Page 13 of When Monsters Fight
My eyes heated with the threat of tears. “Bastian, I’m scared. I’m so fucking scared.”
He squeezed me tight. “So am I. Dammit. I wish I could come with you. I wish you didn’t have to go.”
We remained locked in an embrace for long minutes, hearts beating in tandem, breath synchronized until a calm settled over me.
“I’m coming back, Bastian. I’m coming back, and you better be at base zero waiting for me.” I pulled away and glared up at him. “No heroics on the way. No putting your life on the line out there, because I fucking need you to live. You understand?”
He smiled wryly. “Practice what you preach much, Rue?”
“Trust me, if I didn’t have to go, then I wouldn’t.” But I was the only one who could locate the final relic fragment.
Bastian cupped my face with his large hands. “No heroics.”
I turned my face to kiss his palm. “No heroics.”
His kiss was soft and filled with emotions that made knots in my chest. But this wasn’t goodbye. This wassee you later. It had to be.
Bastian had not only packedme a bag, as promised, but he’d also fashioned me a weapon. I’d lost my bat somewhere in our travels, but Bastian had found me another. It wasn’t bound with barbed wire, but he’d added a few nails to it for added impact. The bag contained neatly packed dried meat and cereals, a couple of bottles of water, and some of Mira’s cookies. We didn’t have a huge amount to spare, so I’d have to be prudent with the supplies and hope that there’d be water and food in Gehenna.
Nerves did the tango in my blood as we went back into the nave. Bee stepped in to give me a hug, but with the relic bundle tucked under my arm and my bat clutched in the other, I couldn’t return it properly. She squeezed hard enough for us both, though, and I leaned into that, reveling in the contact and committing it to memory.
“Be safe and come back to us,” she whispered into my hair before releasing me.
Baraqel dropped me a nod, and Erelim lifted his chin slightly in goodbye. Penemue and Armaros stood to one side, silent and watchful. I was leaving my people in their hands. People who stood silent and forlorn on the edges of the room.
They’d be fine.
“We’ll keep them safe,” Sarq said. “Give us an hour before you go through the convergence.”
“Of course.”
Mira hauled the door open. “Okay, everyone. Time to hit the road.”
People started to trickle out into the mid-morning sun. We’d left it later than planned for them to leave, but the watchers had used that time to mark off some potential safe zones on Zaq’s map.
They’d be fine.
Everything would be fine if I did my part.
The nave emptied out until it was just Bee, Bastian, and me.
They sandwiched me in a final hug, and it took everything in me not to drop the bat and relics and hold on to them as terror surged hot in my veins.
This could be the end.
It could be goodbye.
“We love you, Rue,” Bee said. “We’ll see you soon.”
They crossed to the door and stood momentarily silhouetted in the sunlight. Then they too were gone.
I hurried back down the steps to rejoin my party in the chamber beneath the altar. We had an hour to kill, and I had no doubt that it would feel like the longest hour of my life.
Chapter 8
MICHAEL
The view from the pinnacle is nothing but mist and clouds, obscuring the world below. The walls of the city are visible in the distance with their many sentries flying back and forth.
