I couldn’t even imagine it.
In the chair in front of me, Jinx shivered and slumped lower in her seat like she was also horrified. I smirked smugly because something had finally scared the haughty know-it-all.
You’re smiling because a child is terrified. Nice one, Aran.
I grimaced.
It was hard growing up to be the villain, but here I was, sitting in a room, getting lectured about war while I fantasized about making a youth miserable.
Life comes at you fast.
We’d relocated to Planet 003FX—the realm infested with ungodly—and were in the newly constructed strategy room, getting lectured at by the High Court, aka Dick.
As Dick spoke, a figure in a black cloak with glowing blue eyes stood in the corner with their features obscured. From the person’s towering height and width, they were a man.
I knew him well.
It was the same cloaked figure who’d taken Sadie to the war camp in the shifter realm. The same person who’d helped me escape the fae realm. The last time we’d seen him was at the ball in the beast realm.
Now he watched us silently, cloaked in shadows and darkness.
Another sycophant of the High Court lording over soldiers in the isolated valley of a war camp.
I ran my tongue across my teeth and tasted the power that stained the air. Goose bumps erupted down the back of my neck.
We were the champions of absent gods. Pawns for slaughter or icons of victory? Only time would tell.
Jinx and the demons were in the front row.
Twins to my right.
Sadie and her men to my left.
Devils in the back row. Orion leaned his head against Malum’s shoulder, and the leader of the kings played with his blond hair with one hand and had his other hand draped over Scorpius’s shoulder protectively.
A strange feeling flipped over in my stomach because they were obviously perfect together.
I didn’t fit in with them.
It was a cruel joke that I was their Revered.
I resumed studying my surroundings. Concrete walls glowed blue with the remnants of construction enchantments, and the space stank of frost, dirt, and leaves.
There were no windows.
A small orb in the corner was the only source of light.
Oversize wingback chairs faced the chalkboard, and a long table with an enchanted tablet built into its surface spanned the front of the room. Shelves lined the walls, filled with binders overflowing with information on the ungodly, the realm, and war strategies.
Binders were open on our laps.
Dick stood unnaturally still in front of the chalkboard as he lectured.
I slumped low in my leather chair.
This was our twenty-something-eth strategy meeting in the past week, and I was tired of being talked at; any adrenaline from surviving the Legionnaire Games had dissipated, and my attention span was ten minutes. Max.
Dick’s lips were moving, but I only heard every third word.
He flashed a tray of gas canisters, put them in a drawer, then ranted about not using anything in the drawers because you would face criminal consequences.
He went on and on about prohibited weapons.
If they were prohibited, then why would they have them on hand? What idiot would actually pay attention to this deranged presentation?
I picked at the leather cushion beneath my thigh and concentrated on mimicking a rock: hear nothing, see nothing, sit still all day, and sometimes fall over and crush people to death.
Goals.
Next to me, John raised his eyebrow, dark eyes questioning, and I sank lower with boredom. He nodded in understanding as he absent-mindedly played with one of my curls.
Beside him, Luka leaned forward and looked back and forth between the two of us with his brow furrowed. His fingers were wrapped around John’s wrist in a vise.
I’d noticed lately that the three of us were always connected.
One twin looked down at me with intense dark eyes, while the other flashed dimples, and a tendril of warmth flowered in my stomach.
Pain streaked down my spine.
I winced.
John wrapped my curl tighter around his finger, and Luka’s olive knuckles turned white as he gripped his twin fiercely.
I sank back with a sigh.
On my other side, Sadie was sleeping in a seated position with her eyes wide open. Equal parts envious and creeped out, I poked at her side.
She slowly turned her head in my direction—red eyes wide and unseeing as she stared at me for a long minute—then she slowly turned her head back forward.
I made a mental note to unfriend her immediately.
“Don’t you dare wake her up,” Cobra mouthed next to her.
I rolled my eyes.
Blah, blah, blah. I’d rather be at Elite Academy, drowning in the black sea, than sit through another of Dick’s sanctimonious explanations on battle strategy.
But here I was.
Time plodded forward.
When I was three seconds away from a self-induced coma, Dick said, “Please close your binders.”
Thank the sun god.
I unrolled my hunched spine and patted the already closed binder on my lap. I hadn’t bothered to flip through the summarized list of policies and strategies, because I’d memorized it the first time he’d covered it:
Don’t eat any food from Planet 003FX.
Don’t make loud noises.
The objective is to eliminate the ungodly quietly and efficiently before they realize they are under attack.
The civilization indigenous to Planet 003FX is unknown because of the treacherous nature of the realm’s terrain. Their new name: the infected.
Recent intelligence indicates the civilization is composed of remote city-states called compounds that are located in mountainous valleys.
The planet has a twenty-four-hour day and night cycle, like most realms with life.
Experts theorize it will take days for information to spread among the settlements. Since not all the portals in the realm have been located, the ungodly must be eliminated before they can flee.
Only wear your standard-issue battle gear. It is camouflage to the terrain.
Keep your hair pulled back from your face.
No smoking, drugs, or alcohol use during the war.
Always keep track of your weapons.
Use your weapons, holsters, and straps.
Enchanted bullets do not work against the ungodly. Rely on other weapons.
Treat other soldiers with courtesy.
Study the ranking officer chart and always listen to your commanders.
Leadership chart in descending rank: champions, generals, spies, assassins, foot soldiers.
Champions and generals have access to the strategy room for planning and will give the rest of the war camp their assignments.
The champions have the ultimate say.
The current theory is the ungodly infect their prey by forcing them to swallow their eggs. Do not swallow any eggs. It is theorized the warm temperature of the planet has allowed them to infect and spread at an abnormal rate.
I’d crossed out the drug policy because I didn’t follow bad laws.
My new life motto: stand for something or fall for everything. Yes, I was standing for drug use.