Eyes swollen shut and body badly bruised, I had to wait three hours for the medics to heal me. My wounds were now gone and there were no signs of what he’d done to me physically, but psychologically, the guy I fell in love with has wounded me so deeply that I have to shut my feelings out.
Aria is still lying on the floor of the banquet hall, suffering at his hands. She’s still clinging to the hope of a future with him and children. Me…my name is Shadow, and I know better. He doesn’t love me…he hates me. He doesn’t want me…he just wants to slip himself into me whenever he feels like it. I am no more than furniture in a room to him.
“I see you’re all better.” Bleak smiles.
“Havoc just beat me to the brink of death, and I pledged myself to him. To someone who would take my life with little regard for my feelings…I’d hardly say I’m better.” I glared at him. “Where’s my son?”
“Aria, we must talk about the boy.” He takes a seat next to me.
“What is there to talk about?”
“I’m afraid the Republic has made a decision.” He replies solemnly. “Reaper is to be terminated.”
“What?” I gasp. “When?”
“At dawn.”
“Where are they keeping him?” I began to panic.
“I’m afraid I cannot answer that.”
My moves are swift and I have my blade at his throat. “Don’t make me kill you. Tell me where my son is.” I demand through gritted teeth.
“He’s been taken to the Emerald Aisle where he will be purged.”
“Purged...” I gasp. “Over my dead body.”
A spark springs to life in my hand and I force it down Bleak’s throat. It won’t kill him, but it will immobilize him and keep him from stopping me. I rush downstairs to find Noah who’s less than thrilled to see me.
“I don’t have time to explain, but our son is in danger.” I blurt out.
Noah rises to his feet and both our teams follow. “I knew something was wrong. I’ve been able to speak to him telepathically for days and today he stopped responding.” Noah’s voice starts to tremble.
“He’s scheduled to be terminated tomorrow morning. They took him to the Emerald Aisle to be purged. Whatever we’re going to do, we need to do it now.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Go to the Emerald Aisle and kill everything standing in between me and our son.” I reply without hesitation.
“Sounds good to me.” Noah agrees.
“We need an alchemist.”
“I’m already on it.” He takes out his phone and texts someone.
Noah creates a vortex that takes us to the heart of the Emerald aisle and we all rush through it. This realm looks more industrial than all the other realms. There are large buildings and factories everywhere and the air is filled with the cries of those being purged. The people who govern the Purge are known as Purifiers and they’re vile creatures.
“There. That’s where they keep their prisoners.” India, code name Thrust points out. According to Noah, she spent a lot of time on the Emerald Aisle at one point until she escaped. She escaped to Kaalen where Mal found her skills useful and placed her under his protection.
“How do we get in?” I ask.
“There’s a water pit in the middle of the facility that leads outside to a lake. We could swim through it and breach the buildings center.” She suggests. “We must be careful though, there are water serpents in the lake. They’ll try to wrap themselves around you and constrict until your bones are dust, zapping you with electric currents to weaken you.”
“Is there any other way?” Samara, code name Despair asks.
“There’s a large skylight above, but it’s a no fly zone. Your wings won’t work there and they’ll see us coming. It’ll lesson our chance of finding Reaper before they know we’re here. There are also canons that fire rounds of abyss. If you’re hit, you’ll be trapped in darkness forever or until you go mad and take your own life.”
“I’d rather take my chances with the serpents.” Noah sighs.
“I agree.” I nod, flashing him a lazy smile. “Stay close. Thrust, you lead the way.”
We followed Thrust to what looked like a small lake covered by trees. She motioned to the other side of the lake where a group of serpents were fighting for territory. “Rub this on your skin.” Thrust points to a pile of something green and squishy. It looks like chewed grass.
“What is it?” I ask as we all begin to rub it into our skin.
“Serpent shit.” She smirks.
“I think I’m going to be sick.” Scythe covers her mouth in disgust.
“If a serpent should get near you, they’ll think you’re one of them, but quick…it doesn’t stay on forever. The quicker we get out of the water the better.”
Thrust was the first to enter the water. She took careful steps to avoid making too much sound and one by one everyone followed. Thien and I were the only ones left, but before I could follow he grabbed me by the wrist to stop me. I couldn’t look at him. Not after what he did to me.
“Don’t. Right now I just want to find my son.” I reply, yanking away from him.
I slowly make my way into the water hoping to catch up to the others and he follows. The water is murky and dark, making visibility next to impossible. We link hands and continue moving through the water until the visibility improves. We can see the opening for the middle of the compound, but it also happens to be near the biggest serpent I’ve ever seen. It’s the length of two buses and its head is the size of the front of a van.
We’re almost out of the water when Samara accidentally slices one of her arms open on the jagged rocks in the water. While she addresses her wound, the giant serpent opens its eyes.
He’s coming straight for her!
