Scorpius arched a brow, clearly unused to other men challenging him. “Is that so?” he asked wickedly.
I grabbed John’s shoulders and pulled him away from the sadistic bastard who would tear him to pieces. “Can you not start a fight right now?” I asked him.
John grumbled, “I wouldn’t just start a fight, I’d end one.”
Scorpius barked with laughter like the idea of John beating him was hilarious, and I grimaced because I had to side with the king on this one.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” I groaned.
John pulled on my ponytail. “Cheer up, little Smurf. Before you know it, the ungodly will be dead and we’ll be back here hanging out. Rumor has it the High Court is going to let us party to blow off steam.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down suggestively. “Plenty of drugs to do later.”
He pretended to smoke an imaginary cigarette, and I laughed at how ridiculous he looked.
Scorpius muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, “I have something you can blow.”
We ignored him.
“Fine, but I want demon brew,” I said.
John winked. “Of course.”
“And I want to…” I trailed off and mimicked him by wiggling my eyebrows.
John’s lips curled in a mischievous smile, and he pressed a soft kiss to my lips. “Anything for you, darling,” he breathed into my mouth.
I tasted sandalwood and musk.
His lips were soft and warm.
Familiar.
Luka stroked the back of my head as his twin kissed me.
The pain that scoured my back was so strong it was like being doused in ice water.
Scorpius made a harsh noise in his throat, and when I looked over, he was flushed. Strange.
Orion gritted his teeth.
My skin prickled, and the pain intensified.
A spiteful part of me enjoyed knowing that the kings were watching me kiss John.
I wanted them to see what they would never have.
I wanted them to hurt like they’d hurt me.
Backing away from John, I nodded. “Let’s do this.”
I pulled the black elastic hood up and over my head, then tugged it low so it covered my entire face. The material appeared solid from the outside, but it was deceptively breathable and easy to see through.
Everyone did the same.
Clad head to toe in black, we became shadows with no discernable features.
In the middle of the room, Jax counted down from ten, and everyone gathered around the RJE devices. The twins grabbed my hands, and Orion grabbed my arm.
Sharp nails pressed through cloth into the back of my neck, and I startled at the intrusive touch. Pain traveled across my nerves and flared down my spine.
“Stay close, my Revered,” Scorpius whispered against the shell of my ear. “Don’t forget the bond sickness.”
I shivered.
As if I could ever forget my shackles.
Crack.
We disappeared.
Chapter 9
Aran
BATTLE
Baleful (adjective): foreboding or threatening evil.
DAY 1, HOUR 4
“Stay low.” Jax’s voice crackled in my earpiece as we moved through the empty courtyard.
Festive bells were strung across the yard, and they tinkled prettily in the icy wind.
They grated across my nerves.
Our attacking group was composed of the champions, the generals, and the four women of the assassin legion, who slithered through the shadows of night.
They were nothing more than a blur.
None of us were.
We were the only soldiers going inside the compound, since we were the strongest and largely had no idea the numbers we’d be coming up against. We had the best chance of escaping if need be.
The rest of the foot soldiers were currently creeping through the valley and creating a perimeter to ensure none of the infected got away.
Jax and Sadie led our group forward.
I was at the back, surrounded by shadows.
The twins guarded my front, and the kings guarded my back. Intensity radiated off them as they slunk silently through the snowy night.
Dread slithered down my spine.
The Necklace of Death pulsed, warm, against my sternum like it was trying to reassure me.
It didn’t work.
I breathed shakily.
As soon as we’d RJE’d and climbed over the high wall of the empty courtyard, the men’s energy had changed. Even John was different.
They’d shed their masks of civility. They were no longer the men I spent my days arguing and laughing with.
They were draconian, more killers than men.
And I was one of them.
We were like the soulmancers of lore, a people so deadly and terrifying they were more myth than reality.
The monsters of all monsters.
Air left my lips in frosty puffs. Thighs trembling, sweat streaking down my forehead, I squatted low and moved swiftly with daggers clenched between frozen fingers.
My eyes watered from the frozen air.
Snow drifted down lazily, and I blinked to clear the wetness off my eyelashes.
The pine trees in the courtyard were wrapped in fairy lights, and the distracting shards of light streaked across my peripheral vision. Bricks were warm beneath my heavy combat boots.
Tendrils of steam evaporated into the starry night.
Jax’s voice was loud and crisp through my earpiece as he whispered, “There are four entrance points. Everyone stays as a group like we planned. Sadie in the front, and no splitting up. Follow me.”
We entered the compound and walked directly into a long, windowless brick corridor.
I shivered as the temperature plummeted and a heavy stone floor blocked the steam and heat from the ground. The only light was flickering torches.
It was musty.
Damp.
Insidious.
My lungs rattled loudly in the quiet, and I held my breath.
One. Three. Six. Nine. Eleven. Thirteen. Fifteen. Seventeen. I counted in odd numbers as we moved silently, a unit of highly trained murderers.
There were no doors, and we appeared to be inside an endless stretch of silent corridor. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought we were in an abandoned building.
Goose bumps broke out across the back of my neck. How could anyone live in this austere, rank atmosphere?
From the quiet, the infected must have a lunar sleep cycle.
At the front of the group, Jax stopped suddenly and held up his hand. Surrounded by darkness, I could barely make out him signaling that the corridor branched off up ahead.
We followed him as he made a sharp right.
We moved silently.
Deeper into the compound.
I scanned the corridors, but there didn’t appear to be any doors or signs of life, which made no sense.
The quiet expanded until I could hear the frantic pounding of my heart in my ears as blood mixed with adrenaline.
Sweat poured down my sides.
My fingers cramped around the hilts of my daggers.
“Did you see something?” an accented foreign voice asked loudly, and all of us stopped moving.
Another accented voice responded, “What are you talking about?”
Down the dark hall, two streaks of glowing blue approached where we waited in the shadows.
It was the infected.
We crouched lower, nobody twitched, and nobody breathed.