Our first step into the darkness has me pulling on the straps of Riven’s backpack. I tighten it and the waist bags to the point that no matter how I maneuver, they aren’t going anywhere.
Their weight grounds me, but fear like no other pumps through my chest.
Listen, powers, when we reach him, I don’t care which one of you comes out except…
Except you, Chaos. Stay in place.
You can’t come out around him.
Kyzen
7
My breaths are as controlled as my blade.
Nothing more than a gasp slips through the Dark God’s lips as I slide my sword free from his heart.
If there was a heart in there to begin with.
Until this point, I’ve waited for Creed to give me a nod or a shake of his head before I did anything. He may not admit it, but he doesn’t have to. I know he’s measuring these beings’ souls against ours.
If they’re darker, they die. If they aren’t, they live, and we evade them as much as possible.
We’ve only been spotted once.
That was by a teenage girl whom we caught sneaking into her backyard. I guess technically, we caught each other.
Creed fell statue still as he stared at her. He shook with the need to go to her, but he didn’t. Thayla stood beside him and put her hand on his arm as if that would hold him back.
It obviously did enough, though.
He gave the girl a nod. She gave him a small smile as her shoulders dropped. Her fear faded to relief.
In her mind, she was caught breaking a rule by a group of intimidating-looking adults.
In Creed’s…that house, that teenager, will forever be branded in his brain as the girl—the innocent soul—he left behind.
This group, who had the unfortunate luck of walking up on us down one of the last dark alleys, didn’t get the same treatment.
I heard the conversation they were having before they even turned the corner. The intentions and plans they had for a certain feeder at Seductions were vile enough that I didn’t need any confirmation from Creed.
I just acted.
The six of them were dead before they knew what was happening.
A small mercy I showed them that they wouldn’t have received had we been anywhere else and I had more time.
I can’t bring myself to look Thayla in the eyes very long after I stand and step out of the ring of bodies.
Does she see me for who I really am now?
Does she hate that? Fear that?
What if I explain to her the joy I feel in killing people as vile as this group of men?
I’m using the skill my father made me perfect to cut down beings in his army. That their deaths give me a sense of satisfaction.
Does that make me as bad as him on some level?
