The angels begin to move forward toward me.
Dio’s voice behind me chokes out, “Be careful, please.”
I tense and then quickly grasp at the calm, focused instincts that I know I’m going to need to survive this. As I do so, I assume the position for the first form.
Deja vu hits me hard, pulling me briefly into a past dream as I hear Dio’s voice say, “You didn’t need to cut that deep, fuck that hurt.”
Then my instincts kick in, and I can’t hear anything but the blood pounding in my ears. I meet the charge of the first few angels and quickly kill two who moved before thinking and were caught off balance. Another I pin to the ground with her own sword.
Sweat begins to bead on my brow as I work to maintain the ground I’ve won so far. The only benefit I have in being so outnumbered is that such a large group is unable to attack at once.
Suddenly, the ground at the back of the group of angels erupts, and I see a couple of angels fall. There is a strange feeling to the air that seems to pullat my hair, making it stand on end. Then, another eruption occurs to the right of the initial blast. Moments later, heavy rain begins to fall around us, obscuring everything outside of the space where the three angels are attacking me.
I hear another loud crack, the sound cutting through the silence in my head. I briefly feel my arms aching, and my chest heaving, before I pull the numbness of focus back around me.
These angels are clever, trying to place themselves between me and the boys and cut me off. Thanks to all the practice with my footwork, however, I manage to avoid that fate. That innate intelligence strategizes, and each attempted blow is blocked, each attempt to isolate me is counteracted.
Eventually, I manage to incapacitate one with a hard enough blow of my hilt to her face, and she falls to the ground, her nose gushing blood. As she drops, and I note that the other two are retreating, I sense something at the edge of my awareness.
My gut churns, instincts screaming, and I run and throw myself into Dio, knocking him to the ground as a dagger flies past my ear.
Everything is suddenly loud, my focus gone as rain pours down around me, where I sit straddling Dio.
He blinks up at me, looking upset. “I was going to help you,” he says breathlessly.
Then I see the pain in his face and push myself off him, only to see Reem, Lent, and Fem glaring at me, their chests heaving. Before I can do or say anything, Fem walks past me, presumably to check on Dio.
Reem rounds on me. There’s some blood staining his shirt, vivid against the white, and his jacket is rumpled. “Everywhere we go, everything we do, you’re causing some sort of disruption,” he snarls.
“Not only am I confident this whole thing started because of you, but then you fucking knock Dio off his feet as he’s about tocast something. He could have killed you both when all we were trying to do was help.”
Every bit of breath leaves my lungs, and I take a step back.
“You are no longer welcome,” Reem says. “Not to live with us. You’re risking everything we built and putting all of us in danger. We can no longer do you the favor of housing you.” He’s shaking as he looks at the sky as though he’s asking a deity for help.
I can hear Dio saying something, his voice harsh but I can’t understand the words with the blood pounding in my ears.
Unable to think of anything to say for myself, I call for my own help. As I say Malam’s name, he’s suddenly standing here, between me and Reem.
As he looks at me, I know it’s lucky for the boys that he is facing me and not them. Behind Malam, I see that Lent has moved toward Reem and seems to be trying to reason with him. I don’t have it in me to fight for myself, though. Reem is right, I am causing them danger and disrupting their work.
Glancing at Dio, my chest aching, all I can do is step closer to Malam and say as quietly as I can, “Please take me somewhere else.”
Malam is looking over my shoulder, and I know he is seeing the rubble from the explosions and the wet pavement from the rain in the street behind me. I know there are bodies scattered across the street still, although it seems the angels must have already removed some.
If he is aware of the boys behind him, he doesn’t show it. “Where?” he asks, holding out his hand.
I take it, and without having to put much thought into it, I picture Lily’s apartment. Even as I do so, the shadow wraps around us and the alley, street, and the boys fade.
The last thing I see is Fem facing Dio with his hand pressed to Dio’s chest as Dio stares at me. There is something in his expression I cannot name.
DIO’S JOURNAL - ENTRY 346
Annum:5615
Entry 346 - tempesta
It’s been a couple of weeks since I last wrote. Not much has been happening, and I’ve been listening to Fem’s orders and getting some rest. Of course, the pain from my ribs and other internal injuries has given me good reason to. It was tough to concentrate on writing in this journal when I was in that much pain.
