Page 32 of Blood and War
He glanced at her.Green. Inexplicably green watery eyes flecked with gold met his own, wrenching something within. He felt…guilt that it had taken the council so long to send them. His siblings had been aware of the carnage for many years. Had been informed about it the moment the Ascension happened, but not once had they ever thought to defy orders. To dispatch themselves. Not even when some of the angels had gone rogue, staking their own claims to the nightmarish wasteland that quickly followed the demons. “I don’t know.” It was all he could say. He didn’t have the answers that she was after, yet part of him wished he did. If only to ease his own reeling mind. He hadn’t known how bad it truly was here. The savagery these people had seen. And when the council wasn’t concerned, hedidn’t need to be either. He’d never had a reason to question their ways, so why would he have?
But that had changed, hadn’t it? He’d done nothing but question their decision since being dispatched. Because nothing they told him made sense. This human girl wasn’t a threat to their kind. She wouldn’t throw the balance any more than the next human stationed within their communities. So why? Why her? Why this human? Unless…
They were wrong.
Kellan sat up straight, eyes widening. The council was wrong. The thought should have never crossed his mind, but he couldn’t break from it. Should have tasted acrid in his mouth, yet it hadn’t felt more right. Had they lied to him? To his siblings? Is it why they refused his summons?
“You’re not who the council says you are.”
Demitria jolted upright at his words, craning her neck toward him. It was her turn to stare.
“You’re not a threat. Not like they say you are.” A heavy sigh left him, and he continued. “I don’t know why they wanted you eliminated. Why we were tasked to go after you alone. I don’t understand it.” He wouldn’t even touch on the fact that, according to the demon, someone else clearly wanted her as well.
His mission was already failing. When he was initially dispatched, it was to eliminate what the council had deemed a threat to the very balance of their worlds. A monster. Instead, what he’d found was a human girl trying to survive. To protect her family the only way she knew how.
He hadn’t expected to find any common ground with her, not when he’d had his eyes set on the kill. So why had the council wanted her dead so badly? Why was she such a threat?
What weren’t they telling him?
“I’d never even heard of this balance until you showed up.”
Kellan watched as she slowly unfurled her fingers as a new wave of emotions took hold of her features. That softness she’d shown him had disappeared, replaced by the fiery look he was growing used to. The hard line of her full lips, the narrowing of her green-gold eyes as she took him in. A familiarity struck him. The anger, the rage, so akin to his own.
“I’ve only ever wanted to protect my family. I have done nothing to warrant this price on my head.”
“I believe you.” Kellan hung is head for a brief moment. He didn’t know why he knew she was sincere, but he did. So why had they ordered her death? Had it just been an unlucky coincidence? He didn’t buy that for a moment… “I told you I am not the bloodthirsty monster your people depict me as, and I stand by those words.”
“What do you mean by that?” She raised a brow at him, her body turning to face him head on. Dark hair billowed around her in soft waves, framing the curves of her figure.
“I…” He ran a hand through his hair. What had he meant by that? “I will not kill unnecessarily.” Even seated, his frame towered over her own. So small. Frail wasn’t a word he’d use for her. He was well aware of the body she’d honed for years to survive in this hell. Could see it in the way her clothing seemed to hug along every toned muscle. He blinked down at her. “I refuse to.”
Kellan had never disregarded an order from the council before. He may have completed assignments in unorthodox manners, but never had he defied them.
Nineteen
DEMITRIA
Demitria awoke as the sun broke over the horizon. After last night with the Horseman, she’d made up her mind. Their conversation replayed over and over as she dressed for the day. Kellan. It was strange to think of him as anything but War. A bringer of carnage and chaos. Yet last night he’d seemed almost…human,somehow. Like they’d connected.
It was odd, really. He didn’t understand the order to kill her anymore, and from what she gathered, it seemed as if he wasn’t going through with it. Despite that, she still had to leave. Not because she needed to go before his siblings came to finish the job, but because her presence would bring nothing but bloodshed and destruction to the community.
Kellan had been right the other night. The longer she stayed the more danger she brought to her home. She had to leave. She’d do anything to protect them.
She’d contemplated for hours after returning home about what her next steps should be, pacing back and forth until she was sure she’d worn tracks into the old wooden floorboards. Every minute she spent in Solis meant her people were in danger.
She could only think of one solution. In the middle of the night, she would sneak out with Atlas. Leave without Kellan and seek out her own answers.
Demitria had a vague idea of where she needed to go. For years, they’d been keeping an eye on a group of angels a few days ride from the community. From their observations, the beings had never raided any of the communities, and dare she say, they’d been peaceful. She didn’t know if they were part of the council or not, but it was her only lead. She would find them, ask them her questions, and hope to whatever gods were out there that she’d get answers.
But hope was always a dangerous thing. She hated to even think it. Feel it. Because there was nothing in this world but dread and terror. It was an illusion of something so far out of reach. Hope for the nightmares to end. For a better world, and those that felt it, believed in it, well…
Hope was the deadliest thing of all.
Shaking her head, Demitria quietly closed the door of her house as she made her way into the early morning air. Small pebbles crunched under her boots with each step she took down the cracked roads of Solis. Toward the large greenhouse in the middle of the community where her first goodbye would be. By morning she was supposed to be leaving with Kellan, but when that time came around, she already planned on being long gone. Last night she’d thought about waiting it out and following the plan he’d set, but Demitria knew she probably wouldn’t get her own questions answered. And she had several. Especially after their talk. Leaving early was not only for the safety of her people, but forher.
The loud sigh past through her lips as she walked by a few of the empty buildings. Not a single soul was awake at this hour. She pulled the cloak tighter around her body, fighting off that early chill. She’d left her hair loose, flowing around her in softwaves as to not take up even more time. There were too many things she needed to get done, and just not enough time to do them.
“Stella?” Poking her head into the greenhouse, her voice barely above a whisper. The woman was usually an early riser, and Demitria was sure she’d been puttering around for hours already.
