Page 68 of Triplets for the Barbarians

“And it’s a lie,” Shaytan insists. “I told you, the only way we’re going to make our species great again is if we—”

“Oh, will you just shut the fuck up!” I groan, rolling my eyes with frustration. “On and on, you keep going with that same nonsense Selina Sharuk drilled into your thick head. For a self-declared leader, you, Shaytan Hull, are so easy to manipulate that it’s almost comical. Tragic for the very people you claim to protect. Understand this. The plague was a weapon used by a maniac to destroy a world he resented. Solomon didn’t care about the consequences or about the pain he was causing. He just wanted to be loved and worshiped.” I look at Blaze again. “How much longer are you going to allow these malignant narcissists to have their way while the rest of the world burns? How many women will you let suffer, both humans and Sunnaites, simply because your boss refuses to understand the reality of this situation? How many more people are going to die when we have a cure and a strategy to help bring Sunna back to life without ever touching Earth again?”

“Blaze, we have conquered this world already,” Shaytan says, but I can tell from the tone of his voice that he senses Blaze’s hesitation. “These are the words of desperate people. The last grasp of losers!”

“And if they do have a cure?” Blaze asks him. “What will our subjects say when they realize they had a better option? Not everyone wants human women on Sunna; you know that as well as I do.”

“It doesn’t matter! The Sunnaites have rarely known what was best for them!”

“And you do?” I snort a mocking laughter. “Look at you. You’re ready to kill and maim anyone who gets in your way so that you can force me to be your breeder! I have rejected your claim for a bond over and over again, yet you persist! Are you even a Sunnaite at this point, Shaytan? Because your entire culture is built on the willingness of a woman to bond with two men. I’m not willing!”

And there it is—the underlying point that Blaze has been avoiding until now. The hard truth hits him like a slap in the face, turning his cheek red as he looks at me. For the first time, I feel like he can actually see me, like he can actually understand what I’m trying to say. He shakes his head slowly, then nods at Shaytan.

“We should talk,” Blaze says. “We should all just sit down and talk. Halt the invasion of Sapphire City, test their cure, and if it turns out to be a lie, we just kill them and get this over with. Shaytan, we must be reasonable; otherwise, those who survive this war will never accept us as leaders.”

“Are you an idiot?” Shaytan cackles. “We’re about to destroy them!”

I scream as he’s about to fire his laser weapon at Yossul. I see the look of dark dread on my man’s face as he stares right into the smoking muzzle of death. But Blaze turns and fires his weapon first—a warning shot that hisses past Shaytan and causes him to freeze, staring back at us in sheer disbelief.

“No,” Blaze says. “We need to talk.”

Seconds pass in tense, unbearable silence. Fadai won’t move. He can’t risk pushing Blaze away, not when we’re so close to persuading him to listen to reason. Yossul won’t move because if he does, Shaytan will kill him. And I won’t move until I’ve got a clear path to that tower. Any minute now, they’re going to launch the starship.

Shaytan narrows his furious red eyes at Blaze. “What was that?”

“I said we need to talk,” his lieutenant replies. “Can you trust me for once?”

“Fine,” Shaytan says and seems to relax for a moment. “I’m listening.”

Blaze’s biggest mistake is to trust him and lower his weapon.

“Wait, no!” I gasp, but it’s too late.

Shaytan shoots and kills him before he can raise the pistol again. Blaze falls backward, a big gaping hole opening in his chest. Black tendrils of smoke rise slowly from its charred edges while parts of the fabric still glimmer in orange embers from the laser’s destruction.

His eyes are wide open, reflecting the reddish dawn sky as the life quickly fades from them.

Our last hope of getting Shaytan to end this peacefully is gone.

27

Jewel

“What did you do?” I ask, my voice trembling.

I wasn’t exactly Blaze’s number one fan, but he seemed to have a smidge of decency left in him, and Shaytan snuffed it right out of this world—effortlessly, carelessly, as if he didn’t even matter.

I stare at the commander general of the Sky Tribe with genuine horror and disbelief, trying to understand what just happened.

Yossul is speechless, still on the ground, but I can see his gaze moving, darting, his mind searching for a solution as we hear some of the Sky Tribe troops shooting and stabbing their way up to the roof to get to us. Soon, it won’t be just me, Yossul, Fadai, and Shaytan anymore. And I will have lost my only chance to end this madness.

“You killed your partner,” Fadai says, eerily calm as he stares at Blaze’s lifeless body. “Your partner, your blood brother, your mate. How could you?”

“That’s what happens to anyone who stands in my way,” Shaytan declares with an uncaring shrug. “Partners I can get. Partners I can trust, clearly, not as easily. Blaze and I had a good run, but it’s time for me to take what’s mine.” He points his laser weapon at Fadai. “Shall I start with you? Shall I let Yossul watch you die first? Or,” he points his laser weapon at Yossul, “shall I start with you instead and let Fadai watch you die first? It’s a hard choice, I’ll admit.”

“And you call yourself a leader of the Sunnaites, you abject coward,” I hiss, fury broiling in my veins. I spot my sidearm on the ground. Luckily, Fadai follows my gaze and sees it, too, giving me a subtle nod when our eyes briefly meet. He knows what he has to do. I only hope I can buy him the second he needs to do it.

“Shaytan Hull, the man who couldn’t take the slightest hint of criticism. Shaytan Hull is the man who chose to kill his partner instead of honoring his only request. All you had to do was listen to Blaze, to hear what he had to say.”

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