No one spoke another word.
This time, the silence hurt worse than the physical pain.
Chapter 56
John
BLOOD TRAILS
Erythrophobia （noun）： morbid avoidance of the color red.
DAY 36, HOUR 12
“We’ve checked everywhere. They aren’t here!” I yelled with frustration and kicked debris down the corridor. I pressed my hand against my chest and focused on the empty feeling inside. It was the only thing that kept me from losing it completely.
“Where are you Aran?” I whispered dejectedly as I stepped over the burned remains of ungodly.
The world was colored in shades of gray. Every breath I took pulled at the freshly healing wound that covered my back, which hurt far worse than any ordinary injury.
I welcomed the emptiness.
The coldness.
The pain.
It all meant one thing—Aran was still alive.
Luka gripped my bicep; his eyes were unfocused as he stared down the empty corridor. He hadn’t spoken since we’d realized Aran had gone missing, and darkness shimmered, stretching around him in an amorphous mass.
He looked how I felt.
Haunted.
“They aren’t here,” Cobra hissed, slit pupils glowing bright green as shadows writhed across every inch of his pale skin. “My snakessss have combed the structure. They’re gone.”
Xerxes rubbed at his chest. “Our bond is growing fainter, which means she’s injured. We need to find her soon.”
“Where the fuck would they have gone?” Ascher asked, his tattooed knuckles cracking as he slammed his fist into the brick wall.
“We need resources,” Scorpius said harshly. “We need to leave and get help. The angels and assassins are handling the soldiers and perimeter, so we’re wasting time waiting. We need Lothaire. The High Court. Fucking anyone. Now.”
Orion nodded.
Footsteps echoed, and excitement burned my throat. Luka’s grip tightened on my arm, and we both held our breath.
Corvus appeared around the corner and barked, “Did you find them yet?”
It wasn’t Aran. Hope plummeted so swiftly that I felt lightheaded with disappointment.
“No,” Jax snapped as he glared down at the corpse of an infected.
Corvus growled like a wild animal and staggered back. Flames shot off his tongue as he said, “All the ungodly are dead. They aren’t here.”
“We need to get help,” I said, and all the men nodded as we moved together.
Corvus slammed his hand down on the RJE device.
CRACK.
We knelt in the strategy room.
“The board!” Jax shouted, and all of us turned to see what he was gesturing at. The room exploded in expletives and noise.
Scrawled across the blackboard in large letters was, “Sadie and Aran, portal back 1st battle, trapped in basement w/ ——100 ungodly. BRING REINFORCEMENTS. SPEED. FOLLOW MY TRAIL -Jinx.”
Before I’d finished reading the message, Orion grabbed an RJE device from the drawer.
We all flung ourselves at him as he activated it.
CRACK.
“Aran, where are you?” Scorpius yelled, his voice projecting down the long, ruined corridor.
The stench of decomposing bodies was overpowering as I got to my feet. I looked around the dark structure, and dread filled my gut because there was no response.
No sounds.
The compound appeared abandoned.
“I smell Jinx’s blood trail,” Jax roared roughly as his head morphed into the maw of a bear. He sprinted down the corridor, and the rest of us followed without question.
I squinted down at my feet as we ran.
Red drops were splattered in a line between round imprints from crutches. I ran faster, heart pounding in my chest as I tried not to think about finding Aran in pieces.
Luka kept hold of my arm as he ran beside me.
Jax skidded to a stop in front of a gaping hole in the floor that appeared to be caused by some sort of blast. All the shifters leaped down the opening. The rest of us followed them into the dark.
I was terrified of what we might find.
The stench of rotting flesh increased exponentially.
There were bodies everywhere—piles and piles of mangled corpses. So many bodies that it looked like the ungodly had fought an entire army.
Nothing moved in the room.
“Arabella?” Corvus bellowed desperately as Jax roared, “Sadie? Jinx?” Everyone held their breath as they waited for a response.
It was dead silent.
Nothing.
I wanted to sob. I wanted to scream. I wanted to fall to my knees and plead with the sun god for Aran’s safety. I wanted to curl up into a ball and protect myself from the sheer agony coursing through my soul.