Chapter Thirty-Nine
CASSIA
IT’S SEVERAL HOURS of fighting. First Unit is efficient, but Greeds continue to appear out of thin fucking air. Where are they coming from? I can see the pass from the mountaintop, and nobody has crossed onto Wrath’s borders.
We’ve been carefully monitoring the entire length of our border with Greed, and there’s no conceivable way we’d have missed a unit of soldiers this large. It’s easy for small groups to slip through, like those scouts who attacked me during patrol, but nothing of this scale.
They’re teleporting, though, so they must be beyond Greed’s borders.
It’s something to look into. If they secured an alliance with one of their bordering kingdoms, there will be trouble. Greed is easy to manage. A war with them isn’t a huge concern or strain on our resources, but it will become an issue if other kingdoms begin offering their support.
I ordered two men to alert Aziel and Raum once Greed’s ambush began, and I let out a sigh of relief as new soldiers finally start pouring in.
I recognize several of them. Raum has sent the unit I was previously stationed with.
It makes sense. They’re close to the pass and can teleport here without hugely weakening themselves.
Where’s Rexton? I search our bond, panicking until I feel him. He’s alive. He’s alive, and he doesn’t seem to be in any worse shape than he was when he left. This is good. This is very good.
A man lunges for me, for my right shoulder. It was injured earlier. I let a Greed get too close, and it took a split second for him to pop my shoulder out of place. Androl roughly shoved it back into position, but the muscle is still tender.
I must be fighting differently now, displaying to the battlefield that I’m injured. I’m trying not to, but every movement is a blast of fire. There’s also a pinpointed ache behind both my knees, but it’s not too bad.
A Greed falls at my feet, and I instinctively wipe the bloodied blade of my dagger against my pants.
It comes back even dirtier than before. I’m covered in blood, my clothing and every inch of exposed skin painted a deep red.
It’s sticky, and the smell is atrocious.
I want to shower. I want to scrub my skin until it’s raw.
“Cassia!”
I spin, locking eyes with Aziel. His clothing is still fresh, so I assume he’s just arrived. By the time he reaches me, his shirt is splattered with red. Greeds are flocking to him, abandoning their posts and orders for the opportunity to kill Wrath’s king.
My father never takes his eyes off me, and despite how angry and annoyed I’ve found myself at him these past several weeks, seeing him is a breath of fresh air. I’m overwhelmed and scared and in so deep over my head, and he’s the only person here I trust entirely. I’m not going to die today.
My chest heaves. “Dad.”
Androl and the other high-ranking officials shift, enveloping Aziel into the protective circle they’ve loosely formed around me. His power hits me like a sledgehammer as he nears. He’s holding nothing back.
“There are more on the northern side of the pass.” I gesture to the mountain on the other side of the pass, where several soldiers were stationed in preparation for Prince Nolic and his hundred men to come through.
“Greeds are teleporting in waves every fifteen minutes. We don’t know where they’re coming from. ”
Aziel nods, his black eyes scanning me from head to toe. He holds a panicked expression, one that appears whenever he’s convinced himself he’s about to lose another child. It always makes my heart lurch, and I step forward and pull him into a quick side hug so he can smell me. I’m not dead yet.
He sticks his face into the hair at the top of my head, smelling me, before pulling away. We don’t have the privilege of reuniting right now, not when we’re surrounded by demons who would give anything to kill us.
Aziel’s hand slides down my arm. I flinch, not wanting him to further injure my already fucked-up shoulder, but I freeze when two of his fingers hook underneath my diamond bracelet. With one smooth motion, it’s ripped off my wrist.
The imprisonment jewelry falls to the ground, bouncing against the forehead of a dead Greed. I stare at it in disbelief. He removed it. I was beginning to fear that would never happen, that I’d be trapped within Wrath and Lust for the remainder of my life.
If he thinks he’ll put it back on once the fighting is over, he’ll be sorely mistaken. I will never allow another person to put jewelry on me again. Not without a fight.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I trust your decisions, Cassia.”
Aziel turns, ripping out the throat of a nearby Greed. The soldier wasn’t even coming for us. He was heading for Androl, and Aziel moves so quickly, even I struggle to register what just happened. I take back everything I ever said about wanting to see him fight.
I take a moment to seek out Rexton. It’s damn near impossible to focus with our bond blown open as wide as it is.
I feel all of his pain and discomfort as if it’s my own, and it’s distracting.
