Don’t react, Julian thought.It’ll be worse if you react.
Sloan turned, raising a hand to the jail. “Bring them out!”
Escorted by grim-faced paladins, Maxwell, Lang, and Barker led the group of prisoners. They weren’t handcuffed, but they didn’t have to be. Where were they going to go? They could either submit to whatever punishment Sloan deemed fit for their supposed crimes, or they would be banished. And for most, the guild was the only life they knew.
Daniel was in the middle of the group, shoulders slouched and eyes downcast. He didn’t look up as they were marched in a row toward the middle of the courtyard.
Some of the ‘dissenters’ were no longer with the guild. Nathan Accardi, Isaac Morrow, and the prophet, Ira Faer, were all part of the meetings in the beginning, and they’d all left to be with demons. That was why Sloan was doing this. He wanted to make it clear that he wouldn’t allow anyone else to betray the cause, and the most likely culprits were the ones who’d been in those meetings.
“Demons are the enemy!” Sloan shouted. “Anyone who dares to interact with them will be punished! Anyone who shows sympathy for the enemy will be corrected! We are God’s warriors, and we cannot show weakness in the face of temptation!”
Scattered cheers rose from the crowd. Julian’s stomach turned.
“I think we should start with the council members who sympathized with the traitors and tried to impede our holy path, don’t you think?”
More cheers. Julian fought not to react.
“Paladin Morris, bring Doctor Maxwell to the post. We must cleanse him of his sins.”
Father Hawley’s replacement was Kenneth Conroy, a skeletal man with pale, sunken eyes and thin hair. Julian didn’t know much about him, other than that he’d worked in the church withFather Hawley for many years. He approached the post while Morris shackled Maxwell in place, ripping the doctor’s shirt down the middle of his back. Father Conroy unfurled a strip of leather—awhip—and positioned himself behind Maxwell.
“Oh God,” Julian breathed.
“As Isaiah 13:10 states,” Father Conroy called out, “‘I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless.’”
The whip came down on the doctor’s back, and Julian squeezed his eyes shut as the first scream tore through the courtyard.
Chapter 1
Julian
Six weeks later
Julian’snew assignment was boring. As a warrior for the Paladin Guild of Los Angeles, he wanted to be out in the dark, hunting demons with his squad. It was what he’d trained all his life for. Instead, he was staring at a rusted old building and waiting for something to happen.
This was where the traitors, the Sentinels, operated. They ran an investigative service and demon hunting business out of this rusted hole, but Sloan was convinced they were up to no good. Sure, they were all with demons, as far as Julian knew, or at least working with them. The guild claimed all demons were evil, but Julian was beginning to doubt their word. He was rethinking a lot of his training these past few weeks, and he knew all of the founding members of the Sentinels from their time in the guild. They were good men. If they trusted demons, there had to be more to them than they were taught. Mostly, he was envious of the Sentinels for getting out when they did. Before it all went to shit.
It was a waste of resources to be here, but if Julian said as much aloud, he’d find himself shackled to the cleansing post. So he kept his head down and did the job. That was what Nicolas told him to do.
When Nic announced that their squad would be watching the traitors in shifts, Julian expected more action, for better or worse. He didn’t like the idea of fighting the Sentinels, but he needn’t have worried, because they didn’t. There were no attacks from either side. No victims were dragged inside the rusted old building to be killed or sacrificed, like Sloan probably thought. The Sentinels spent a lot of time inside it as a group, and Julian had noted that a pair of young teenagers also seemed to spend quite a bit of time here outside of school hours. If they were recruiting, the guild would have a fit. He’d made sure to leave them out of his reports.
The squad worked in eight hour shifts, and tonight, Julian unfortunately had the midnight shift. A travel mug of coffee sat in the cup holder beside him while some angry metal played in his earbuds in an attempt to keep him awake. The parking lot was full right now, and warm light glowed from within the glass door. He occasionally saw movement inside, but the door didn’t have a good enough angle to reveal much of the interior.
For weeks now, he’d watched this place without incident. Earlier, he’d watched the humans leave in pairs to go on patrol. He wondered if they knew he was there, but no one glanced his way. He parked very far away, just in case, and kept his car off, the windows cracked to let a breeze in. He didn’t know what would happen if they saw him, and truthfully, he didn’t want to face them. They used to be his friends; he’d feel awful if they found out he was spying on them.
This wasn’t what paladins were meant for. These people weren’t hurting anyone. He should be out there huntingmonsters, not spying on people who were minding their own business.
To his surprise, he saw figures moving toward the parking lot. He thought they were sentinels at first, returning from patrol, until he realized there were too many. They hid in the shadows, and the only reason he noticed them was because he was already attuned to the area.
Were they demons? Halflings? Why would halflings be lying in wait to attack the traitors? They were all supposed to be on the same side now, weren’t they? Maybe they weren’t there to attack, then, though he couldn’t imagine why else they seemed to be lying in wait.
It didn’t take long for more movement in the distance to catch his eye, and he leaned forward, squinting. Two sentinels were back, headed for their home base. They didn’t know they had company waiting to ambush them.
Julian recognized Alex Hawk and Nathan Accardi, and his stomach twisted with unease. Accardi had saved his life during the battle at HQ, and he’d graduated with Hawk. He couldn’t just do nothing if they were about to be attacked.
When thecrackof gunfire split the silence, Julian jolted as Hawk and Accardi dove for cover. Without thinking, Julian grabbed his sword and barreled from the car. These halflings werecheating. They outnumbered the traitorsandthey had guns? That wasn’t a fair fight, and Julian wasn’t going to sit there and watch anyone be mowed down by demons, even people Sloan had declared the enemy.Hestill knew right from wrong.
He drew a dagger from his hip and flung it through the air as he got close. It sank into a halfling’s back, and he collapsed, the gun bouncing across the broken pavement. Two others turned toward him, shouting out warnings to their companions.
