“Now, Sadie,” Jax whispered quietly over the radio as we followed the plan.
My toes cramped as I squatted lower, muscles trembling. I was shaking, and it had nothing to do with exertion.
As the blue glow drew closer, I made out the outline of two figures.
The infected started to run towards us.
One of them shouted, “What is—”
“STOP!” Sadie yelled, and the man never got out his question.
The two infected stopped moving—they were frozen, Sadie’s blood coursing through their veins and taking them over from the inside out.
They didn’t move.
They didn’t speak.
“Everyone, move closer,” Jax ordered, and we approached as a unit.
“It’s hard to hold them,” Sadie said over the radio through gritted teeth. “It must be the ungodly inside them. I can only use these two.”
“Don’t you dare overexert yourself,” Cobra whispered back angrily.
Sadie scoffed, “I’m fine.”
“You better not hurt yourself.”
“You better shut up.”
“We’re not doing this right now,” Jax snarled, and the line went silent.
The two infected held glowing blue swords that were pointed directly at us.
I stumbled back instinctively.
The infected turned like mindless zombies and positioned themselves at the front of our group, spinning their swords, a glowing blue blur in the darkness.
They were on our side now, enslaved fully by Sadie’s blood powers.
They led us forward.
Deeper.
Into the compound.
We followed the corridors into the structure. Their swords whooshed as they sliced through the air. Tension gradually released as we explored and didn’t find any more infected. The sprawling structure appeared to be mostly abandoned.
Our plan was overkill.
This is going to be an easy mission.
As soon as the positive thought flickered through my mind, shouts erupted, and infected appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
Blue swords clashed.
Ink dripped off the demons and formed black swords as the angels unleashed their swords of ice.
Someone screamed as they went up in flames.
Daggers whistled through the air.
Crystal wings flapped.
An animal roared.
The kings disarmed the infected and ripped them apart with their bare hands; bones snapped as necks broke.
The twins were equally vicious.
There was a grotesque ripping sound followed by the splatter of water. I stumbled as a familiar, awful chittering sound echoed down the corridor.
It hadn’t been water.
It was blood.
The ungodly were here.
I staggered tiredly as I rounded a corner, slipping on a patch of ice—a trail of cobalt spread beneath my feet and created a path behind me.
I had no idea why I was shedding ice, and I had seemingly no way to stop it.
For the millionth time, I concentrated and imagined the cold forming into an ice sword.
I slipped as more cobalt spread out beneath my feet.
No sword formed.
Frustration welled, and I wanted to scream. My gut told me this was yet another gift from my messed-up heritage.
Far away, a bear roared.
I stopped to listen, then turned and ran toward the sound.
The kings must be nearby, because the bond sickness hadn’t hit, but the compound was a confusing maze of corridors and hidden rooms. We’d explored most of them, but more kept popping up out of nowhere.
It was exhausting.
Another roar made the stones vibrate beneath me.
I could hear the shifters fighting, but I couldn’t find them.
I was alone.
“Scorpius!” I yelled into the darkness because he had the best chance of finding me amid the chaos of the battle.
Another faraway roar, but no one responded to my plea.
The men must have been on the other side of the wall, in the large room filled with hundreds of people where the sounds of heavy fighting were still concentrated.
Acting without thought, I threw myself against the closest corridor wall. I groaned as fresh pain agitated the many battle wounds I was sporting.
Sun god, that had been a stupid idea.
I low-key loved that I thought I could just throw myself through a heavily fortified brick wall and it would break. Where had that confidence come from?
Limping, trembling with exhaustion, body bruised and aching, I forced myself to keep running forward.
I needed to find everyone.
It had all been going to plan—we’d been fighting as a group and staying together as we traveled deeper into the compound.
I’d cut down infected and ungodly with the twins at my front and the kings at my back.
I’d dodged—they’d attacked.
They’d dodged—I’d thrust.
On repeat.
For hours.
We’d picked up the discarded weapons of the infected, and all of us had fought with the more dangerous enchanted swords while the infected screamed and ungodly screeched in the darkness.
It had been hard to discern the locations of my teammates as they’d moved like shadows around our foe.
It had been messy.
Disturbing.
I’d only used the sword and had hesitated to fling daggers because I could not ensure that I wouldn’t hit someone on my side. It had been hours of close combat.
My arms had trembled from exertion.
Then, about an hour ago, a sudden explosion had collapsed a portion of the large room where the fighting was concentrated, and my earpiece had fallen out.
Enchanted swords had swung through the rubble in a blur of bodies. Ungodly had screeched and attacked beside them.
I’d stumbled out into a hall.
I’d barely had time to throw a dagger at an ungodly’s neck as I’d brandished my enchanted sword.
The ungodly had surrounded me.
Dust had been in my eyes, and bricks had been falling.
Bedlam.
I’d turned and sprinted, fighting off ungodly as they chased after me as I ran into the dark. It was disorienting.
The building was a maze of overlapping narrow halls. False walls and dead ends.
That was about an hour ago.
In the present, I sprinted around yet another corner, struggling to breathe as frustration made me panicky.
Squelsh. I kicked something wet.
Torches flickered and illuminated the streaks of gore and entrails that covered the corridor.
Had I already run past that severed head? Was I going in circles?
I kept running forward, refusing to look down at the severed body parts strewn over the stone floor like discarded clothes.
The stench was awful.
Gore covered mostly everything in the compound.
Every hidden room.
Corridor.
Crack and crevice.
I struggled to breathe, and ice crackled as it spread out around me and encased the body parts.
“Stay calm, find the rest of the team,” Jinx’s voice echoed fuzzily in my head.
A part of me was convinced I was hallucinating her voice and I just wanted it to be our guardian-angel connection.
I was lost.
Bond sickness made me queasy, but it wasn’t unimaginable pain, which meant the kings still had to be nearby.
I was most likely running in some sort of circle outside the big room where the battle was concentrated. What didn’t make sense was that I should have run around and found the entrance by now.
The only logical explanation was I was going in a circle.
A scream bubbled up my throat.