28. SOPHIE
“So . . . Acki?” Sophie teased, nudging an elbow into Ash’s side. He swatted her away like she was an annoying fly.
“The kids struggled with my name, so I let them call me Acki.”
“It’s cute,” Sophie hummed.
“Please do not use that word to describe me. My enemies could be lurking nearby. They’ll see it as a weakness.” Ash pretended that his enemies were indeed lurking nearby, scanning the perimeter, but a small side smile soon appeared.
Sophie laughed, breathing in the cool, evening air of Soul City.
Amina had finally come back with supplies for the children and relieved them both of their babysitting duties. They now strolled the quieter marble streets with Lumen in tow.
In the distance, Sophie could her the low thump of dance music and the clinking of glasses emanating from the central business district not too far from where the orphanage was situated. It turned out that Soul City was the mecca of nightlife in the Godlands. If you wanted to party or have a romantic dinner, Soul City was the place to be for both the living and the dead.
Ash suddenly halted, flinging out a hand in front of Sophie who’d clearly been distracted by the sights and sounds of the new city. A loud woosh and thump sounded, and two powerful auras coursed through her. Before them landed Eros – the strawberry-blond angel with white wings – and Deymos – the angel of dread and terror with his dark grey wings. Dust puffed up from where they landed in a superhero crouch.
“That was really unnecessary.” Ash crossed his arms and served the most unimpressed flat stare.
“We just wanted to impress the lady is all.” Eros nodded in greeting toward Sophie.
“Well, colour me impressed.” Sophie put her hands on her hips and nodded appreciatively in Eros and Deymos’s direction.
“I’d refrain from complimenting him any further. His head will burst soon enough.” The god of dread snickered, pointing to Eros, who looked severely offended.
“Where’s Nemy?” Ash closed the distance between the four, pulling in Lumen with them. Sophie followed suit.
“She’s with the council,” Deymos said.
And like they were two peas in a pod, Eros finished it off. “The council has summoned us, boss.” A smirk appeared on his face.
“Well, we can’t keep them waiting, can we?” Ash rumbled, clearly annoyed that his evening was cut short.
“It smells like drama!” Eros rubbed his hands together with an unnerving amount of excitement.
Deymos, the vision of death and dread, just rolled his eyes.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Sophie moved to give them space so the angels could shoot into the air.
Gone was Ash’s annoyance and in its place was pure delight. Too eagerly, Ash said, “Not so fast, Sofreya. You’re coming with us.”
A thread of dread washed through Sophie. She wondered if it was Deymos’s power at play or if she just didn’t want to be in a room of bland aristocrats and politicians. Who was she kidding? It was most definitely the latter. Sophie began to protest, “I’ll just be in the way—”
“I don’t have time to drop you off first. You’re coming with us.” Ash cut her short, smiling, knowing full well she was going to die from boredom if not annoyance while she sat in the council chambers.
“Fine,” Sophie grunted. She’d make him pay for this.
Annoying, demanding, turtle-dove, Sophie thought.
Instant regret.
Ash’s cadre strolled into the council room back on the Isle of Deos after flying at the speed of light. Sophie had screamed the entire way while Ash laughed – no, bellowed – in her ears. Teasing her. Eros and Deymos had trailed them. They had most likely developed tinnitus given the amount of screaming Sophie had done.
Once they all landed, Sophie gave Ash a mouthful to which the angel warrior just smiled with a tendril of heat in his eyes. The more she verbally throttled him, the more he seemed to like it. It was futile. Big, stupid angel indeed.
At the entrance of the colourless council room stood Ash, his cadre and Sophie. Sophie felt like she was standing behind the damned Avengers and she almost laughed at the thought, if it wasn’t for the power that emanated from the males that stood in front of her – the power that made the entire council room fall silent.
“Look who bothered to turn up,” a slimy voice sounded from the long table in the centre of the council room.
Sophie rolled her eyes instantly. She didn’t even have to see Vestes’s face and she already wanted to gag. She stepped out from behind Deymos’s dark towering wings and raked a look of disgust at Vestes.
“Half-breeds are not welcome here. This is a council meeting.” A nameless council man shot up from his chair – a rotund man with a mop of red hair.
“Is that how you refer to the demigoddess of Faery? You forget your place, Cessair.” Ash’s deep voice was a knife to the throat. At least for Cessair it was. The red-headed councilman dropped his gaze immediately.
Ash surveyed the room like a true-born commander, his voice boomed, “She is under my guard. Anyone who insults her, insults me.”
Sophie watched the entire room.
Everyone looked like they wanted to be anywhere but in the same room as the Godlands’s master of weapons – except Diafonia. The goddess of discord was probably curling her toes in excitement. When no one dared to utter another humiliating word for fear of Ash’s wrath, he walked to the spare seats at the end of the council table, closest to the fire. “As you were,” he stated sharply.
