BLOOD TRAILS
Erythrophobia (noun): morbid avoidance of the color red.
DAY 36, HOUR 12
“We’ve checked everywhere. They aren’t here!” I yelled with frustration and kicked debris down the corridor. I pressed my hand against my chest and focused on the empty feeling inside. It was the only thing that kept me from losing it completely.
“Where are you Aran?” I whispered dejectedly as I stepped over the burned remains of ungodly.
The world was colored in shades of gray. Every breath I took pulled at the freshly healing wound that covered my back, which hurt far worse than any ordinary injury.
I welcomed the emptiness.
The coldness.
The pain.
It all meant one thing—Aran was still alive.
Luka gripped my bicep; his eyes were unfocused as he stared down the empty corridor. He hadn’t spoken since we’d realized Aran had gone missing, and darkness shimmered, stretching around him in an amorphous mass.
He looked how I felt.
Haunted.
“They aren’t here,” Cobra hissed, slit pupils glowing bright green as shadows writhed across every inch of his pale skin. “My snakessss have combed the structure. They’re gone.”
Xerxes rubbed at his chest. “Our bond is growing fainter, which means she’s injured. We need to find her soon.”
“Where the fuck would they have gone?” Ascher asked, his tattooed knuckles cracking as he slammed his fist into the brick wall.
“We need resources,” Scorpius said harshly. “We need to leave and get help. The angels and assassins are handling the soldiers and perimeter, so we’re wasting time waiting. We need Lothaire. The High Court. Fucking anyone. Now.”
Orion nodded.
Footsteps echoed, and excitement burned my throat. Luka’s grip tightened on my arm, and we both held our breath.
Corvus appeared around the corner and barked, “Did you find them yet?”
It wasn’t Aran. Hope plummeted so swiftly that I felt lightheaded with disappointment.
“No,” Jax snapped as he glared down at the corpse of an infected.
Corvus growled like a wild animal and staggered back. Flames shot off his tongue as he said, “All the ungodly are dead. They aren’t here.”
“We need to get help,” I said, and all the men nodded as we moved together.
Corvus slammed his hand down on the RJE device.
CRACK.
We knelt in the strategy room.
“The board!” Jax shouted, and all of us turned to see what he was gesturing at. The room exploded in expletives and noise.
Scrawled across the blackboard in large letters was, “Sadie and Aran, portal back 1st battle, trapped in basement w/ ~100 ungodly. BRING REINFORCEMENTS. SPEED. FOLLOW MY TRAIL -Jinx.”
Before I’d finished reading the message, Orion grabbed an RJE device from the drawer.
We all flung ourselves at him as he activated it.
CRACK.
“Aran, where are you?” Scorpius yelled, his voice projecting down the long, ruined corridor.
The stench of decomposing bodies was overpowering as I got to my feet. I looked around the dark structure, and dread filled my gut because there was no response.
No sounds.
The compound appeared abandoned.
“I smell Jinx’s blood trail,” Jax roared roughly as his head morphed into the maw of a bear. He sprinted down the corridor, and the rest of us followed without question.
I squinted down at my feet as we ran.
Red drops were splattered in a line between round imprints from crutches. I ran faster, heart pounding in my chest as I tried not to think about finding Aran in pieces.
Luka kept hold of my arm as he ran beside me.
Jax skidded to a stop in front of a gaping hole in the floor that appeared to be caused by some sort of blast. All the shifters leaped down the opening. The rest of us followed them into the dark.
I was terrified of what we might find.
The stench of rotting flesh increased exponentially.
There were bodies everywhere—piles and piles of mangled corpses. So many bodies that it looked like the ungodly had fought an entire army.
Nothing moved in the room.
“Arabella?” Corvus bellowed desperately as Jax roared, “Sadie? Jinx?” Everyone held their breath as they waited for a response.
It was dead silent.
Nothing.
I wanted to sob. I wanted to scream. I wanted to fall to my knees and plead with the sun god for Aran’s safety. I wanted to curl up into a ball and protect myself from the sheer agony coursing through my soul.
Standing up straighter, I scanned the room.
I would find her, and she would be okay because there was no other option. Somewhere along the way, she’d become the reason I got up in the morning.
Aran was an intoxicating combination of dark humor and sweetness.
Other people were intimidated by her harsh disposition, but I’d always preferred the darkness—I was its prince, after all.
The shimmering void expanded around Luka. With each body I scanned that wasn’t Aran’s, I considered how far I’d go to save her.
There were spine-chilling creatures kept in the underworld, some of which had advanced tracking abilities. Sure, they were class five creatures who would likely commit unspeakable atrocities if they were released. Still, they could help us find her.
I staggered over a man’s mutilated sternum.
His rib cage was intact, but his heart had been ripped out in the battle.
I empathized.