I want to scream to her, but the water would only drown out my cries. Instead, I try to swim over to help her, but Thien’s strong arms hold me back. It’s too late…it quickly wraps itself around Samara, constricting itself and forcing what little air she had left from her body. Even in the water I could hear her bones crushing, but by that time she’s already dead. Her eyes are vacant of life, and her life force ascends.
Against my will, Thien pulls me to the opening of the water pit and out onto the surface of the middle of the compound. He cradles me in his arms as grief takes hold of me. “If you scream or cry out, her sacrifice will be for nothing and your son will be dead.” Thien whispers to me.
Swallowing my grief, I push myself to my feet and encourage Thrust to continue. The lake opening is at the center of a series of halls. The entire building is made of steel and its cold dank halls are both bare and white.
We have no idea where my son is so we break off into teams. I send Thien off with Wake, against his wishes, and keep Willow with me. We take a few steps down one of the halls and suddenly I can hear his voice. He sounds much older now.
“Yes mommy, come this way.” The voice calls to me. Noah is already ahead of me. He must’ve alerted the team because they’re all behind us now.
“How does he know where we are?” I ask Noah.
“He can see through our eyes.” Noah smiles.
We continue down a series of halls until we get to a door guarded by two purifiers. Their bodies are made of the finest alloy and they have almost no vulnerabilities, except for one…they don’t actually see with their eyes. They emit a laser beam from them.
“I’ll distract them, get our son.” Noah calls out, drawing their attention to him. The Purifiers chase after Noah and we wait until they turn a corner before running to the room with Reaper in it. Willow places her hands against the door holding my son and her hands heat up to impossible temperatures, melting the thick metal door enough for us to walk through it.
Inside, seated in a box surrounded by a force field is the most handsome toddler I’ve ever seen. He’s the size of a human four year old, with black hair and blue eyes like his father.
“How do we get him out of there?” Wake asks.
“No clue.” I reply.
We hear snarling behind us and Thien yells at everyone to get down. Bad move. The Purifier locks on to him and charges him. Thien runs towards the Purifier and at the last minute he slides between its legs, narrowly missing being torn apart by the monsters claws. It can’t stop itself and it collides into Reapers cell. The electricity from the force field fries the monster and eventually shorts out.
“We need to go.” Qi shouts.
I swoop Reaper up in my arms and we make a run for it. We run past the hall where Noah is battling a Purifier. He’s bleeding badly. I stop to help him and hand Reaper to Willow.
“No mommy.” Reaper calls out to me.
I look back at him and he points to the monster then blinks. The purifier cries out as if its been struck and falls to the floor, dead. Noah quickly limps over to us and we make our way back to the lake.
“The water has washed off the serpent scent.” Thien points out.
Reaper squirms as if he wants to be put down and I place him down on the ground. He crawls over to the lake and we all go to stop him, only we can’t. He’s stopping us. The serpent rises from the water and looms over Reaper, revealing its fangs.
I can’t watch. I want to close my eyes but at the same time I can’t look away. Without warning, the serpent spits Samara out onto the ground next to Reaper and falls down dead, splashing water everywhere. Soon serpents fill the surface of the lake. They’re all dead.
“He killed them.” Qi gasps.
Reaper reaches over to Samara and touches her face. Seconds later she shoots up to a sitting position, frightened and gasping for air.
Holy shit…my sons a walking Breath Of Life…he can give it and take it away at will…there are only few in existence and none of them as strong as he is…no wonder the Republic wants him dead…
With no time to waist, we all jump back into the lake and swim to its entrance on the outside. Like a good boy Reaper copies me and holds his breath. We make a run for the Vortex but its surrounded.
At the center of the group of those who have come to stop us are my father and a thousand angels from the Royal armies. Mal, my father and Bleak all approach us hoping to reason with us. Noah and I place our child between us.
“Aria.” My father nods to me.
“Father.” I nod back.
“You can’t leave with the child Aria.”
“And I’m not letting anyone get near him.”
“You’ll die.”
“I’m willing to take that risk.” I reply.
“What about your team? Are you willing to risk their lives too?”
“We’ll gladly give our life to protect Reaper.” My team declares, stepping forward, ready to fight.
“As will we.” Noah and his team join us.
“Very well.” He nods with sorrow in his eyes.
Our parent’s watch from afar as the army of angels converges on us. We prepare to battle for our lives when something unexpected happens. Reaper sends out a pulse and everyone in a ten-mile radius falls to the ground. The angels in the sky, our parents, and the members of my team…everyone but Reaper, Noah and I, are all on the ground motionless.
“Oh my Alpha, are they dead!” I shout, horrified.
“No mommy, they taked a nap.” Reaper smiles.
“I think this is the best gift you’ve ever given me.” Noah smiles.
“We must hurry.” Reaper tells us.
Snapping out of it, we run through the Vortex and seal it so no one can follow. As I emerge on the other side, I quickly recognize that we’re in a different country. We’re in Paris.
ns 15.158.61.42da2
