Chapter 32
The general was tired. He’d slept only two hours the night before and spent the entire day tracking the animals that had wreaked havoc on the medical base.
After twelve hours of searching, all his efforts proved futile.
They found nothing but claw marks everywhere and strange footprints that vanished within a kilometer.
Now Zion stood in front of the medical facility, waiting for the final reports he’d asked his men to compile.
Restless, he ran his fingers over the claw marks gouged into a tree trunk.
Four grooves scored the bark, as if sharp blades had done the damage, and they were so deep that when the general placed his fingers inside them, his nails disappeared from view.
Minutes later, the shadows shifted around him, signaling someone approaching from behind.
“Just like all the other footprints.” Zion rubbed his forehead, lost in thought. “I believe they really are chimeras, and they must have wings—or they escaped by swimming. Did the sanguines find anything?”
“They managed to track the dead doctors’ scent to the river, but the trail ends there. The blood was diluted in the water, and since the sanguines couldn’t identify the animals’ scent, they can’t help.”
Zion was aware of this problem. The attackers’ blood was completely unknown—the sanguines didn’t recognize the genetic pattern—but he’d hoped they might still be able to track the victims’ scent.
He looked once more at the grooved tree.
That mark was far from normal, and he thought the claws that had caused such damage could certainly slice a faerie to pieces.
Zion believed chimeras were behind the attacks, but if so, they had to be a different type from Kiara—she wouldn’t be able to gouge a tree like that.
He rubbed his neck, distressed. He didn’t know what was attacking them, so the best course of action was to speak with the king about security measures.
Ideally, they’d bring the squads back inside the borders until they knew what they were dealing with.
He was determined to study the case, but first he needed to capture one of the creatures and learn its weaknesses.
It wasn’t safe to leave his men vulnerable with a threat hovering over them.
“Sir, we also detected by smell that all the lakes in this perimeter are contaminated with toxic algae. The toxicity levels are dangerously high. It could just be a vegetation imbalance, but we thought it important to report.”
Zion narrowed his eyes at this new information. Outside the walls, many of the lakes were contaminated with toxic algae that caused hallucinations, but normally the levels were low. If Marcel said they’d noticed it just by the smell, something was very wrong.
“Collect samples and take them to the Yamamoto laboratory. Perhaps it’s some imbalance the chimeras caused, like the camera shutdown.”
“It will be done, sir,” the captain responded immediately.
“Did the Vinturian team get any images from the cameras?”
“No, general. All the cameras were deactivated two minutes before the slaughter,” Marcel responded, maintaining a rigid posture.
“Send all the files to my email. Everything from two hours before the incident to two hours after.”
“The IT team will handle that,” the captain said automatically.
“The forensic team should arrive tomorrow. Be prepared to provide support.”
“Do you need an escort for them?”
“Prepare a team of five gorgons. There are no lamias in the war zone, but they can be attracted by the smell of blood, so it would be wise to protect the area. Don’t let anyone wander too close—the fewer people touching things in there, the better.
I don’t want anyone damaging the evidence before it’s been photographed and DNA samples have been collected.
Just camp around this base and stay alert. At any sign of danger, call me.”
The man saluted.
“Understood, general!”
Zion dismissed him with a wave and headed toward the facility.
The entrance was blocked by debris from a collapse on the upper floor—concrete blocks and shattered glass obstructing the passage.
This would help keep anyone from entering, but it would have to be cleared for the forensic team arriving the next day.
From where he stood, Zion could smell decomposing bodies.
They were still fresh, so the odor wasn’t that strong yet, but by tomorrow it certainly would be.
After all the evidence was collected, they would gather what remained to hold a dignified funeral.
Five doctors and ten nurses had died at dawn.
Combined with the eighty soldiers lost in the conflict, the death toll approached a hundred.
The losses were so staggering that Zion tried not to think about them—he felt he’d spiral into guilt if he did.
First he had to solve the problems; then he would mourn.
Right now, the doctors were waging war against the death hovering over the rest of his men.
He was anxious for news from the hospital, but he also didn’t want to face the reality stretching before him, threatening to suffocate him.
His second-in-command was in critical condition, and he already expected the worst—he knew what shape she’d been in when he saved her.
His heart clenched every time he remembered the battlefield.
Bodies. So many fallen bodies. So many that, in the end, it was hard to tell the living from the piles stretching across the gorge floor.
When he arrived, it was already too late.
Drute soldiers were everywhere, and Zion couldn't understand how his squadron had ended up in a situation like this—they were usually careful.
Δ
When Zion appeared in the middle of the battle, his second-in-command was fighting alongside five other soldiers, nearly spent. They were protecting the wounded on the ground, which meant they couldn't retreat from the gorge.
“Kaori!” he shouted above the sounds of battle. He stayed back from the fighting—there was no time for combat. He had to transport the men, and he could only take them one at a time. “Gather all the wounded you can in the right corner of the gorge. I'll keep the enemies back.”
She searched for his voice amid the clash of gifts colliding—fire, metal, water, and lightning.
The place was hell, with little room to escape: only ten meters wide and choked with trees.
When their eyes met, she smiled as if the sun had broken through the carnage.
Even her slit-shaped pupil dilated, making her eyes even more terrifying.
“Damn, I missed you, you son of a bitch. Thought you wouldn't make it in time,” she exclaimed, sheathing her twin swords in the holder on her back.
Her hair writhed around her shoulders—dozens of cobalt blue serpents thrashing uncontrollably.
She quickly followed the general's orders, dragging the fallen men by their feet to a safe spot near the mountain wall.
Zion sent his shadows out in a protective circle; anyone who entered would be attacked by the tendrils.
He focused on protecting his people and containing the enemy advance.
“Shadow!” Zion heard someone yelling from the other side, and soon several voices took up the cry.
“Shadow! Shadow! Shadow!”
Zion had heard it before—a warning to stop attacking. They knew the general was there and needed to retreat.
For an instant, Zion lowered his guard when he saw the attacks cease and the soldiers beat a retreat.
That was when, from a recess in the gorge, a damned Drute who'd been lying in wait struck.
The general only had time to hear a click before an air and fire grenade flew, exploding near the wounded—right next to Kaori.
His head throbbed from the blast, and for a moment the world buzzed and spun around him.
As soon as he recovered, he transported himself to where the enemy stood.
The man didn't have time to see death coming.
Zion slammed him with a kick against the rough mountain stone and, in seconds, slashed the enemy's throat from ear to ear with a dagger.
The last thing the soldier saw were eyes of war—wild and stormy.
Through the bodies, blood, and earth, Zion dragged his men.
Only five soldiers could still walk and help him—the only ones who still had elemental power.
Even with overwhelming rage trying to consume him, he forced himself to prioritize his allies' lives.
That was the only thing keeping him in control.
He needed to stay focused or he'd succumb to the vengeance the shadows whispered in his ear.
So he left half the tendrils protecting his people and transported the wounded one by one to the meeting place he'd arranged with Cauê.
He lifted Kaori with all the care in the world, feeling that if he didn't hold her firmly, parts of her head might fall to the ground.
His heart sank in a way he'd rarely felt in his life.
It reminded him too much of the past—of a playful boy whose life had been stolen too soon—and Zion wanted to scream in despair at reliving the scene.