Across the room, Corvus bent down and threw body parts aside as he searched for her like a madman. Scorpius stood perfectly still and listened. Orion carefully climbed through the gore, eyes wide and unblinking as he searched beside us.
Luka and I combed through the faces, his grip painfully tight on my arms.
The shifters fanned out, looking. “Ssssadie?” Cobra hissed brokenly, shadow snakes streaming off his skin like a black tide.
No one responded.
They weren’t here.
I needed to do something. Every second that passed was a second Aran could be dying. I refused to accept a world without her.
It didn’t matter that our soul bond was corrupted.
It didn’t matter that the world was gray.
It didn’t matter that I was empty behind my sternum.
I’d endure all of it a thousand times over if it meant I got to spend my life with Aran under my arm. My back burned with pain as I moved, a reminder of what I was willing to do for her.
Anything.
I would give up everything.
Without her by our sides, Luka and I were nothing. There was no point to any of it. As soon as we’d realized Aran was missing, the disconnect from other people that we’d always felt had returned tenfold.
We didn’t care about others.
We pretended.
But there was no point in pretending anymore if we didn’t have Aran.
There was no point in living.
We weren’t built for this world.
I unleashed my power and darkness expanded into a floating doorway. Luka’s eyes widened as he realized what I was doing. It was highly illegal to release creatures from the underworld; it was a maximum-security prison for a reason.
The High Court would label me with treason and hunt me until I was eliminated.
“To help find her?” he asked.
I nodded.
My twin’s face contorted with determination. “Good. Let’s go.”
The ruination of the world be damned. She was ours and we would get her back. We stepped forward together into the—
“She’s here! I hear three people breathing!” Scorpius shouted, and we both halted. As soon as the meaning of what he’d said processed, Luka and I withdrew from the void.
It winked out of existence.
Jax pushed aside a large slab of the ceiling and revealed Sadie and Aran, who were holding each other. Jinx was leaning against them.
All three were unconscious.
Dirty.
Covered in blood.
Their chests rose and fell as they breathed.
Shadow snakes swarmed over all three of them, and Cobra hissed, “They’re all alive.” He staggered and whispered, “They’re okay. She’ssss okay.” He looked around at the carnage, face shining with pride. “They did this.”
Everyone looked around.
“Holy sun god,” Scorpius whispered as Orion whispered in his ear and described the room’s devastation.
The massacre took on a new light.
“No,” Corvus said with disbelief, eyes widening and jaw dropping as he looked back and forth between Aran—blood-coated enchanted sword lying beside her—and the dozens of mutilated corpses.
He stared at her like he’d never seen her before.
That’s my girl.
Satisfaction welled.
I’d never doubted her abilities. She was immensely capable. Sun god, power perpetually dripped from her fingers.
From Luka’s unsurprised expression, we were on the same page.
We’d always seen Aran for what she was; it was the kings who kept misjudging and trying to pigeonhole her.
Moment of shock over, everyone exploded into motion.
As I took in the gruesome wound on Aran’s thigh, the world became a blur, and it felt like I was moving underwater. Horror filled me at the fear and pain she must have experienced. She’d been all alone, trapped down here with monsters, bleeding out with no way of escaping.
My girl must have been terrified. Luka trembled beside me as he came to the same conclusions.
Time lost all meaning.
I wanted to cry, but my eyes were bone dry.
Corvus hoisted Aran into his arms, and all of us surrounded her. Touched her reverently. Reassured ourselves she was okay.
Cobra picked up Sadie, and Jax scooped up Jinx.
The RJE device was activated.
Crack.
The snow fell softly.
Sunlight shone in muted shades.
We sprinted into the medical barracks. We screamed at doctors as they ran around frantically. They attached the girls to tubes and gave them enchanted medicine.
There was barely anyone else being treated—the usual injured foot soldiers were missing.
I didn’t care.
Luka tangled his fingers in Aran’s curls, and I held her hand.
The kings also sat around her still form and kept their hands on her like they were afraid she would disappear.
The shifters were similarly gathered around Jinx and Sadie. The boy named Warren staggered into the room and shouted.
A doctor announced that it was good that they were all in a healing sleep, and Corvus screamed flames into his face.
I agreed with his sentiment.
Sixteen hours, twelve minutes, and fours second after we’d found her, Aran woke up. One eye was a darker blue than usual and highlighted the gray tone in the other.
She didn’t smile when she saw us.
She didn’t frown.
She stared blankly forward with a shell-shocked expression.
Her head whipped to the side where Sadie and Jinx were hooked up to fluids, still asleep. Ripping a needle out of her hand, she staggered over to them while we tried to stop her.
She ignored us.
Pushing the shifters out of the way, she stood between their sleeping forms and grabbed their hands.
She fell to her knees.
Bowed her head like she was praying.
And laughed.
