Page 11 of Light Up the Night

Chapter Five

The Pretty Prince

Messiah

I’d heard of Nemmy. A great many a night at sea were passed with tales of her ignorance and arrogance. This, however, was the first time I’d had to deal with any of that. I prayed I never would again.

Fated Few.

Thankfully, Chalice hadn’t bumped heads with her. To keep it that way, I tried to wrap her arm over mine and distract her with humor.

“Do you think… if perhaps Isabella had been reduced to squalor that’s what she, Atticus, and Icarus would look like?”

She snorted and nudged me gently with her elbow.

“Fuck no, Atticus could never be that passive.” I laughed on a sigh, recalling Nemmy’s husbands. “And Icarus can’t fucking move that fast...so there’s that.”

The temperatures outside had dropped considerably once the sun went down. The cave was cool, but not as bad as the night’s wind. Every faint sound echoed, and a single step would have been a challenge, but we were three-hundred strong and there was no daytime bustle to muffle our deafening approach.

“We should stop. Sleep for a few hours and take shifts approaching the exit so it’s not a stampede. The soldiers are great, but even unified movement makes noise, the element of surprise may be our only advantage,” Chalice rambled and rubbed her face. She didn’t appear to be talking to anyone, it was more a matter of working out her own nerves.

She seemed surprised when she looked up and found us all awaiting the rest of her orders. “I’m sorry. Thinking aloud…” She blushed in the torch light, and it had to be the cutest thing I’d ever seen. “I have no experience in battle or war…”

“Makes sense,” Pariah said, while Keif and I nodded in agreement.

“You should settle the men and spread the word. I’ll scout out what’s ahead and make sure we aren’t setting ourselves up for ambush,” I offered, giving her a farewell squeeze. When she let me go, I pointed at Keif like I was serious, only softening my words with a wink once they were spoken. “Watch over what’s ours.”

“You know that I will,” he promised, pulling her back against him.

“Wow,” Pariah mumbled before getting a bit of a head start. He slowed his pace once the sound of the others died off, but he still didn’t say much.

“What do you think?” I asked. It had been so many years since I saw him face to face, I wasn’t sure what to speak on. We weren’t raised to waste our time on idle gossip. Talking brought attention. Attention brought death. I reflected a moment on how simple life had been when all that mattered was survival. Survival didn’t demand saving sadists… only Chalice of Rochambeau did that. It didn’t matter, I Messiah of House Krypt, would give her whatever her little heart desired.

Even if I had to kill it later.

I wasn’t partial to Lazarus, nor was I sold on the ideal of his innocence.

“I get paid to deliver heads not opinions. Consider yourself lucky I’m participating in something that ends with the target still breathing,” Pariah mused matter of factly before placing a bit of a whine into his voice. “Are you sure he must be alive?”

“Yes,” I snapped, regretting my entire effort to make small talk.

His antagonizing giggle chased me onward. After a few minutes, he sobered up and hurried after me.

“Hey,” he called. When I didn’t respond, he grabbed my shoulder and tried to pull me back around to him. “…I think she makes you normal.”

All I could do was blink.

“Normal…” I repeated.

“Yes. Normal. You know… that mental state people possess before they see the world for what it is.” He tilted his head as if his meaning weighed more than his words.

I pointed ahead, where the moonlight trickled through the entrance of the cave.

“Quarter mile...maybe?” I guessed.

“At most,” he agreed. Ever the daring one, Pariah clung to the shadows and pressed closer to the exit. “We could just grab him. Kill his lover in his sleep…”

“His lover?”

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