CHAPTER 32
Welcome to the red house
Nevaeh
The sound of metal clinking and boots stomping with unparalleled coordination makes my stomach sink.
I squeeze my eyes shut when it dawns on me. “Please tell me I’m hallucinating, and I don’t hear Heaven’s warriors marching towards us,” I plead.
“You’re hallucinating, and you—”
“I will kill you, Sharky.”
Clapping his hands, Seiji wedges between Hazel and me and pulls me away by my arm. “Hey, save that rage for the army coming to bury us here.”
But how did they find us?Angel kept today’s mission as close- knit as possible, mostly because he didn’t want people to panic about us going to The Forgotten Realm. No more than half a dozen high-ranking warriors know about our whereabouts, so I don’t understand how is this happening.
If Heaven is here for us—without an exit—then this is a suicide mission. It’s hard to wrap my head around Heaven sending soldiers on a suicide mission in a realm where their Divines are useless just to target some innocent kids.
I mean, yes, the kids are not kids per se and aren’t all that innocent either, but still!
Closing my eyes, I focus on the movements to estimate the number of skilled warriors marching to their deaths.
30… 45… 53…Oh, fucking shitballs, we’re so fucked.
Looking at the shocked faces around me, I answer the lingering question, “Over sixty warriors trained by thegods. This is not good.”
Angel repeatedly clears his throat, expectedly looking at Hazel, who shuffles on her feet nervously. The exchange momentarily steals my attention from our reality. Why do I get a feeling that, for a change, I’m not the one responsible for this mess?
Hazel throws her duffle bag on the floor and starts retrieving gun after gun from inside it. Skillfully ignoring the glare Angel has directed at her she continues passing out the modern human weapons until every hand in the room is armed. Grace and Anxo refuse since they already have long-range weapons on them.
I would much rather rely on my fists than these machines that I cannot figure out for the life of me, but alas, desperate times call for desperate measures.
The weapons keep coming, and it takes me a second to size them up before I realize the siren has an enchanted bag. “Hey, we don’t work with witches’ you traitor!”
With a guilty grimace, she flashes me a tiny smile, “It was before you.” My glare only intensifies, so she adds, “I blackmailed and threatened her if it makes you feel any better.”It does.
Hazel relaxes for a second, only to go rigid when Angel crouches so they’re at eye level. Pointing his finger at the window, he asks her in a tone that doesn’t leave room for excuses or deflection, “When did you piss off Heaven?”
Hazel struggles to keep her composure, but I know from experience the moment Angel loses his carefully structured patience, she’ll be in a ton of trouble.
Hazel opens her mouth to snap back, no doubt, but the look on Angel’s face stops her. “Recently.”
“How?”
She mumbles the words so quietly I miss them but not the steam coming out of Angel’s ears. “YoustabbedHermes?!”
Hermes: The ancient Greek god of trade, wealth, luck, fertility, animal husbandry, sleep, language, thieves, travel and blah blah blah.
He’s the sleaziest of the bunch, I hear.
“He wanted to fix my‘fertility issues’. He’s lucky I didn’t cut his dick off and save the world from another one of his offspring.”I’m on the siren’s side.
I can practically see the wheels in Grace’s head turning as she thinks out loud. “If you think about it—”
“Youreallydon’t have to.”
Grace ignores Hazel and continues piecing Hazel’s mess. “We’ve earned quiet a few enemies in recent years.”
