Page 86 of Reaper Unhinged
His chest heaves, and he doesn’t argue with me, so I continue.
“We stop searching, and we start fighting back. Lilith put her blood, sweat, and tears into raising Imperium, into ruling the Underealm. We can’t let Mammon get the throne. We can’t let him win.”
“There is no Imperium without its queen.”
“And if we don’t change tactic, there will be no Imperium for the queen to come back to.”
“Azazel won’t like this,” Conah says.
“Azazel is a warrior, a general, but right now he’s thinking like a son. I’ll speak to him when he gets back from the east barracks.”
I don’t even want to think about what we found there. There were no survivors. Nothing but ash. Whatever attacked the barracks razed it to the ground. The fact it didn’t come south means that the firepower is limited. Still, the east must be fortified, and Azazel is busy setting up new troops and building traps. These barracks are our first defense for Imperium, and if they fall…Well, we’re not going to go there.
“If he kills her…” Conah says.
“Lilith is an original. It won’t be easy.”
“But not impossible,” Conah says. “But you’re right, Imperium has to come first. The people need to be protected. It’s what Lilith would want.”
“Which means it’s time to tell them the truth.”
Conah’s jaw is tight as he scans the vista of death. “I think it’s too late for that. I think the truth might already be out.”
A gust of air pushes my hair back off my forehead, and then a phoenix lands in front of us. I recognize its blue and purple plumage instantly.
It’s one of ours from the quarters.
Conah and I exchange glances, and I know he’s thinking the same thing as me.
Fee.
The phoenix’s throat convulses. It spits out the silver cylinder that contains a message and then flies off.
Conah is quick to retrieve the cylinder, wiping it on his pant leg before flipping it open to get to the scroll inside. He scans the message and then chews on his lip.
“What is it?”
“It’s from Fee,” he says.
As suspected. “For me?”
He shakes his head. “No, for me. She needs me.”
I can’t help the stab of jealousy that pricks at my chest. “Does she say what for?”
“No.”
I know Fee wouldn’t message unless it was urgent. “Go.”
He looks momentarily torn, and I want to slap him. “This is Fee we’re talking about. If she’d called me, I’d already be gone.”
“But she didn’t call you. She called me, and weren’t you just saying we needed to think like generals. Didn’t you just say Azazel was thinking like a son.”
I know where he’s going with this, and I stop him with a look. “You can be back by sundown tomorrow, and I can hold the fort until then. Your absence at this moment won’t turn the tide in Mammon’s favor. Look around, he’s already done that.”
Conah tucks the scroll into his belt. “Fine. I’ll go help Fee, and you speak to Azazel, and when I get back, we’ll make a new plan, one where we strike back at the bastard that did this.”
Chapter Thirty
