Page 78 of Captured By the Monsters
SYLAN
The Above was awash in blood. The angry red hue assaulted my senses, as did the acrid smell, setting off alarms in my head. Instinctually, I reached for Sera, as did Rowen and Axton. My mind couldn’t process anything but the need to get her to safety.
Shoving her back into the shuttle, Axton messed around with the console to get the thing going. Sera never took her eyes off the carnage unfolding before us, and even when I attempted to block her view, she craned her head to still see.
Hadn’t enough death tainted her life?
My skin crawled with urgency, the desperate need to protect my mate at all costs. We needed to get out of here. Now. I looked at Axton, who was banging on the console and swearing in our language.
“What’s wrong?” Rowen demanded in our tongue, not that Sera was listening.
“It requires an eye scan to activate.”
“Damn!” I snarled in English, which finally got my mate’s attention.
“You swore!” she exclaimed in surprise.
“Of course I swore! Have you looked outside the shuttle?” I asked rhetorically. “We have to get you out of here, but we can’t use the shuttle. We’ll have to think of something else.”
“Maybe we can find another transport—” Axton started, but stopped when Sera leaped out of the shuttle.
As a unit, we raced after her as she marched into the melee of people. Humans were fighting one another with both simple and sophisticated weapons—and both seemed to be doing equal amounts of damage.
We jostled to get in front of our mate before any harm could happen, but something curious occurred. All the fighting stopped around us. As my Trifecta formed a circle of protection around Sera, I stared out at the bloodied humans, who openly stared right back.
Sera had been right.
Our presence was enough to make everyone pause, but the tension inside of me didn’t ease. If anything, it wound itself tighter around my midsection, preparing for when everyone would begin fighting again.
Hushed whispers began to fly amongst the humans until the plaza was buzzing with speculation. If the situation wasn’t so dire, I would have laughed at how quickly the humans were diverted, like small children with a new toy.
I could feel Axton’s and Rowen’s nervousness growing as well, but Sera remained calm. Crouching, she wedged herself between Rowen’s and my legs before we could stop her. Once more, she walked away, making me long to scream in frustration for putting herself in harm’s way.
“Everyone, put down your weapons,” she commanded regally, as if she were also a queen here. “I am one of the Selected, Serafina Adler, returning from Paratiisi—The Below—with my mates. We’ve been told a great many lies, many of which pit us against one another, but I’m here to dispel them. We mustn’t fight amongst ourselves. To do so only weakens our cause.”
“And what is our cause?” one man yelled, still clutching his weapon tightly as blood dribbled down his face from a deep cut in his brow.
I scanned the area to make sure none of their weapons were directed at my mate.
“Equality. An end to the oppression. Our freedom!” she bellowed.
A resounding cheer met her words, and my eyes met Axton’s. Sera said she wasn’t only fixing Paratiisi, but her world, too. The crystal did well choosing my mate to heal the two lands because clearly, Sera was tenacious.
Another man stepped forward, a crude weapon in his hand. “I am the rebel leader,” he announced—stupidly, in my opinion as that would make him a target—but he wasn’t anymore of a target than my mate. The only difference was I wouldn’t risk my life for his.
“I want to speak to the leader of the Unified Capital,” Sera directed.
The rebel leader scoffed in response. “I asked but was met with violence.”
His words didn’t surprise me. Everything that Sera had told us about The Above pointed to a fanatical leader who would never listen to any logical argument—the main reason none of us wanted her to come back.
A woman with a gun stepped forward, and I swept in front of my mate, snarling. Axton and Rowen mimicked my actions, the sound echoing in the still Plaza around us. The lady shifted back at the menace advancing upon her.
“I-I mean no harm,” she stammered, blinking rapidly.
I looked pointedly at her gun, which was aimed at my heart, and she hastily lowered it, but not enough for me to drop my guard. Sera tried to push past us once again, but I was prepared this time. Reaching behind me, I tucked her close to my back.
“Your weapon says otherwise,” Axton told the woman in response to her stupid comment.
