Page 49 of Loving Nightmares
“Good. I hope he’s worried.” Arabella narrowed her eyes outside the car as we began to make our way towards the base. Unlike last time, there was no stop at a luxury hotel or a diner. It was just the nine of us on our way to face War, hopefully for the last time.
Actually, it wasn’t ‘hopefully’—I would damn well make sure it was the last time.
My thoughts wandered to happier places as we drove along the deserted streets. Something had clearly caused everyone to leave, or maybe go to the base. One of those. Instead of focusing on it though, I thought about what came after this. Of living with Arabella and waking up every morning to her beautiful smile. Of building a house on institute lands and marrying the woman we all loved. Of starting a family together and seeing where the future led us. All of it would start after we handled this, and it gave me all the motivation in the world to ensure it went to plan.
Which is why we should’ve known War would somehow fuck it up.
As we planned, Razar pulled to a mountainous lookout along a section of caves that would give us a high up view of the base. As we exited the car, I let out a curse at the amount ofbodiesthat War had protecting him. I mean, that was really the only way to describe it.
Humans, soldiers and civilians alike, were standing like lifeless zombies around the walls of the base. How long had they been like this? I was surprised some of them hadn’t died…or maybe they had. Maybe there’d even been more than this beforehand.
“He’s using them as a shield,” Arabella growled. “What absolute bullshit.”
“He’s scared,” Saint pointed out, an odd note to his voice. “He’s almost always on the offense, it’s his preferred strategy, and now he doesn’t know what to do now that the tables have turned.”
“Can you tell what his life force is like right now?” Amun asked Saint. “I’m too far away to tell.”
Saint’s brow furrowed in concentration. “Yeah, I can’t get a good read on it because of the wards he has up, but it doesn’t seem like his usual strength.”
“I think Arabella’s powers could have hurt him like they hurt Hate,” I suggested. Blackwell nodded absently in agreement, more focused on hovering behind Arabella, probably because she was so damn close to the cliff’s edge—
My tail wrapped around her waist, carefully pulling her back against me. She made a small surprised noise and offered me a soft smile that I loved. Then again, there wasn’t much I didn’t love when it came to her.
“We have no choice but to go down there,” she stated evenly. “I recognize it’s essentially a trap, but he won’t leave there, and we don’t have time to be at some weird standoff. I don’t know how the humans will be affected in the long-run by this weird state he has them in, but it can’t be good.”
“Should we wait for thesis metasto arrive?” Ashur asked, examining the steep slope down. I’d originally thought we’d have to find a way down, but I had an idea of a way he could help us in that endeavor.
“No.” Arabella turned and offered all of us a determined look. “I need three of you to go and lead the groups here when they land. Hopefully the nightmares they’re with and your magic will keep War from noticing them. Bring them here to this clifftop—they’ll be able to use their magic from here.”
“I don’t think splitting up is a good idea,” Razar cautioned. I nearly nodded in agreement, but I could tell my cherry blossom’s mind was moving a million miles an hour.
“Trust me.” She reached over to squeeze his hand. “The other seven of us will go down there and draw him out. Then, when he thinks he’s just facing us again, thesis metaswill use their magic from this hiding spot.”
“And it will keep them out of battle,” Zain pointed out.
“I know we don’t want to split up—”
“It’s smart. It’s a really good plan,” Razar admitted. “Who wants to go?”
No one. No one wanted to go—but I knew who would go.
“I will,” Zain offered, then looked towards Amun and Cy. “Both of you have nightmare forms that work more effectively with space, and considering the body count down there, it would probably harm more than hurt. I think it should be the three of us.”
“I don’t like the idea of leaving you, precious,” Amun said immediately, holding Arabella’s gaze. She offered a soft smile that nearly had me scowling. Despite accepting Amun, I found myself jealous of the attention she gave him—specificallyhim. I don’t know, I think Saint was right, it was just Amun—something about him made you want to punch him.
And I would tell him that eventually. Probably. Eh, Arabella loved him, so probably not.
“For you, pixie,” Cy said, walking over to kiss her before grabbing the keys and going to the vehicle. I watched my cherry blossom say goodbye to the other two before the sound of thedirt and sand under tires filled my ears as they went back down the other side of the mountainous region.
Arabella turned towards us and frowned. “We maybe should have gotten a ride down there with them.”
“Actually…” I looked to Ashur. “If we want to make an impact and really draw his attention, maybe Ashur could create us stairs leading down right into the crowd.”
“Could you do that?” Arabella looked at him hopefully.
“I could open up the earth and swallow it whole if you wanted me to,” Ashur said, nearly making me laugh at the way Arabella’s eyes widened in surprise. “It obviously wouldn’t kill War, but I could do it for you.”
“That’s a really sweet offer,” she teased, “but just the stairs will work for now.”
