Kieran stays tucked in close to her side, as though he is desperate to transport her back home, but the moment that Gryphon steps away from her, she drops her hand away and gives her Bonded a curt nod.
Now isn't the time for me to smile at her or acknowledge just how amazing my best friend is. I always knew she was stronger than anyone gave her credit for. She isn't reacting to any of this any worse than I am, and I have been around a hell of a lot of death.
Gryphon starts making hand signals to disperse everyone. Once his team is in a formation, he looks back, nodding to me. I let my eyes slip shut as I reached down to speak to my bond.
I hope you're hungry, because we have a big job to do today.
It's slow to answer me, They're all pathetically small. Not worth my time.
A meal’s a meal, right? Our Bonded deserve some power.
That piques its interest a little more, just enough that it reaches out to each of our Bonded to check in with them, and it stays with Nox for longer than any of the rest.
They're not in danger.
Honestly, I could kill it for acting like this. I know, but you said it yourself, we need to bring the fight to the Resistance.
This isn't fighting. This is cleaning up and they're not worth my time.
I sigh and open my eyes back up, meeting Gryphon's gaze and shrugging. “There's no one here strong enough to be a concern.”
Sage exhales like I'm saying something reassuring, but Gryphon knows exactly what I mean and nods back at me slowly, signaling once more to the teams around us, and then we're moving. It would be much easier if my bond would just take everyone out instead, but I guess there's nothing wrong with getting a good view of everything that has happened.
There’s a lot we can learn from the destruction.
The giant craters that we come across make my stomach sink, each of them a monument to how close I'd come to losing Gryphon. As we move, I watch the air shimmer around us. The power of the Wasteland slowly begins to fade as the Shields get taken out, one by one.
It's clear that the Resistance has given up using this space for anything other than a place to send their enemies to die.
At first, that was all I thought that the Wastelands were, but with Nox's memories and experiences in my head, I now know better. These places are used as a training ground, a place to test powers and as somewhere they can bring their prisoners to be broken and turned into soldiers. It’s exactly why they’d brought Aro here, a young girl they needed to see death and destruction so that she would lose herself enough to join them. It's a wonder that they had never brought me to a Wasteland, though I suppose Davies planned on breaking me in a very different way.
He got closer than I’d like to admit.
When we get to the drop-off zone that had been used to funnel people in and out, the landscape around it is even more bleak than anywhere else that we have been today.
The area that had clearly once been a road is nothing more than rubble, and even the bodies that had been left behind are nothing more than bones loosely wrapped in clothing. My stomach dips in warning at the same time that my bond finally decides that something here is worth its time, but before it can say anything, I hear another voice in my head.
They’re here. I glance over to see Nox's eyes shift to black as his bond takes the helm, shadow creatures bursting out around us.
I glance over to North, and the last thing I see before my bond takes over, are his eyes shining back at me; black, depthless voids as his own shadows come out to play.
Oleander’s bond
The soul-bonding had drained more energy than I care to admit, and it was my own anger that had stopped me from just devouring the souls of our enemies here. It doesn’t help that the Gifted currently here in the Wasteland are nothing more than crumbs to me.
What I really need is a feast.
The transporting area is still live. Our appearance here, along with the deaths of the Shields, has clearly sounded some sort of alarm to the Resistance, chiming like a dinner bell and sending them into a flurry to strike back at us. It’s nothing more than a carelessly laid trap, because I'm ready to deal with them all personally.
I'm ready for all of my Bonded to benefit from the power I can give them.
The first wave of people through the Transporter zone are instantly consumed by the shadow creatures, the sounds of their screaming and tearing flesh like music to my ears. I'm not upset to miss out on their deaths, especially not when the strongest among them is brought to me by August, his large jaws clamping around the Gifted’s neck as he drags him across the rubble to me.
My Dark Bonded looks down at it with critical eyes and then back up at me, quirking an eyebrow and gesturing down to it. “Is this a declaration of love? Am I watching the gods court one another right now?”
I sink down onto my knees as I scratch behind the shadow creature’s ear, giving it the same affection that the girl always does and watching as it melts beneath my touch. I have never interacted with the shadows the way that she has, but I find myself wanting them to love me the same way they love her, exuberantly and with everything they have.
“Thank you for the meal,” I murmur, and then I tear the Gifted’s soul out without another thought, consuming it whole and letting the energy fill me. Well, it’s more like a small trickle into a dam, nowhere near enough to actually fill me. However, as more and more Resistance transport here in an attempt to stop us from taking out the Wasteland, I start to have my fill, until there is a pile of bodies at my feet.
Finally, finally, I feel as though I am truly alive again.
The next wave that comes through, I take out myself before the shadow creatures can reach them, quenching their life forces with nothing more than a thought. This time, I filter all of the power to my Damaged Bonded One, sending him what extra I have. I watch as his back straightens a little more, the heavy weight that was on his shoulders easing as the last of the damage done to him is repaired.
Now we’re ready. Now we can go hunting.
The Damaged Dark One turns to look at me. His shadow creatures are running around us all, still feasting on the bodies of our enemies around us in a perfectly vicious massacre. He ignores everyone as he steps towards me, the black, inky stain of his power creeping up his arms as he reaches for me.
Oh, how I’ve missed him.
I let him take me into his arms, but when he leans down to me, instead of kissing me, he murmurs quietly, “Finish it. Take everything from them like they tried to take everything from us.”
With renewed energy, I cast out my Gift to feel everything within the Wasteland, every living creature, and I focus on those Shields that are keeping this place running. Most of them are nothing more than shells themselves, their minds broken by the torture they were subjected to. One by one, I snuff them out. I take the essence of their lives and pull it into myself, however small, until finally the shimmer of their Gifts fall away from us, and we can once again see what lies outside of the barren battlefield.
The girl is shocked to hear the sounds of cars and life around us. We find ourselves standing in the middle of a busy town, one that the Resistance had no problem tearing a hole in.
It’s banal and completely normal-looking, except for the edges where the death and destruction begins. It looks like the everyday sort of country town where nothing ever happens.
Nothing until our enemy came here.