71. Scotlind
SEVENTY-ONE
SCOTLIND
It was a bloodbath.
I thought the battle in Tennebris was bad, but it was child’s play compared to this. The Lux King was prepared. More than prepared. We were lucky Wells and Arcane made us masks. The amount of vapor Alluse, and potentially mass compulsion serum, he still had was overwhelming. Whatever Dovelyn and Tezya managed to blow up barely made a dent in the King’s supplies.
Any chance the soldiers got, they’d try to swipe our masks off. Some Luxians even burned them, some went too far and burned our faces in the process, and I hoped Vallie didn’t see what was happening. I prayed she was safe, that everyone was still alive, but people were dying left and right.
There was a thick fog in the city forming from all the vapor, and with both sides wearing masks, it was nearly impossible to know who was fighting who.
Blood was splattered everywhere. Screams were piercing my ears on repeat that I thought it’d never end. If I made it out alive after today, I knew I’d continue to hear them .
I turned to Sie who was fighting next to me. “How long until Rainer and Brock come back with everyone else?” I asked.
“Probably an hour if we’re lucky.”
“We need them now ,” Kallon chimed in next to us. “There’s too many Luxians.”
Agony ran through my body but it wasn’t my own. Are you okay? I shot into Tezya’s mind as panic started to consume me. I needed to get to wherever he was. There was no way I was going to let him challenge the King by himself.
I’m fine, Rumor. Just a scratch, he replied a second later, but I wasn’t stupid. Whatever injury he just got wasn’t a scratch.
Where are you?
Stay with Sie, he said instead of answering.
That’s not what I asked you, I seethed. Rage coursed through me as he kept avoiding my question. Where are you, Tezya?
I’m with Dove.
Are you going after him, NOW? I wasn’t sure if I also shouted the words out loud because everyone turned to look at me.
Just stay with Sie, was all he said.
Tezya, stop. Don’t do this. You can’t do this alone.
I didn’t get a reply back, even though I knew he heard me. I could still feel him, but he was shutting me out.
I whipped my head toward Sie. “He asked you to keep me away from him, didn’t he?” I spat.
Sie’s sword swiped into a soldier at my left, just barely missing my abdomen. Everything was starting to click into place. Tezya was the one who came up with the locations for the different waves, and he put me in the furthest one from him. He made sure I’d be far away from him when he planned to challenge the King. He didn’t want me in the crossfire, but he couldn’t do this alone. If he did, he would…
“He asked me to keep you safe,” Sie responded.
“I’m going to find him,” I yelled. “Don’t think about trying to stop me. ”
Sie cursed, running his hands through his thick black hair, and leaving blood splattering across his face in the process. “Fine, but I’m coming with you.”
“A little help before you all up and leave us,” Kallon shouted as three soldiers swarmed her. Before Sie and I could move, Savannah had them knocked down in seconds.
“You guys need to wait until Rainer and Brock show up,” Kallon gritted as another soldier attacked her. “If you all go now, you’re leaving our wave unprotected.”
Kallon was right. My feelings aside, until the fifth wave came, the Luxians outnumbered us three to one.
“Can you locate Dovelyn with your telepathy?” I asked Sie.
“I can try,” he said. “Why?”
“Just make sure Tezya isn’t going after the King right now. Tell her to do whatever she can to stall him.”
He nodded, and I knew he was focusing on pinpointing her throughout the castle. I covered for Sie while he worked, praying he could do it. If he could talk to the princess, she was probably the only other person here who would understand. She wanted Tezya safe just as much as I did.
Sweat was beating down Sie’s temple by the time he finished. “She said he’s fine, and they haven’t found the King yet. We have time.”
“Okay, good. We need to—” I started to say, but was cut off by Kallon.
“What are you doing here?” she screeched as she grabbed a beautiful brunette by the waist and pulled her into her side. She was half the height of her, but whereas Kallon was lean with hard angles, the brunette had curves. Her eyes were bright blue, a couple of shades lighter than my own and looked striking against her dark complexion.
