“Okay,” I whispered to myself. Now what? Direct them? I tried to take into consideration everyone’s powers, lack thereof, and who among our group would be more prey than predator.
“Zera, Valarus, and Ichi, I want you as our first round of offense. Dusty, Matt, and Enora, you’ll be our second, helping out the first. Rissa and Oliver, you’ll be the last.”
“You’re doing great, Luce,” Oliver murmured in my ear. “I think those were good choices.”
Like he knew. Oliver had never led anyone either.
Ronen called our squad into the ring, and my stomach couldn’t knot any tighter without rupturing something.
The only ones who seemed to acknowledge my orders were Ichi, Rissa, and Oliver. Maybe. Now that I considered them, Ichi might be standing in front to act as my bodyguard more than an offensive line, and Oliver wouldn’t leave my side regardless, so that left Rissa with the half-skeletal face as the only one who actually listened.
“We’re screwed,” Oliver muttered, staring ahead at the demons.
I unsheathed two daggers, death-gripping them in my sweaty palms while I eyed our opponents. They were grotesque things I never wanted to truly encounter, and the angels behind the illusion had powers I didn’t know. But that was the point, wasn’t it? If we faced these creatures in the future, we wouldn’t know what we were up against; we’d need to kill first and question later.
The razor-wire male stared at Dusty and Matt with a creepy smile stretching the white lines painted over his black scales. I only remembered him because he was the only demon with an open ribcage in his disguise. Could Dusty and Matt face him and win? I didn’t know, and part of me didn’t care.
I should. A leader would care, would strategize, would do countless things I couldn’t think of. But Ronen fucked me. He gave me what? Minutes to figure out a plan with a squad I only half knew?
Oliver was right. We were screwed.
“Begin,” Ronen called out, and I swore something in his tone mocked me. Like he knew we’d fail.
Dusty and Matt sent a large ripple through the arena, making everyone stumble before erecting a wall of sand. Matt luscelered through it, catching the razor-wire guy by surprise and stabbing him in the gut. The razor-wire male shot out a coil of power, dropping to his knees and striking toward Dusty. He missed. Matt kicked him in the head. The male fell back, unmoving.
Maybe we could win after all.
A battle cry pulled my attention to the far-right corner. Zera blasted demons back with her air onto the daggers Valarus had levitated behind them. Rissa and Enora charged ahead on their own, the latter singing a couple demons to sleep while the former sent a hard knee into a demon’s groin.
Oliver jerked me to the side and touched a demon rushing me. It dropped to the ground convulsing.
“Can’t lead if you’re dead, Luce,” Oliver mumbled around his hand, looking a little green.
“There’s no killing allowed.”
“Same difference,” he grumbled, swallowing before grimacing.
A demon luscelered toward my side, fire streaking in its hand. My Infernus perked up, ice crackling in my ears and urging me to use it. It’d be easy. My powers wanted to be used. But before I could fall into the whispering song, Ichi’s water dragon swallowed the demon, its fire hissing and steaming around us.
Pushing my itches away, I placed myself at Oliver’s side, swiping out with my daggers, ducking, kicking, doing everything to keep them off us. Sometimes I’d help Oliver eliminate the ones he stunned with fear, or the ones Ichi smothered with water. Between the three of us, we could’ve made it to the other end and won, but it wasn’t just us.
Before I could finish off the next demon, Ronen’s voice rang out.
“The Devils won. Tormentors lost.”
The Devils?
“Did you see Aspen?” I asked Oliver, searching the demons as if I could distinguish which one was him. I never saw his blue flame. Did he fight? Was hehurt?
The manipulative bond stirred at the thought, but without visual confirmation or feeling his pain, it just hovered.
Oliver grabbed my face, stopping my frantic search. “He’s fine.”
“You know that for a fact? Which one is he?” I demanded.
“I’m your eyes, remember? You promised. Focus on your squad. Do you know why we lost?”
My face flushed. Giving up my search for Aspen, I finally noticed Enora holding her neck. She’d been bitten.
