Page 25 of Of Sins and Sacrifice

At the same time, the male from before, Lucien, stops what he’s doing. His hands are full of deep lacerations, his fingernails half broken and bloody.

He’s breathing hard as he calls for more help to lift the big concrete block. The only other person present, another male, is working on the other side, pulling on some metal bar.

But he’s not calling for help from that male. He’s calling for help from the people who are watching this tragedy from their windows, their faces barely visible as they peek outside. But they’re there. Watching. Not moving. Not coming down to help.

I glance around and note that some cars have stopped at the end of the street, but those people, too, just stand there and stare.

Perhaps it’s the shock.

If I were human, a feeble creature with a limited lifespan, perhaps I would be shocked too. Afraid that something could happen to me. That I could be next.

A bomb likely caused the explosion. That buzzing sound? A plane—an enemy plane. And with the way the fire is raging out of control in the second building, it’s easy to see why people wouldbe wary to help. More planes could come and drop another bomb in the area, the fire serving as a beacon of death.

They could be instantly killed.

Yet that male…that soldier… He doesn’t seem concerned with that.

In fact, he’s oddly unconcerned about his own safety, despite the fact that he was so insistent I care about mine not a few moments ago.

Odd. Very, very odd.

“There are people down here!” he yells, looking around and pleading with the bystanders. “Alive.”

The fire crackles in the air, the only sound other than his ragged voice.

“We have to get them out,” he shouts in frustration when the concrete slab doesn’t move no matter how much he pulls at it.

With a loud curse, he steps back, his chest rising up and down as he labors to breathe. He wipes his sweat from his face, smearing more soot and blood on his skin.

Then his eyes meet mine.

He tilts his head to the side.

“You. Come help!”

M-me? I can’t do that! I can’t get involved in mortals’ lives. And if their fate is to die today, then I cannot stop that from happening.

He stares at me in an unusual manner.

“Give me a hand here, darling.”

I ignore him and turn to leave.

FIVE

Instead of walking away,I find myself walking toward the ruins.

In the distance, a succession of flashes lights up the sky, followed by more buzzing sounds. It appears the enemy plane has been shot down. Hopefully, that means help is on the way.

As I near the fallen building, I barely hide a gasp at seeing a lone arm among the rubble. A distance away, there is a foot—a detached foot.

I may gut demons for a living, but this isn’t what I signed up for.

This type of war is not what I signed up for.

And to think that what I’ve witnessed so far is barely a hundredth of what people are experiencing on the continent, where the war rages on their own land.

A shudder goes down my back.

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