“Gods, Sharpe, you are already irritating me,” Kade groaned, crossing his ankles. “If you are so insistent on staying out of here, then I hope you have a suggestion of how exactly we do that.”
“Well, clearly thewait and seeplan isn’t going to work now that the Hykahs know where we are,” Kohen shot back.
Someone was feisty today.
I forced my attention towards Pia, stealing her attention to showcase the confusion on my face.
Her eyes dipped towards Kohen, then back to me with a one-shouldered shrug.
When a minute had passed and no one else spoke, I took matters into my own hands. “We needed to know how to kill the Hykahs before moving forward anyway, which we did. So whatnow?” I inquired, pushing off the ground to my feet. “Do we focus on killing Beaumont or destroying his mutant army?
Sebastian’s gaze settled on me, his dark brows rising with his eyes, stopping at my chest.Typical male.
I huffed when no one answered, crossing my arms over my chest and thrusting my cleavage up to practically my neck, just to taunt Sebastian. “Okay then. Well, we all agreed that it is unlikely that Beaumont has found a new enchanter yet, but what if he has? There’s no way to know for sure without going back there, and I know nobody is jumping at that idea.”
“We aren’t going back there until we're positive we can kill Beaumont and destroy all of the Hykahs,” Sebastian declared, the statement not up for debate. “And we have some powerful soldiers here, but not nearly enough to be successful.”
“We need a bigger army,” Pia stressed, getting up to refill Kohen’s glass for him.
“Willawood two, get your fighting leathers on,” Sawyer ordered Delani, whose eyes bugged out of her skull.
“Remember the whole,it takes godly power to kill them, thing?” I asked, pointing my nose in Sawyer’s direction.
“Or a stab in the heart or brain," Sawyer pointed out.
At least myexplain it like a five-year-oldexplanation got through to him.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever seen me throw a punch, but the wordpatheticdoesn't do it justice,” Delani responded, and gods, I loved her dearly, but the girl wasn’t lying.
“Pia’s right.” Kohen finished his second drink in one swift gulp, topping it off with a muffled belch. “I don’t think we can be sure that we will win this war until we have the army to do it. I just don’t know where to find the troops. The Caelestian army has been scattered, and who knows how many of us are even left.”
Silence filled the common room as we racked our brains, digging through every corner and crevice to try and think of an idea that we hadn’t already ruled out.
“Maybe we could get some Draemornians on our side if we spread the word about what was really going on over there,” I suggested, only to be shot down, like my ideas usually were.
“Fat chance,” Kade scoffed. “Too big of a risk with too little a reward, even if we get some on our side. It’s not worth it.”
Flustered, I decided to sit so I could shove my face into my hands and silently scream. I squished my way between Sebastian and Sawyer on the sofa, taking up the small space that had separated the two of them.
“How many soldiers are here?” Sebastian asked Kade.
“Not many. I don’t have an exact number, but I’d say there are around fifty of us who are well enough trained to be considered soldiers. Honestly, until you all showed up, we didn’t really have a need for them. We always had them as backup, but the gods had this land warded. We were essentially safe from all harm except like…a bear,” Kade responded, then shot a look at Sawyer, “or snakes.”
Sawyer granted him a vulgar gesture.
“Snakes?” Pia raised a brow. “Sawyer Sinclair is afraid of snakes?Seriously?”
“Oh my gods,” Sawyer groaned, shoving his face into his hands for a moment of peace. “Do I really need to explain this again?” he whined when his grimace rejoined the group.
“Um, yeah! That's actually hilarious. I’ve seen you kill like…tons of people. So for you to be scared of snakes is just amazing to me,” Pia marveled, not even attempting to hide her laughter.
“Okay, yeah. They freak me out! Big deal,” Sawyer rattled, his voice a higher pitch than usual.
“Aw,” Pia dragged out, and only when Sawyer flipped her the finger, too, did she change the subject. “Seb,” her voice perkedup, “did your father have any connections with the King of Mealioria?”
Sebastian shuffled to sit more upright. “Um, yeah actually. Him and King Franlow got along. I wouldn't go so far as to call themfriends, but they traded goods here and there. I’ve met him quite a few times.” Sebastian placed a hand on my upper thigh, giving it a squeeze and then rubbing his thumb back and forth over the fabric of my pants. “Why do you ask?”
“Do you think he would help us? If we told him what we know?” she questioned him.
