Chapter 2
Aran
DARK REVELATIONS
Lugubrious (adjective): dismal.
“On the Creature Classification Scale—a one-to-five ranking system, with five being the danger level of certain gods—the ungodly are ranked a four,” Dick said harshly, his expression bleak.
My ears echoed with the phantom screams of the dying and ripping flesh, and I shuddered.
What kind of monster would a five look like?
I couldn’t even imagine it.
In the chair in front of me, Jinx shivered and slumped lower in her seat like she was also horrified. I smirked smugly because something had finally scared the haughty know-it-all.
You’re smiling because a child is terrified. Nice one, Aran.
I grimaced.
It was hard growing up to be the villain, but here I was, sitting in a room, getting lectured about war while I fantasized about making a youth miserable.
Life comes at you fast.
We’d relocated to Planet 003FX—the realm infested with ungodly—and were in the newly constructed strategy room, getting lectured at by the High Court, aka Dick.
As Dick spoke, a figure in a black cloak with glowing blue eyes stood in the corner with their features obscured. From the person’s towering height and width, they were a man.
I knew him well.
It was the same cloaked figure who’d taken Sadie to the war camp in the shifter realm. The same person who’d helped me escape the fae realm. The last time we’d seen him was at the ball in the beast realm.
Now he watched us silently, cloaked in shadows and darkness.
Another sycophant of the High Court lording over soldiers in the isolated valley of a war camp.
I ran my tongue across my teeth and tasted the power that stained the air. Goose bumps erupted down the back of my neck.
We were the champions of absent gods. Pawns for slaughter or icons of victory? Only time would tell.
Jinx and the demons were in the front row.
Twins to my right.
Sadie and her men to my left.
Devils in the back row. Orion leaned his head against Malum’s shoulder, and the leader of the kings played with his blond hair with one hand and had his other hand draped over Scorpius’s shoulder protectively.
A strange feeling flipped over in my stomach because they were obviously perfect together.
I didn’t fit in with them.
It was a cruel joke that I was their Revered.
I resumed studying my surroundings. Concrete walls glowed blue with the remnants of construction enchantments, and the space stank of frost, dirt, and leaves.
There were no windows.
