DARK REVELATIONS
Lugubrious （adjective）： dismal.
“On the Creature Classification Scale—a one-to-five ranking system, with five being the danger level of certain gods—the ungodly are ranked a four,” Dick said harshly, his expression bleak.
My ears echoed with the phantom screams of the dying and ripping flesh, and I shuddered.
What kind of monster would a five look like?
I couldn’t even imagine it.
In the chair in front of me, Jinx shivered and slumped lower in her seat like she was also horrified. I smirked smugly because something had finally scared the haughty know-it-all.
You’re smiling because a child is terrified. Nice one, Aran.
I grimaced.
It was hard growing up to be the villain, but here I was, sitting in a room, getting lectured about war while I fantasized about making a youth miserable.
Life comes at you fast.
We’d relocated to Planet 003FX—the realm infested with ungodly—and were in the newly constructed strategy room, getting lectured at by the High Court, aka Dick.
As Dick spoke, a figure in a black cloak with glowing blue eyes stood in the corner with their features obscured. From the person’s towering height and width, they were a man.
I knew him well.
It was the same cloaked figure who’d taken Sadie to the war camp in the shifter realm. The same person who’d helped me escape the fae realm. The last time we’d seen him was at the ball in the beast realm.
Now he watched us silently, cloaked in shadows and darkness.
Another sycophant of the High Court lording over soldiers in the isolated valley of a war camp.
I ran my tongue across my teeth and tasted the power that stained the air. Goose bumps erupted down the back of my neck.
We were the champions of absent gods. Pawns for slaughter or icons of victory? Only time would tell.
Jinx and the demons were in the front row.
Twins to my right.
Sadie and her men to my left.
Devils in the back row. Orion leaned his head against Malum’s shoulder, and the leader of the kings played with his blond hair with one hand and had his other hand draped over Scorpius’s shoulder protectively.
A strange feeling flipped over in my stomach because they were obviously perfect together.
I didn’t fit in with them.
It was a cruel joke that I was their Revered.
I resumed studying my surroundings. Concrete walls glowed blue with the remnants of construction enchantments, and the space stank of frost, dirt, and leaves.
There were no windows.
A small orb in the corner was the only source of light.
Oversize wingback chairs faced the chalkboard, and a long table with an enchanted tablet built into its surface spanned the front of the room. Shelves lined the walls, filled with binders overflowing with information on the ungodly, the realm, and war strategies.
Binders were open on our laps.
Dick stood unnaturally still in front of the chalkboard as he lectured.
I slumped low in my leather chair.
This was our twenty-something-eth strategy meeting in the past week, and I was tired of being talked at; any adrenaline from surviving the Legionnaire Games had dissipated, and my attention span was ten minutes. Max.
Dick’s lips were moving, but I only heard every third word.
He flashed a tray of gas canisters, put them in a drawer, then ranted about not using anything in the drawers because you would face criminal consequences.
He went on and on about prohibited weapons.
If they were prohibited, then why would they have them on hand? What idiot would actually pay attention to this deranged presentation?
I picked at the leather cushion beneath my thigh and concentrated on mimicking a rock: hear nothing, see nothing, sit still all day, and sometimes fall over and crush people to death.
Goals.
Next to me, John raised his eyebrow, dark eyes questioning, and I sank lower with boredom. He nodded in understanding as he absent-mindedly played with one of my curls.
Beside him, Luka leaned forward and looked back and forth between the two of us with his brow furrowed. His fingers were wrapped around John’s wrist in a vise.
I’d noticed lately that the three of us were always connected.
One twin looked down at me with intense dark eyes, while the other flashed dimples, and a tendril of warmth flowered in my stomach.
Pain streaked down my spine.
I winced.
John wrapped my curl tighter around his finger, and Luka’s olive knuckles turned white as he gripped his twin fiercely.
I sank back with a sigh.
On my other side, Sadie was sleeping in a seated position with her eyes wide open. Equal parts envious and creeped out, I poked at her side.