Page 14 of When Monsters Fight
This is the view I should have been given from the start.
These opulent chambers are owed to me, with the huge living area and three rooms coming off the living space for me to do with as I please. The location—a floor below the Dominion—is also ideal, indicating my elevated station.
Ending Shemyaza has saved us all. This world will be our new home, and I can’t wait to put the final stages of the Dominion’s plan into motion.
The knock on the main doors pulls me out of my thoughts. “Come in.”
Yamal steps into the room decked out in his bronze armor, ever ready for battle. He takes in the room with economic darts of his dark eyes, and his mouth tightens a fraction.
Oh, this must be tearing him apart.
Being my subordinate and answering to me when a few short days ago he would have had the power to crush me. Now I can take away his breath with a thought. I can make him fall to his knees and beg for mercy.
But I’m above such petty actions. “What news?”
“There’s been a disturbance in the ether northeast of here. An ejection of power that I believe we should investigate.”
“You believe it related to our mission?”
“I believe it’s worth investigating,” he repeats.
He needs my permission, but I pause for long seconds, making him wait. I let him seethe, and then I shrug one shoulder. “Go. Take a small troop and investigate. Summon me if you determine the disturbance to be a viable fracture.”
“As you order, Michael,” Yamal says.
“You will address me by my given title.” I can all but hear his teeth grinding, and the satisfaction that brings me is unparalleled.
“As you order, Supracelestia,” he says stiffly.
A new title gifted to me by the Dominion, putting me above all others except them. I can live with that…for now.
Power crackles in my veins. I’m whole. A savior. A conqueror, and soon I will be much more.
Chapter 9
RUE
The hour ticked by faster than expected with Kabiel, his watchers, Gabriel and Jilyana for company. It was peaceful here in the bowels of the earth beneath the church surrounded by stone and earth with only each other’s heartbeats for company.
The watchers swapped stories about their lives before the fall. About the wars they’d fought on God’s command, about the times they’d walked among humans, and the snippets they’d heard about Gehenna.
Asbeel thought it to be a prison realm, but Yomiel said he’d heard it was the first world that God created. Matarel said that the prison realm theory was the most popular one in heaven, but no one knew for certain what the world was like.
It was clear that Gehenna was a mystery to all; even humanity had created its own stories around it—calling it hell and saying it was the place that human souls went if they did evil things.
But with the hour up, the time for speculation was over.
I handed Kabiel the bundle containing two of the relic pieces. “You and your watchers can pass through using these. Gabriel and I’ll go through with Jilyana.” I hoisted my pack firmly onto my shoulders and gripped my bat tightly. “Let’s do this before I change my mind.”
We were going into the unknown with me as the compass that would lead us to the relic piece, and after that, we’d have to wing it.
The well lip wasn’t too high, so it was easy to climb onto the ledge. The portal swirled brighter as if sensing the relic inside Jilyana.
I shoved my bat into my pack the best I could before linking hands with Gabriel and Jilyana. “See you on the other side, Kabiel.”
We jumped.
The lights went out for a moment, and when they flared back on, my boots were on rocky ground. An angry red sky swirling with purple clouds stretched out above us like a frothy blanket. My hands were still clasped with Jilyana and Gabriel, who both looked as disorientated as I felt. Were their chests as tight as mine?