Rexton knows better than to close our connection, though.
It’s the only thing keeping me from leaving the battlefield, and if he tries to shut me out, I’ll find him.
I’ll hunt him down and force him to open the bond back up.
He placed his teeth on me. He may not have marked me back, but he welcomed my bond. That doesn’t come without consequences.
It’s another hour before only Wraths are left standing on the battleground.
First Unit was vastly outnumbered, but the additional soldiers Raum sent in secured our win. I look around, trying to estimate how many Greeds we fought. There must be at least five thousand bodies littering the ground.
We’ll have a definite count by the end of the day.
My muscles are sore, and I chew at my bottom lip until tasting blood.
A handful of Wrath bodies are scattered about, but we didn’t lose nearly as many men as Prince Nolic.
The Greeds fought to the death, and by the end, you could tell those remaining were exhausted.
That’s the downfall of fighting within enemy territory.
We had the advantage, which allowed us to adopt a different strategy. Injured and depleted Wraths are immediately removed from battle and replaced with healthy ones, ensuring our collective strength and power never diminishes.
It’s not a strategy we take with every battle, but I implemented it today. I think it was the right choice, but we won’t know until the death count has been completed.
Aziel finds me. We broke apart shortly after his arrival, which was a relief. I didn’t want him lingering too close. It makes me look weak, like I need my dad to protect me. He never went too far, though.
He would teleport from Greed to Greed, pinpointing and attacking whoever he felt was the biggest target.
I didn’t do that, mainly because I know my limits.
I don’t have the fighting experience of my father—not yet.
Seeking out the strongest demons would have exhausted me, and I wouldn’t have made it to the end.
“You did well,” Aziel says as he approaches. “What now?”
I blink, taking a moment to register his question. “What do you mean?”
“What are your orders?”
I don’t understand. Aziel outranks me. He took ownership of the battlefield the moment he arrived.
Androl and two generals appear. Raum is one of them, and he’s covered in blood. This is the first I’ve seen either of the generals, so I assume they were fighting on the other mountain.
Raum looks around, frowning. “You had more action.” He sounds disappointed.
Aziel licks his lips, ignoring him. “I came here as your father, Cassia, not as your king. I trust your judgment, and I’ll follow your lead.”
The realization of what he’s asking is dizzying. He’s not asking me to give suggestions. He’s asking me to lead Wrath’s military. It’s a responsibility I’ve been begging to have for years.
I take a second to think, wanting to sound level-headed. I feel anything but level-headed.
“We need a casualty count of both Greed and Wrath soldiers, and we need to notify any affected families.” I clear my throat. “Androl? Can you be in charge of that?”
He nods, and I shift my attention to Raum and the general beside him. “I’d like you two to reposition our troops along the border. There’s an army of fifty thousand Greeds nearby, and we should prepare for the worst.”
The general beside Raum raises a brow. “Do—”
I continue, interrupting him before he takes it upon himself to question me. He’d never do that to Aziel, not publicly.
“I want to know where these Greeds came from,” I say.
“Either they found a way to enter Wrath unseen, or one of the other kingdoms allowed them to teleport from their land. Figure out which and report back to me. I also need to know where Prince Nolic vanished to. The last visual we had of him was when he was a few miles from the pass, but he’s disappeared since. ”
There’s a tense silence as I wait for the general to respond. Will he question me again? I mentally prepare for it, but to my complete relief, all he does is nod.
I turn toward Raum. “How long do you need?”
He sucks on his teeth, glancing around. “An hour. Androl should have a rough death toll by then.”
“Great.” I nod to myself. “We’ll meet in an hour.”
Aziel shifts his weight. Does he agree with my decision?
“I—” I pause, hesitating. “I’ll check on the injured.”
Raum snorts, his lips curling. “Check on the injured, or check on your mate?”
Aziel straightens up, his narrowed gaze darting between Raum and me. He didn’t know. How does Raum know? Word spreads too quickly for my liking.
I shake my head, denying Raum’s accusation. I’m not admitting to anything, and I owe no explanations. I’m my own woman, and my romantic life is of no concern to anybody but myself. And Rexton now, I suppose.
Raum laughs, the noise bouncing off the mountains. It feels inappropriate, considering we’re surrounded by thousands of corpses and covered in blood, and I shoot him a pointed look before teleporting to camp. I have a mate to check in on.