Page 75 of Each Their Own Devil

“Thank you, Val. If anyone survives this battle, it will be because of you.”

Aleja reached out to touch his remaining hand. His skin was warm and soft beneath her fingertips as Val’s visible eye snapped open. She wondered if she had violated some unwritten Astraelis etiquette, but Aleja no longer cared.

“Lady of Wrath, if some of the Third is still in you?—”

“If he kills me, then at least I’ll go down fighting.” Her legs didn’t entirely feel like they would hold her, even as Val hauled her up, but she only swayed once before steadying herself. She didn’t bother trying to form a plan. If they had been fighting overhead for as long as Val claimed, the only thing left to do was try to take out at least one or two Authorities before she herself was killed.

Aleja hesitated, almost too frightened to reach out through the marriage bond. If she felt nothing on the other side, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to move. But finally, she forced herself to try and was met with distant static. She didn’t attempt to make contact. Up above, even a moment’s distraction was death.

She didn’t look back as she climbed out of the chamber—not because she didn’t want to see Val or the Third, near-lifeless in his cage, but because she didn’t want to see the First. The drying blood on her thighs. The stiff hand still cradling her stomach. The First had spoken so tenderly, staring into Aleja’s eyes, that for a moment Aleja had almost understood the Astraelis. The First had made her feel like she was coming home.

“You don’t have to feel guilty,” Val whispered after her, as if he knew where her mind had drifted. “I’ll bear it for both of us. If there is any justice, then in a thousand years, the world will still know that Our Lady of Wrath destroyed our mother in order to save her children.”

Aleja didn’t know what to say to that.

She swallowed.

She stepped back into war.

A partof her had hoped that the sound of fighting overhead was an illusion, amplified by the echoing hallway into the First’s chamber. But the first thing Aleja saw as she stumbled out was the scorched body of an Authority. Without hesitation, she darted toward it, tucking herself between its enormous wings for cover.

The creature had been dead for some time; its myriad eyes were closed, and any residual heat emanating from it was due to Otherlander magic—Taddeas’s, specifically. He must have expended an incredible amount of energy to bring this Authority down.

Aleja steeled herself and peered over the massive body. The moment she was spotted, she would become a primary target, but the field below was a chaotic ocean of wings, their beats disjointed and erratic. Aleja couldn’t swallow. She could barely breathe.

Val said hours, hadn’t he?Hours.

She left the shelter of the Authority’s wings and ran. Every joint ached, every bone felt like it might crack from the sudden movement, but she gritted her teeth and ignored it.

It took both too long and too little time to reach the fight. A wall of Authorities loomed before her, separating her from whatever horrible truth lay on the other side. Somehow, she knew—they were too focused on the battle in front of them to notice a small, fast-moving figure weaving between their hulking forms. Aleja pushed herself forward, using all her willpower tokeep fire from her hands. She couldn’t afford to waste magic now. With the Third lingering inside her, she might only get one chance to bring another Authority down.

The Authorities paid her little attention until she broke through the front line, where the remnants of the Otherlander and Astraelis armies came into view. The sight hollowed her.

They had marched into battle with a few hundred soldiers. Now, there were fewer than two dozen. Even if she could have counted, the number wouldn’t matter. Most were bruised, limping, or slumped halfway over their Umbramares or elks, their faces masks of exhaustion and pain.

The Otherlanders and Astraelis had been forced downhill, a retreat that at least worked in Aleja’s favor. A shadow rose behind her, granting her fleeting cover as she kept running.

Please tell me that was you,she finally sent through the marriage bond.

Yes, came the weak reply. Run, dove. Get back to the Hiding Place. Our wards will stop the worst of the assault from crossing the border.

If you think I would actually do that, then you don’t know me at all, Aleja shot back.

It was worth a shot, Nicolas answered. The First?—?

The question was implicit in Nicolas’s thoughts, but before Aleja could respond, something slammed into her back, and she tumbled to the ground. The mutineer—a Principality—had snuck up on her, hidden among the shadows. She barely had time to register her fall before the Principality drove his blade into his own chest.

“Get on!” called a voice.

Atop the Umbramare, Amicia looked pale, her hair plastered to her forehead with sweat from the effort of her magic.

“Who else is alive?” Aleja barked as she scrambled into the shadowy saddle. It was too small for the both of them, forcing Aleja to press herself tightly against Amicia’s back.

Unlike the last time they had been this close, it wasn’t lust that surged through her but uncontrolled fury. One of Amicia’s hands shot from the Umbramare’s neck to grasp Aleja’s wrist just as she realized she was about to claw at her own face.

“Sorry. I’m having a hard time controlling it,” Amicia said through gritted teeth. “I caught a glimpse of Nic a little while ago. The Messenger is probably still alive. Everyone else—I don’t know.”

“What the hell are we going to do?” Aleja muttered, half to herself.

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