Page 71 of Broken Triad
“I’m okay.”
“Follow me.” He barks out an order to the other two of his triad, who stand at their posts at the front gate, then turns, his black robes swishing as he strides down the cobblestone path between the hedges. I have to jog to keep up with his long-legged stride as we approach the palace itself. “I’m bringing you to a safe place to wait. Ra’al will come to you after his address.”
He escorts me through the huge open wooden doors of the Royal Palace itself. Before the aliens came, no commoner could ever imagine being allowed behind the stone walls of the private palace. Paulus bragged many times of meetings here. Now the hard boots of soldiers march on the stone floor.
The entrance hall is huge, with high ceilings and stairways that go off in every direction. The entrance hall is near empty, with only a few guards, and an ancient triad of Aurelians with glasses who speak in hushed tones near a stairway. There’s an air of idle chatter, the guards in the inner sanctum of the palace less worried than those protecting the entrances. Only those who are vetted are allowed in here.
The address must have started. “Will I be able to see the General soon?” I gnaw on the inside of my cheek. Every second, my triad could be farther away—or they could be already in custody, captured trying to escape the atmosphere in their Reaver.
“Soon. This way,” he says, leading me up a huge, winding staircase. He takes them three at a time while I rush to keep up. Strangely, my muscles don’t burn with exertion, and my breath is steady despite jogging after him.
Then all chatter stops. Hard bootsteps ring out, the hall going silent, broken by the hum of Orb-Blades activating. I turn at the top of the stairway as Krazak and my triad march in as though they own the place, heads high, green eyes glowing. They are wearing their black robes that expose half their chest, and their naked arms are a network of venomous green veins, their lifeblood corrupted and unhidden. Their muscles are bulging out against their skin as if they are about to crack their marble flesh open, and they seem to have grown taller, huge creatures imbued with new rage.
They are different than the rest of the aliens in this palace. More brutal. More animalistic, and yet, they alone have conquered the poison and survived what no other on this planet could.
The bear of an alien puts himself between me and the triad, pushing me back as he stands at the top of the stairs. “Stay behind me,” he says, voice cold, his accent deepened in stress as he draws his own Orb-weapon. It’s an axe, the blue-black edge shimmering with energy.
“Translate,” I whisper into my smartwatch, as Krazak speaks.
“We come to answer the General’s call, as is our right,” Krazak booms out, his voice filled with confidence and pride, as if he can’t imagine being stopped.
“You’re deserters. You’ll answer my blade,” says a young Aurelian, puffing his chest out, striding forward with a weapon in his hand.
“Careful youngster. Those with Scorp-Blood in their veins are more dangerous than you can imagine.” My smartwatch blinks, registering a new language. High Aurelian. One of the ancient Aurelians steps closer, re-adjusting his glasses as he watches my triad with open curiosity, like a scientist to his subject. “My Gods. I have not seen one like you since the great General Asmod.”
The young triad hesitates, blades in their hands, and I can’t watch the carnage. When Ra’al comes out of his troop address, his first order will be to jail my triad.
The second will be to have their heads cut from their bodies.
My only chance is to get to Rachel and plead my case before they are killed.
The big bear of a man is still standing stock-still, keeping himself between me and the scene below, and I take my chance, slipping away silently. I was used to moving like a mouse when I was a servant, and now I sneak away, deeper into the palace.
I listen intently. There’s yelling in the entrance hall—but I hear other voices, farther away, alien voices deeper in the castle. I take hallways near at random, hoping I look like a servant, knowing that if any guard stops me they’ll know I don’t belong.
28
KRAZAK
“If you take this mission, understand what you do. You do not just end your lives. You end your bloodlines forever. You take away the chance for the next generation of men to find their Mate. You take away the chance that was given to you by the strength of those who came before you.”
General Ra’al’s deep voice carries through the wooden side door leading to his throne room. Two Aurelians are blocking the door, blades already activated, mid-thirties and in their prime. Khra telepaths me the location of the third. He’s waiting behind us, ready to flank. I thought we’d have to cut our way through men to get here. The three old Aurelians talked down the youngbloods, and though they didn’t like us, they led us here.
Fire is burning through my veins. Those three whelps dared to stand up to us, and visions of their bodies shattered on the ground fill my mind.
The two guards look us up and down, their gaze resting on our burning green eyes and the poison in our veins. I keep my hands far from my blade, empty and open, but all I want to do is rip his throat out, plunge my thumbs into his eyes and squeeze. He dares to stand between me and my destiny. The rage wells up inside me, consuming my mind, and it takes every effort not to kill him now.
“Wait,” says the leader of the triad. He speaks into his smartwatch. My ears are more attuned, perhaps with the high stakes of the situation, and I hear every word. “Sniper four, do I have your okay to bring in a late triad? Krazak. Scorp-Blooded. High security risk.”
“Stand by,” comes the voice back through his earpiece. That, I should not have been able to hear. The Scorp-Blood is enhancing my senses. I’ve become a pure killing machine.
“Private Mercurial! Where is your Mate?” Ra’al’s voice booms out as he yells in the hall.
“It…it is unlucky to speak of this, my General.”
Some triad who volunteered for the final mission is having doubts. The words only bolster me. We have nothing to lose. The only thing we can do if we live is bring more hurt into Lola’s life. The rage has corrupted every sense in me, and all I can do is spread it into her mind, her body, until she is poisoned as I am.
“Deep within human territories, General Ra’al. She is an executive at a company. When we saw her, we were struck by her, but she kept her composure, I do not know how. She wore a grey skirt, a white blouse, and we when she looked at us…she smiled, she smoothed her blouse, and she went straight into a meeting while we watched…”