The room seemed to relax at the words.
Eros, Deymos and Sophie followed Ash, the former two looking like honed blades ready to strike. Sophie sat down next to Nemysis, who gave her a curt nod. Ash sat right beside Sophie.
Vestes resumed his speech. “There’s been another breach. Sentries along the eastern border detected an interruption in the fabric between Faery and the Godlands not an hour ago.”
“Enemy?” Dikastis asked in a bland tone. He clearly didn’t want to be here either.
“It has yet to be confirmed. We have it on good authority that an intruder has made it past our borders,” Vestes continued. The room broke out into soft murmurs, a few council members raising various concerns. “The eastern border trackers are on it. Given the unrest in Faery we must not treat this lightly.”
Cessair nodded fervently like he was Vestes’s little lap dog. Sophie noted that and tried not to snarl in disgust.
“Has Zeus weighed in?” Commander Ares chimed in, wearing a rich-red battle cape. Various throwing knives jutted out from the belt he wore across his chest.
“No. We must handle this internally before I can escalate this to His Majesty,” Vestes looked to Ash from across the council room. “Commander Ares, get your master of weapons to dispatch his cadre to the eastern border to assist the trackers.”
Ash didn’t let his commander reply. “I will do no such thing. Not until we have more intel.” Ash denied the head of council with a bored tone.
A few members of the council snickered; Sophie included.
Vestes, with his skinny, sharp features, simmered with outrage at Ash’s blatant disrespect – until he zeroed in on Sophie with a look of triumph on his face.
“Sofreya . . .” Vestes’s voice strung out like a hiss of a snake. “. . . do you not find it a coincidence?”
Here we go.
“Out with it, Vestes,” Sophie snapped, trying her hardest to not walk across the room to slap that smug look off his face.
“Your arrival in the Godlands comes at a convenient time. The moment Taranis brings you here, a wall bolstered by centuries worth of power between Faery and Sotera falters. The eastern border of the Godlands, whose walls are impenetrable, detects an interruption with intruders, no doubt.” He went in for the kill, or at least tried to. “Sources have confirmed that you are the lover of the Shadow King’s spawn. What is his name . . . Kaine?” A saccharine smile splayed across Vestes’s face.
The council room quietened at the words. A few members whispered in each other’s ears in hushed tones. Few looks of wariness found their way to Sophie.
Sophie flinched at Kaine’s name, but she did not cower at the words and what Vestes was insinuating. Not in the slightest. Sophie squared her shoulders. “Correction. Was the lover.” Sophie stood from where she sat to look down on Vestes. He clearly chose the wrong demigoddess to mess with. “Accuse me all you like. Go ahead. Administer whatever tests you need, to prove yourself right. You’ll quickly find that you are irrevocably wrong.” Sophie let out an animalistic, Fae snarl. “And when you quickly find that out, I will revel in the sad look on your face when the entire Godlands turns to pity you; the fool.”
Ash placed his hand reassuringly on the back of Sophie’s leg. If anyone noticed, they did not make it known. Sophie had won the verbal battle with Vestes.
Cessair moved back to face Vestes. “We cannot trust the words of a half-breed. We must administer a truth serum immediately.”
“I concur! We must not take this lightly!” Another fear-struck councilman pushed his seat back. A few more council members nodded their agreement.
Sophie felt outnumbered but she thought better of going absolutely feral on everyone present in the room. That wouldn’t win her any favours with the council. Sophie had to play this right, and right now she was being cornered. It wasn’t an easy feeling to deal with.
Ash skittered his lightning across the room, quietening everyone like a crack of a whip. Some watched him in fear while others watched the cowering council members in absolute delight. Ash stood from where he sat, arms braced on the wooden table before him. “As aforementioned, she is under my guard. You insult her, you insult me.” Lightning cracked. A warning from Ash himself.
A few council members jumped in their seats.
The cadre however, were a hair’s breadth away from unleashing themselves on the less savoury members of the council, feeding off the energy Ash emanated with his lightning.
Vestes, with his snake-like smile was the first to break the silence. “Careful, Master of Weapons. You wouldn’t want to mix business with pleasure,” he drawled.
Ash scoffed. “We’re leaving.” The cadre stood swiftly at the words. “Send word when you have more intel,” Ash commanded to no one in particular.
The cadre, including Nemysis stormed out, but not before nodding to their commander, Ares, whose eyes shone with delight and pride.
Sophie walked out behind them, not bothering to look back at the pack of vermin that tried to dim her fire. They’d be fools to forget the day they doubted this demigoddess who at her back had the master of weapons himself – a being who was respected and revered by all the gods and goddesses.
She felt invincible.