“I wasn’t going to let you fight all by yourself.” The girl winked, her voice was sing-songed and rhythmic.
“How did you even know it was going to be today? ”
“Besides the fact that the King was going crazy and ordered everyone to stay in their homes, even though we all saw the mass herds of humans he had surrounding the castle, Rainer tipped me off.”
“I’m going to kill him,” Kallon spat.
“I’m not. At least he had the decency to let me know. I told you I wanted to fight, Kal.”
“And I told you it was too dangerous, Raeya. You aren’t used to fighting.”
“Then it’s a good thing my girlfriend is a badass who can protect me.”
Kallon looked pissed and worried and relieved all in one single look. “Stay by my side, Rae. I mean it.” Kallon scanned her girlfriend up and down before cursing. “Are you even armed?”
“I have my ability.”
“That’s not good enough.” Kallon ripped off her mask and forcefully shoved it over her girlfriend’s face so only her eyes were exposed. “Don’t take this off. They have vapor Alluse that will leave you without your powers.” She shoved a knife into her palm. “And take this too just in case.”
Savannah took off her mask next.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Sie snapped.
She handed her mask out to Kallon. “We might need her portals later. We can’t risk her not having access to them, and I don’t have any abilities, so it doesn’t really matter if I wear one or not.”
“You’re wearing it so you don’t run into the mass compulsion serum. Do you want to be manipulated like the other humans outside?”
Savannah shuddered but held her ground. “Then Kallon can portal me to the hut if that happens. We need her more than me. ”
I couldn’t argue with the girl, and if I wasn’t so worried about Tezya, I would have offered Kallon my mask too.
“You have a fucking death wish,” Sie spat at her. “You’re going to get yourself killed.”
“I don’t know why you care.”
“I don’t,” he ground out at the same time he saved the girl from an oncoming blow.
Kallon smirked, noting Sie’s frustration, before turning toward Savannah. “Thanks, Sav. I promise I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed before Rainer and Brock finally showed up, but I could see the sun shifting through the open windows of the castle. We finally cleared the first floor, and I tried not to think about how many bodies were left down below.
“It’s about time you boys joined us,” Kallon grinned as she hovered over her girlfriend. She never let Raeya out of her sight.
“We would have made it much sooner if it weren’t for the mass amounts of humans surrounding the castle,” Brock said as he went right into the thick of fighting.
“Did you kill—”
“No, Sav,” he cut her off. “We just fought through enough to knock them out or leave them wounded. I ordered the group not to kill any of them. It’s what took so long, because I had to convince the Tennebrisians the humans were being compelled.”
The group from the monorail was meant to spread out between all the waves, and I prayed the extra help was enough.
Rainer smirked as he wielded his lightning into boxing gloves he donned. “Besides, we couldn’t let you have all the glory,” he teased with a smile, and the gesture and words reminded me of Raeya for some reason .
“Don’t pretend you actually like fighting.” Savannah laughed. “You’d be the first to run away from here if you could.”
“I never said I liked it. I just want to make sure my name goes down as a hero from The Battle of Good and Evil. ” He punched a Luxian soldier in the face with his glove, sending his lightning out in pulsating waves from the contact. I shuddered as I glanced down at the unconscious soldier. He was still convulsing on the ground, foam seeping out of his mouth, as his eyes rolled in the back of his head.
“You made up a name for this?” Raeya balked. “You’re so lame.”
“Rae,” he beamed as he spotted Kallon’s girlfriend behind her. “You made it, and duh, every battle needs a name.”
“Yeah, she’s here, no thanks to you ,” Kallon hissed. “We’re going to have a talk later, Rainer.”
“Can you all do a little more fighting and a little less talking?” Sie snapped as he took out another two soldiers. “You’re giving me a headache.”
“I’m heading up,” I said before anyone else could interject. “I’m going to find Tezya now that you have reinforcements.”
I reached my hand out to Sie. “Do you still have a connection to Dove?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I kept it locked on her so she could let me know once they found the King.”
“Great. Teleport me to her now.”