Page 48 of Rescuing Air

“Who else have you manipulated?” I gasped, realizing that it wasn’t just one person he was talking about, it was many.

“Ah, now she understands.” The Dark Lord chuckled. “You know about Tabitha already, then there is your Water Knight’s stepmother, the Fire Knight’s aunt, and as for the lost Heart Knight, I had a few people step into his life. Phoebe was only one of them, but I made sure each one made him believe that he was nothing, would always be nothing, now he is nothing. Even you tossed him away in the end, leaving him to die alone and painfully.”

I knew the Dark Lord was trying to hit me where I was most vulnerable and if I didn’t know that half of what he said was a lie, it would have destroyed me. Parker was alive, I’d saved him, and he had never been nothing to me. “So, what now? Here we are, laying all the cards on the table, spilling all the secrets, knowing that one of us won’t make it out alive.”

“Do you really think you can defeat me when I’ve been the master of this game the whole time? You’re crippled without all five of your knights. Look, you only have one standing beside you. There is no question how this is going to end but I wanted to take the time to introduce you to someone that you got to know extremely well.” The Dark Lord waved a hand and someone else stepped forward cloaked in darkness, but I could see strands of neon pink hair peeking out.

No, no, no, no, no—this could not be happening. There was no way she would turn against me in this. She couldn’t be one of his pawns. There just wasn’t any way that could be true.

“Allow me to introduce to you the person who kept you right where I wanted you to be,” the Dark Lord boasted, yanking back the hood to reveal Cami.

I dropped to my knees, unable to hold myself up a moment longer. She stood there still and stiff as a statue. Her normally vibrant eyes were black pools of nothing. Everything that made Cami, Cami, was missing, leaving only this shell of a person cloaked in darkness and evil. Just when I thought I was safe from whatever the Dark Lord could throw at me, I was so incredibly wrong.

“Your beloved best friend has been mine since the day I killed her first love. I, of course, promised that they would be reunited when I brought Hell to Earth, but that would only happen if I was able to bring you to my side or destroy you. As I said, everyone can turn their backs on the world if given the right motivation.”

“No,” I whispered, dropping my head into my hands, unable to wrap my mind around this. “It doesn’t make sense. She wouldn’t.”

Jay’s hand rested on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Trust your instincts, Lailah.” He said it in a low, quiet voice, ensuring that I was the only one who heard him.

Closing my eyes, I sent a strand of my power out toward Cami, letting it wrap itself around her. I knew my best friend. She had been right beside me through all the ups and downs, helping me when the guys couldn’t. She had always been in my corner. If she had been an agent to the Dark Lord, I would have known. There had to be something I was missing because none of this made any sense. Pressing my power into her deeper, I discovered a barrier sitting over her, blocking me from being able to touch her. It hovered close to her skin, so it felt like it wasn’t really there. But as I probed at it, it pushed back. My eyes snapped open, and I shot to my feet, arm raised with my crossbow in hand once again, and I fired a shot.

The arrow hit home, dead center in her forehead and whatever had been wrapped around her splintered, revealing a woman who was the same size and stature but absolutely wasn’t my best friend. “Lies! Everything you say is lies!”

Anger flooded me and all the fear and worry I had vanished, leaving me filled with a righteous anger. No more talking, it was time to fucking end this.

twenty-nine

Brayden

It didn’t sit right with me to leave Lailah behind with only Jay to face down a Prince of Hell but Parker was right, we needed to take advantage of the element of surprise. When we arrived back at the warehouse, Parker skidded to a halt with Micah leaping out of the ATV before it was fully stopped.

“Cami, Blessing!” he bellowed. “Fuck, tell me you’re here.”

People were still pouring out of the facility downstairs, so I think it was a safe bet they were still here. They wouldn’t have taken off and left them on their own.

“What the hell are you doing back here? Is Lala okay? You didn’t just abandon her to face that fucker all by herself, did you?” Cami demanded as she stomped up to us.

I couldn’t help but grin at how she looked all pissed off, glaring at a man who was almost twice as tall as her. “No, we’ve come to help you out. There are secondary groups waiting off to the left and right of the campus and we need your help,” I explained.

Hearing all the commotion, Blessing joined us, a scowl on her face that could rival Micah’s. “What do you mean, how could we be any help? I’m willing to do what we can but I’m not sending my people on a death mission unless you tell me there is no other option.”

“That’s not what we want. Lailah and Jay are holding off the Dark Lord and his army while we deal with these smaller groups so we don’t get boxed in. They don’t know that Lailah sensed them so they wouldn’t be prepared for us to hit them first,” I expounded.

Blessing and Cami looked at each other and seemed to come to an agreement as Blessing gave us her answer. “Alright, but I’m only having my advanced fighters come on this mission and leaving the others here to protect the base.”

“Why not send them with the women and children?” Hudson asked.

“Because this is their home and they want it to stay that way. None of these people, fighters or not, want to give up anything more than we have to, to those fucking demons.”

Parker nodded. “Hard to argue with that. We’ll take what we can get and make it work. Blessing, you’re with me and Hudson. Cami, you’ll go with Micah and Brayden. You guys know how to work together as a team the best.”

The change that had come over Parker since he came back from the dead was astounding. Yeah, it had only been three days but never would the old Parker have said something like that, or even considered it. Hearing what he told Lailah before we left to face off with the Dark Lord told me that he truly understood what he’d done was wrong. Not that I ever doubted he thought otherwise, but this time it showed in every action that he made. He didn’t goad Micah and actively tried to be of value before being asked. The man that Parker was finally turning into was who Lailah had seen all along, while the rest of us just expected him to live up to the standard we’d set for him. If we made it through this, I knew without a doubt, we could find happiness and the friendship we’d always strived for.

“What’s with the dopey smile? We have a war to win,” Cami teased, punching me in the arm. “Come on, let’s do this.”

Blessing was working quickly to divide her people into groups of who would be going and staying, then splitting them again to give us about fifty people each. Our best guess was the demons were hiding in the hilly groves on either side of the campus. We didn’t want to use the ATV or other vehicles that might give away our location, so we were hoofing it and moving as quickly as we could in smaller groups so we didn’t draw attention to what we were doing. I pulled on my powers and my Elemental Warrior armor appeared, along with my upgraded daggers that were more like short swords, flickering with a green flame. Micah did the same, his curved blades glinting deadly in the fading sunlight.

Could it be that they were just waiting for darkness to fall before they struck us and boxed us in? I didn’t have time to worry about motivation as we darted from tree to tree, trying to keep hidden as we got closer. I could hear the sound of people rustling in the woods and low talking voices. Without bothering to listen to what they were saying, I saw a large group of them arguing and opened the ground under them. Shrieks filled the air as they were swallowed up by my power. As our people converged on them, I knew I couldn’t use that trick again or I would risk killing them as well. Now it was time to fight head-on.