Page 54 of Blood and War
The High Council had played her out to be this murderous monster. Had sent not only The Horseman, but an Archangel after her to eliminate the ‘threat’ that they claimed her to be. All she’d ever done was tried to survive in this fucked up world. Tried to live.
A deadly calm took over her. Body stiffening as the thoughts swarmed throughout. The burning community. Her parents’ eyes. The blood pooled on the floor. All of it had led her here, to this moment.
She would be what they claimed her to be. Would become the murderous creature they swore she was. Demitria was out for blood. For revenge.
“What’s wrong?” Kellan watched as her demeanor changed. The hardening of her features. The emotionless stare. It had been a carbon copy of the one she’d seen him don so many times before.
Demitria didn’t answer him, just stared out at the horizon. The horse beneath her mimicked her calm. Alert. At the ready. His movements thunderous and deadly as he walked along. Like a shadow cutting through the night.
“I’m going to kill him with my bare hands,” She growled. “And all those that follow him.”
She only had one want now. One need, and she didn’t care how she got there.
Demitria would cut each and every one of the fucking creatures down, starting with their gods damned king.
Thirty-Three
KELLAN
Kellan sat in front of the fire across from his siblings, his body barely fitting atop the large boulder he’d perched on. He glanced to his left, toward the mounts sleeping soundlessly a few feet away in the darkness that surrounded them before turning back to the others. He was used to the darkness, his senses sharp. Eyes that could see far more than the human fast asleep near his feet. He’d discarded his cloak the moment they’d sat down, offering it to Demitria as she rested her weary eyes. He found himself staring at her, too. At the way the curves on her chest rose and fell with each breath she took. He needed to stop staring. To get ahold of himself, and stop acting like an absolute fool.
It took him far too much effort to drag his gaze back.
“Have they answered?” Kane spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. Kellan already knew the answer. He knew Gabriel had summoned them every time they’d stopped riding to no avail. Heard the string of curses when they didn’t answer. The council was refusing their summons, and that unnerved him more than it should have.
“No.” Gabriel stared into the red-orange glow, the dancing of the flames reflecting in his dark, forest green eyes. His voice wasgruff, stern, as if the very thought tasted foul in his mouth. His hands were balled into fists in his lap as he sat there, unmoving. So still, almost as if he was nothing more than stone.
“Why?” Eire chimed in. “Because of the girl?” She chided, shooting her sleeping figure a quick glance before meeting his own gaze. Eire rolled her eyes at him, her features contorted to one of disgust. “We’re only in this mess because of her.”
“I don’t know.” Gabriel didn’t even stop them from the argument that was moments away from happening.
“Something more is going on. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.” Kellan spoke, stretching out the kink in his arms. Massaging the muscles with deft fingers from being in one position for too long.
“You believe the claims, then? Abouthim?” To his surprise, Eire’s voice softened, her features doing the same as she mimicked their eldest staring into the flames. If there was one thing they could agree on, it was the gravity of those claims. What they meant to each and every one of them.
He didn’t want to, but everything since he’d got here seemed to point directly to the male ruling The Underworld. And he hated that. Loathed it with every fiber of his being. The Dark King—Lucifer, was not a being he wanted any part of.
“I do.” He sighed, his head falling back as he stared off into the sky above, watching the stars peek through the clouds.
“Then what? What does it even mean?” Kane asked. His features were such a stark contrast against the world around them. The white blond of his hair, the piercing blue eyes. Striking, as he watched on.
“It means we kill him.” There was no other answer. Nothing that he could come up with, other than ending the male’s life.
“You think we can do that?” Eire laughed, then. Her gray eyes practically glowing as if he’d just said the most humorous thing.“We barely got you out of his clutches, and you thinkyoucan kill him?”
“We don’t have a choice!” His voice rose, deepening, as his brows knit together.
“We can’t just go off and kill him, Kellan. We need to wait for the council’s orders, that has always been law.” Kane reasoned, and Kellan rounded on him. He was supposed to be the one that agreed with him. The easygoing one out of all of them.
“They don’t give a shit about us!” He almost yelled, the anger dripping from him. What didn’t they understand? Even after everything that’s happened, why didn’t they believe him? “In case you haven’t noticed.”
“Gabriel?” Silence fell over them as Kane spoke, waiting for the final orders.
It seemed like eons before he finally answered. “We continue this path.” Gabriel answered, voice low. He still hadn’t broken from that stare, and Kellan wondered what was coursing through his mind. “Wherever he is, we find him, and we apprehend him.” It was Kellan’s turn to laugh.Apprehend him?There would be none of that. They wouldn’t survive it if they tried.
“And what then, brother?” Kellan narrowed his eyes at him. Killing Lucifer was the only option they had. Gabriel knew that.
“We apprehend him, and take him to the council. To hold a proper trial, and they will punish him as they see fit.”
