Page 214 of Of Sins and Sacrifice

I squeeze my eyes shut to prevent the tears from falling.

“You seem down this morning,” he mentions as he puts on his uniform.

“I’m always down when you must go on a mission. It’s dangerous.”

“While I appreciate your concern, my tiny darling, I’ll have you know I’m a damn good pilot. Nothing will happen to me in the air.”

“I know but?—”

“Give me a kiss,” he murmurs as he plants himself in front of me, his hair still a little damp.

I raise myself on my tiptoes and brush my lips against his.

“Come back to me.”

“Always,” he promises with a wink.

We walk together to his plane, and after a quick kiss, he’s off to the skies.

The other planes depart too, and slowly, the remaining people leave the runway and head back to their tasks.

I’m still standing in the same spot, staring at the now clear sky, a sense of doom unfurling inside of me. Then again, every time he leaves for a mission, I worry for him. He might be the most competent male I know, but he is still mortal and prone to injury and…death.

For the thousandth time, flashes erupt in my mind of him being hurt, of him dying and leaving me alone. If that were to happen, what would I do? What would become of me?

The more time I spent with him, the more irreplaceable he has become in my life.

I know my concerns are illogical since he’s bound to die at some point. All mortals are. And yet, the thought of that occurring fills me not only with an unspeakable sense of grief, but also with anger and a desire for retribution.

By the Source, if anything were to happen to him, I fear I would once more break the rules and rain hell on anyone who did him harm.

I take a deep breath and attempt to ground myself. These are all unfounded seeds taking root in my brain. Mine is alive. And he is mine.

I slowly turn to head back to our cabin when I bump into someone I didn’t expect to—at least for a few more days.

He’s dressed in his non-combat attire, a dark blue pair of pants and a matching tunic held together by a thick belt, with the family’s insignia engraved on the middle and encrusted with dark blue sapphires.

My sense of doom intensifies.

“Molokai, this is a surprise,” I say in a cold tone, pretending to be unaffected by his presence, days earlier. This can only mean something bad’s happened.

“Minerva. I see you’ve done well for yourself,” he mentions with a bored swipe of his gaze over my nurse uniform.

“I had to. You left me powerless in a foreign world.”

A twitch appears in his cheek, the only sign of emotion. Since he was a child, Molokai has always been quiet and withdrawn, rarely exhibiting emotion. He can be kind. I know it since I’ve been the recipient of that kindness on more than one occasion. But he can also be scathing in his indifference when someone disappoints him, and I seem to have done just that.

I’ve gotten used to his frosty personality over the years. It’s odd that out of all the offspring of the King of Cryos, Molokai is the only one who embodies the icy designation of our House. Our older brother is a pleasure seeker, which is acceptable for him being a male and the heir. I am bound by my gender and the expectations placed upon me, though I’ve always had a rebellious streak.

Not Molokai.

From birth, he displayed an unusual amount of spiritual energy despite not being the first born. In fact, it’s well known he is far more powerful than our brother. And with that power came the expectation for him to enroll in the military and gain recognition, paving the way for him to one day become the Cryos Supreme. He’s still young, at only six thousand years of age.

Most Supremes are elected into their position when they are well over ten thousand years old—though there is an exception to that, too. Lispera, the Ananke Supreme that sacrificed herself to seal off Tartareia seven thousand years ago, had been the youngest Supreme ever recorded, gaining her position at onlyfive thousand six hundred years old. But Lispera is a legend. No one expects anyone to measure up to her, now or in the future.

But as the years pass, the expectations placed upon Molokai grow. Although the current Cryos Supreme is still strong, with the slow but steady stream of demons appearing everywhere and the possibility that the seal of Tartareia might break at any point, everyone is waiting for a war to break out.

The Supremes will be the first line of action then, the only ones able to go against the elite of the Son of Tenebreis. And if by any chance the Cryos Supreme is defeated, a new one has to be ready to fill that role. Immediately.

---