Dangerous icicles glinted.
The only sound was our crunching footsteps, frosty breath, and screaming wind.
It was eerie.
The twins jogged in my peripheral vision, and my heart hurt as I remembered they’d left me. They were supposed to be different from the kings. They weren’t supposed to leave without a word.
Scorpius and Orion sidled protectively in front of me. Malum kept his hold on my arm.
They turned their heads back toward me. Once again, they had streaks of dried blood on their faces.
“Where did you two go?” I asked.
“We can’t say,” Scorpius said with a strange expression. Orion stared at me over his shoulder.
“Whatever.” I pushed my pipe between my lips and inhaled sharply. “I guess we all have our secrets.” I exhaled, and smoke curled around my face.
The arm pulling me along the path caught fire. I leaned closer to the warmth and narrowed my eyes up at Malum as I tried to figure out what had pissed him off this time.
His cheeks turned bright pink under my scrutiny, and he purposefully didn’t make eye contact.
I stumbled as I realized he was intentionally on fire. He was warming me. Another frozen piece of my heart thawed. I played with the edges of my sleeves.
“Be careful,” he ordered. “Keep your mittens on.”
I arched my brow at his tone, and his blush intensified.
“Don’t tell me what to do with my mittens,” I said as we moved through the trees.
The corner of his lip curled up. “Don’t be a brat.”
I stuck my tongue out at him.
The demons sprinted past, kicking up snow in their wake.
Malum’s grip on my arm tightened, and I realized he was still dragging me.
“I don’t need you to lead me like a dog.” I tugged away from him.
“No, you don’t.” He didn’t release me. “But you do need me to warm you.”
He had me there.
“Your fire is nice,” I admitted sheepishly. “Thank you.”
Malum tripped and his gaze shot to my face. He stared at my face with a strange intensity and said, “You’re welcome.”
Energy strummed between us.
When we entered the cafeteria, and the gathered soldiers fell silent at our arrival. They waited for our directions. The space was much less full compared to the first day we’d gathered.
We were losing soldiers at an alarming rate.
“Did everyone read the new battle plan that we delivered to your barracks the other day?” Malum shouted.
Soldiers nodded.
No one spoke.
“I have a question,” Knox said as the group of angels approached him.
I backed away as they started to argue.
Jax asked the room, “Does anyone else besides the angels have any questions?”
Some soldiers turned to each other, but no one else spoke up. Workers hustled around the room, handing out enchanted swords and other various weapons to everyone.
Sadie stood off to the side, whisper arguing with Cobra, and I headed toward her.
I walked into a wall of male.
It was the twins.
“We need to talk,” John said, his voice imploring as he wrapped his arm around me.
I shrugged him off and backpedaled. “You two left without a word—what the hell?” My voice cracked.
Luka made a pained noise and grabbed my shoulder. “We left a note on the bureau. Did you read it?”
“I didn’t get any note,” I said.
“Shit,” John swore. “You must have been worried.”
My stomach hurt as I thought about everyone leaving me alone yesterday. What if Malum had killed me? Everyone knew what he was like.
Well, what he seemed like. It was hard to fear someone after they cuddled you all night.
Jax shouted, “One minute until we RJE to the camp! Stick to the plan!”
John said quickly, “We had to go to our home realm because we needed to figure out what’s been happening to us.” The three of us strapped enchanted swords onto our hips, and Luka helped me adjust my holster. “We’ve been ill.”
My stomach dropped.
The twins’ faces still looked pale, and they had dark circles beneath their eyes. I’d noticed they’d been looking unwell recently, but I hadn’t gotten the chance to ask them about it with all the war strategizing.
“Are you okay?” I asked, all anger leaving my body as panic set in. The twins needed to be fine. Sun god, we were about to walk into battle.
Worry made my legs weak.
“We’ll be fine,” Luka reassured me as he twisted his fingers around one of my curls. “We just need to tell you everything we’ve learned—it affects all three of us.”