“Stay in there until I send a servant or a messenger who will knock on the door three times, then three times again. If you don’t hear that signal, you remain silent and unmoving. Whenyou do hear it, come out with confidence. Tonight, the Fallen willfall.”
The women wept and thanked me, shaking my hands and bowing over them. I herded them back inside, then darted back down the corridor. But by then Jann was gone.
I ran through three more hallways of battle, half-full of wide-eyed, gray corpses before I realized that whatever I’d seen, hadn’t just affectedthatNeph.
Something was happening among those closest to Lucifer.
The battle raged on, but a portion of our enemy’s number had been eradicated in a single blow.
The question was, who had thrown it?
Hope rose in my heart. I started to run. I could sense my mate somewhere to the north. I’d fight my way to him, and when this bloodbath was done, I would hold him, and tell him that I’d seen him. Seen his heart from the beginning. And that these bastards that Lucifer used to prop up his own power were dead, which meant finally,finallyhe could be free.
51. Resist
SOUNDTRACK:Uprisingby Damned Anthem
~ MELEK ~
It was the most difficult hour of my life thus far. My son lay on the floor, shaking, groaning, pleading for his life, as his body was wracked with…something.Something that threatened to tear him from himself.
In the end, I was forced to hold him down, to stop him hurting himself as the convulsions threw him around, and his increased strength threatened to get him killed. Yilan helped. When I had him down and pinned, she touched his head and whispered in his ear, and even in the throes of his pain, Gall’s eyes began to focus.
I murmured to him, as quietly and gently as I could, that he would live. That we would find Istral. That hewasa father—a fact I prayed was true—and that soon, we’d all defeat the Fallen fuck.
“…just keep fighting, Gall.Resist.Don’t let him pain you into retreat…”
Yilan sat at Gall’s head, combing back his hair from his sweaty face, her tears mingling with his at times. But neither of us moved. Yilan had checked in with several Fetch who all said the same thing.
The battle raged on, but something had shifted. Neph were dying—some under the blade, others in convulsions, like Gall’s.
That sobered us for a time, and I felt myself slipping back into fear.
Had I inadvertently pointed Gall towards death?
No… Gall wasn’t worsening. He was strengthening.
Soon, the fits only took him for moments, and between he could speak.
Then, they stopped and he slept for a moment. That was frightening at first, but Yilan reminded me how deeply we slept after battle.
Healing.
We could feel it.
Then, seemingly from nowhere, Hever appeared at my shoulder.
“How is he doing?”
I startled, and almost clocked the old Neph, but Yilan was startlingly warm in her greeting—and to my surprise, she leaned back so Hever could touch Gall’s face and look into his eyes.
“He’ll be well,” he said quickly. Did his lips twitch towards a smile? Had I ever seen Hever smile? “His body fights the battle his heart has already won.”
Then he patted Gall’s shoulder, met his blinking gaze anddefinitelysmiled. “Well done, Gall. Very, very well done.”
I was stunned. I looked at Yilan. She had tears in her eyes.‘I’ll explain later, but… yes, we trust Hever now.’
Well, thank God for that. I turned to the man, and tried not to appear too shocked. He returned to his usual dour countenance, but his eyes were alight.
