“Do these enhanced humans look different from the others?”
Coal eyes scanning, Runeak answered, “No.”
“You won’t know if they’re shielded until you’ve attacked them?”
“They can shield other creatures and items as well as themselves.”Wrath’s reply came short and carried a hint of impatience.
“So, no,” Saer answered, just as annoyed.
Runeak shot him a cold glance before returning her attention to the base.
“Do you miss Neyu?”Saer asked.
“What?”If she’d sounded irritated before, this time Runeak turned hostile.
“I believe I spoke plainly enough.”
The muscles in her jaw and neck tensed as Runeak turned the full weight of her glare on him.“Yes, Eldest, I miss Neyu.”
Saer noticed she spoke Neyu’s name softer, with reverence.He didn’t have much knowledge of the relationships between his kin, but truth carried in the statement.Even with the undercurrent of anger, he sensed twinges of pain and grief.“Then I ask you to come with me once this battle is finished.”
Runeak shook her head.“No.”
Just then, an alarmed cry, unmistakable, rose from the enemy base.More fires lit below.A flurry of activity erupted.On the other end of the encampment, Runeak’s army rushed forward.
The battle had begun.
Wrath turned and shouted behind, signaling the rest of her soldiers forward.Torches of Runeak’s army ignited in quick order, the entirety of the force—near and far—lighting up as though they stood back in the Hells.
She made a motion to dismount when Saer’s hand darted forward and grasped her elbow.Snarling, Runeak returned her attention to him.
“Don’t you desire vengeance, Runeakael?”
Runeak replied with a meaningful growl, “I have taken what vengeance I can.”
Saer pulled his head back as though struck.Wrath jerked her elbow out of Pride’s yielding hand, swinging her leg over and off her horse.
‘…what vengeance I can.’
A slithering realization crept into his brain as he realized.Runeak had only heard the recounting of Neyu’s death from Errshek.
Clearly, Errshek had relayed that Saer unmade her, but failed to mention Saer did it to spare the rest of theDaemoenica.If Errshek revealed that piece of Lucifer’s bargain, sympathies would shift away from him—to Saer.
Errshek withheld the pivotal information to save his own skin, and place the blame squarely on Saer’s shoulders.
The attack already underway, Runeak removed the bulk of her armor, then ran forward and shifted to her given form with a roaring war cry.The sound deepened with her change and reverberated over the field, meant to spur foreboding into the hearts of those against Runeak’s forces while her own soldiers rallied.
I would have protected Neyu with everything I am, been anything, done anything.
But Runeak didn’t see it that way.Because Errshek had gotten to her, first.
‘...what vengeance I can.’
Light from the torches cast beautiful and dangerous shadows across Wrath’s scarlet flesh as she thrust her wings down and took to the air, diving straight into the center of the blooming fray.
A discomfort swirling in his guts, Saer touched his stomach and seethed.
Runeak landed amongst a throng of opposition.Others might see it as careless, but Saer knew she’d landed precisely where and how she wished.Wrath’s wings thrust out, their wicked talons impaling two, then three soldiers.Her merciless claws raked and threw a handful more to the ground in torn, bloody piles.Only one robust soldier cracked through her flurry, dragging a dagger through the powerful muscle of her thigh.Enough to draw rivulets of the demoness’s blood before he, too, was discarded—crushed under her ebony hoof.
