Page 110 of Wrath

But it wasn’t enough. Another one came, then another, until they surrounded me.

I gritted my teeth and raised my sword again, my heart pounding in my chest. This was my camp, my people, and I would die before I let them fall.

Stab, cut, kill.

Stab, cut, kill.

I did this a few more times, my movements nothing but a repetitive dance, until the ground around me was cluttered with dead bodies. Only then did I allow my gaze to travel the battlefield, searching for my mates.

Everywhere I looked, a bloody battle between nightmares, humans, and ghouls raged. There must’ve been at least fifty monsters left. Maybe more. But we were pushing them back with a lethal intensity that we’d honed over the weeks. Our fighters weren’t perfect, but they could shoot, stab, and hit better than they could before we began our training.

I watched Jolene, the sweetest shifter I knew, dive at a ghoul in her tiger form. She ripped the head straight off the creature and then tossed it aside. A human, one of our soldiers, hurried by her, and Jolene?—

My breath caught, my feet glued to the ground, as a cold sweat prickled my skin.

She slashed at the human with her claws, sending him tumbling to the ground, bloody gashes running across the length of his back.

“JOLENE!” I screamed, but that one word was lost in the cries and screams of battle.

What the fuck was she doing?

Why was she attacking a human?

Directly in front of me, a mermaid and incubus fought side by side, the mermaid holding a gun and the incubus wielding a wickedly sharp sword. As I watched, horrified, the mermaid grabbed the sword out of the incubus’s hand with a hissed, “My sword.” The incubus, unable to defend himself, was swarmed by half a dozen ghouls.

Fucking hell.

I raced forward and slashed at the nearest ghoul, beheading him. I stabbed my sword through the second ghoul and then kicked out at the third. My moves provided just enoughdistraction for the incubus to wiggle free, jump to his feet, and hurry away, hopefully to grab another weapon and rejoin the fight.

I made quick work of dispatching the remaining ghouls around me. When the last one fell at my feet, its mottled mouth opened in a silent cry, I finally turned towards the mermaid who’d started this mess to begin with. I didn’t know what I expected to see on his face—guilt, maybe, or even fear.

But all that stared back at me was pure avarice as he eyed the sword I carried.

“I want that sword,” he whispered, taking a step closer.

What the hell?

I didn’t know this mermaid’s name, but I recognized him as someone who had been a part of the resistance for years. He was kind. Loyal.

Though you never would’ve expected it from looking at him now.

His hands curled into fists at his sides. “Give me the sword!”

His words were practically a bellow.

“No can do.” Then, because I had no other options, I hit him with the pommel of the very weapon he wanted to steal. “Sorry about this,” I said as he fell unconscious.

What the fuck was going on?

Jolene attacked a human because it got too close to her. This mermaid almost got an incubus killed because he wanted his sword. They were?—

Time stopped.

My heart plummeted to my feet, and icy dread ricocheted down my spine.

Aaliyah could exacerbate sins.

Amplify them.

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