach hurt as I thought about everyone leaving me alone yesterday. What if Malum had killed me? Everyone knew what he was like.
Well, what he seemed like. It was hard to fear someone after they cuddled you all night.
Jax shouted, “One minute until we RJE to the camp! Stick to the plan!”
John said quickly, “We had to go to our home realm because we needed to figure out what’s been happening to us.” The three of us strapped enchanted swords onto our hips, and Luka helped me adjust my holster. “We’ve been ill.”
My stomach dropped.
The twins’ faces still looked pale, and they had dark circles beneath their eyes. I’d noticed they’d been looking unwell recently, but I hadn’t gotten the chance to ask them about it with all the war strategizing.
“Are you okay?” I asked, all anger leaving my body as panic set in. The twins needed to be fine. Sun god, we were about to walk into battle.
Worry made my legs weak.
“We’ll be fine,” Luka reassured me as he twisted his fingers around one of my curls. “We just need to tell you everything we’ve learned—it affects all three of us.”
“What is it?” I asked, afraid of the answer.
“Fifteen seconds!” Malum shouted, and RJE devices whirled. The rest of our legion surrounded us. Vegar made a quip, but I was so nervous for the twins that I didn’t hear him.
Orion and Scorpius grabbed my wrists. Malum stood directly behind me and engulfed me with his larger frame. The twins sidled closer.
Five men surrounded me.
Crack.
I opened my eyes, and we were on the edge of a forest, a wall towered a few feet away.
Jax and Malum pointed, and soldiers nodded as they fanned out under the cover of dark until only a few of us were left to infiltrate the structure.
I breathed deeply, but my lungs didn’t work.
The pipe was heavy in my mouth.
“Let’s go,” Jax mouthed as he put in his earpiece and pulled up the black hood that covered his face.
Everyone followed his lead.
The shifters climbed over the brick wall first, moving stealthily and gracefully with their heightened animal instincts.
“It has to do with our enchanted jewelry,” John whispered hurriedly in my ear, and I looked over. He wasn’t wearing his earpiece and hadn’t pulled up his hood. Neither had Luka.
More people climbed over the wall.
It was almost our turn.
“We confirmed with our aunt, who was the one who gave us the jewels,” John spoke quickly. “They form a soul connection between wearers when wedding vows are said aloud.”
The assassins climbed over the wall, and the demons followed.
Luka said, “However, enchanted jewels are extremely rare and can take on lives of their own.”
The angels unfurled their wings and flew over.
John continued, “Our aunt thinks that’s what’s happening with us.” He frowned. “She thinks the soul connection is already forming between us because it senses something is wrong with one of our souls.”
My stomach plummeted.
The kings started climbing.
“What do you mean?” I asked, the words numb on my lips as my vision blurred.
Both twins frowned like they didn’t want to say it.
John blurted, “She thinks something is wrong with your soul and it’s affecting us. We’re having strange pain down our backs and disturbances with our vision. We both feel—empty lately. It’s hard to describe.”
Oh no.
I knew exactly what pain they felt across their backs; I knew they were seeing in gray tones; I knew exactly the feeling of emptiness they were describing.
I wanted to vomit. Cry. Scream. Faint.
“What are you three waiting for? Climb over.” I jumped as Malum’s voice crackled through the earpiece hanging around my neck.
“We’ll figure it out later—we just wanted you to know what we’ve found,” John said as he pulled the hood over his head. “It’s not a big deal, we don’t know anything for certain yet.”
Luka nodded as he mimicked his motion. “Don’t worry.”
Too late.
I was having a full-blown panic attack.
What was wrong with my soul? Was I soulless?
It would make sense.
The twins gestured to the wall, and with tingling limbs, I climbed over as they followed close behind.
“What took so long?” Scorpius snarled when I got to the other side.
I barely noticed the courtyard, festive lights, and tinkling bells.
I barely noticed the black corridors.
Ungodly screeched. Animals roared. Blood splattered.
Jinx yelled inside my head.
I was a visitor inside my own body, a soulless husk of bones that fought mindlessly. Perhaps that was all I’d ever been.
An ungodly shrieked in my face.
Malum shoved me aside and ripped its head off with his bare hands.
An infected stabbed an enchanted sword at me, and I dodged, then spun and gutted them. An ungodly ripped from their flesh, and I gutted them too.
Some infected shouted taunts, some fought silently, and others pleaded for mercy that was not mine to give.
The twins fought surrounded by dark shadows.
I grunted as an infected landed a punch to my stomach. Before I could retaliate, Scorpius viciously broke both his arms and legs.
Later, an infected male screamed something derogatory in my face. Luka grabbed his tongue, slicing it clean out of his mouth before gutting him.
I blinked.
A man got too close to me, and John stabbed him, then stomped on his face.
I blinked.
Orion cracked the neck of an infected who almost landed a blow on my arm.
I blinked.
Malum lit three infected on fire as they approached me.
I blinked.
Scorpius and John sliced the limbs off an infected whose sword lightly grazed the side of my leg.
I blinked.
Luka and Orion silently disemboweled an ungodly together.
I blinked.
Malum set a room of infected on fire.
I blinked.
My sword skewered three infected at once, and John yelled “good work” at me while the men handled the ungodly.
I blinked.
Green and red were splattered across corridor walls.
My boots stuck to the floor as I ran after my prey. I left a trail of cobalt ice in my wake. Smoke curled from the pipe permanently lodged between my lips.
The haze stole time.
Purpose.
Meaning.
An ungodly shrieked into my face, and I screamed back.
Sun god save my broken soul.
