“Good.”
Chapter
Forty-Eight
Ronen
Bright, yellow heat speared into the sand from the countless windows. It was wrong. The unnatural jarring color. The warmth sweeping across my temple. The hourglass attached to it counting down the days until Hell’s imminent demise—and mine. I preferred blizzards over this.
I also preferred not to have my chest feel like a Hellhound had mauled it, and for my military not to be stretched so thin. Xavier and the other squads had returned with a count that had me questioning our survival. Melanie made her play. She seduced the Redemption Circle with the promise of freedom and power. I wasn’t surprised it worked. But it left me with shattered pieces I had to pick up and somehow forge into a move that’d take her out.
Fuck.
Alexei, with his large, healed wings—or as healed as they could be—jutting from his back, raised his hand and sent a lightning bolt into the beams. The loud crack and thunder that followed silenced the crowd.
“By now, all of you have figured out why half our military isgone. Lucifer deserted. But what you don’t know is that the creator of the infection has possessed him.”
There were no whispers or gasps. Little love was lost for their king. Hell made most his bitter foe.
“In three days, they’ll be here. We’ve yet to know the count of their army, but by the amount that has left us, we will be facing hundreds, maybe thousands, of infected souls and blood-banded. I do not tell you this to scare you, but prepare you.”
A few of the newer recruits paled. The rest held steady—determination set like armor. Those were the warriors who had made a home here and weren’t embittered by their suffering.
“As of right now, the infection can be spread through bite and blood. Ranged combat will be the safest mode of engagement. And since we’ll mainly be fighting souls, fire and ice are the only ways to stop them. Which is why your new squads have been reorganized around a single fire asset. If you are assigned to the first line of defense, your primary directive is protection of the fire asset. The second line will contain and seal breaches in the city and castle. The third line will provide ranged suppression. Understood?”
“Yes, General,” they responded as one.
“Good. Over the next few days, we will focus on rapid integration drills, weapons preparation, and breach-and-containment plans. My Dreads will distribute assignments. Understood?”
“Yes, General,” they chorused.
“Then get to work.”
“Think we stand a chance?” Alexei asked beside me.
“We have to. There are no other options.”
Alexei unsheathed a dagger, needing his obsessive habit to calm his nerves. “Then let’s hope MJ and Lucille find something that’ll help.”
“Accepting Hadrian’s claim will help,” Aspen said.
We turned to him and the skeletal hound whose head met Aspen’s chest.
“How so?” Alexei inquired
“Hadrian would become another fire asset.”
A Seraphim one at that. It would be beneficial to have.
“You know how it’s done?”
“No powers. Only weapons. We fight until one of us is unable to continue.”
Alexei fumbled his dagger, catching it before it hit the ground.
Aspen lifted a brow.
“Sorry, it’s just…” Alexei gestured at Hadrian. “He’s a skeleton. Can he even feel pain without flesh, blood, and organs? How do you expect to win that fight?”
