Page 283 of Scorching the Alien Empire
“Look what I’ve got, you wee haggis,” Sandra coos, flashing a jelly stick under Todd’s head segment.
She might as well have flashed a kilo of crack in front of a junkie.
Todd lunges like a sentient, overstuffed burrito, crash-landing on her head with the grace of a bowling ball taped to a coconut.
“Uff!” Sandra grunts as the Divine Cherub unfolds across her head like a fleshy, snoring hat. He seizes the jelly stick with chubby precision only he can manage—legs locking, mandiblessnapping, croaks vibrating. The jelly stick shrinking with alarming speed.
“See?” Sandra huffs, balancing Todd on her head like he’s a giant urn of water. “You happy now?”
I squint. The silver mirror rune on Todd’s back pulses faintly. Not bright. Not flaring. Not enough to suggest Bitch Brick’s been up to her cheater-ways.
“You look ridiculous,” I snort. “And now it’s worse. This means you betrayed me for no good reason.” I shake my head.
Sandra gapes. “No good reason? You mean like thisstupidblood feud you started?”
The crowd shifts—cheers morphing into a collective breath-hold. The whole planet waits.
I look up.
Dracoth is surging forward again, wounded but delivering brutal axe chops like he’s felling an entire forest himself. Krogoth stumbles backward—his feet skating across smashed obsidian, his shattered shield little more than confetti taped to his wrist.
My heartsoars.
“Seems, Arawnoth’s answered my prayers.” I whisper, a husky laugh spilling from my lips, savoring the thrill of this power and control coursing through me.
Thank you, Divine Father.
Krogoth’s edging toward the lava, each step a death sentence. Dracoth’s axe rises high. The crowd explodes. An end to this rollercoaster of potential heart attacks.
Until—CLANG. FLASH.
Too fast to follow. Krogoth’s spear—somehow—tangles in that disgusting belt of barf-inducing bone. Dracoth thrashes, ripping the spear and sinew-laden belt away. The vertebrae rattle off the stone like he’s casting bones to read the future.
“Sacrilege!” Dracoth bellows, louder than the sky-splitting thunder overhead.
“You took my honor. My father. My pride.” He roars, bitter and raw—the fury of his favorite toy being broken... well, except for me. “And now this—my brothers in bone?”
He takes Krogoth’s spear and shatters the shaft into a million-billion pieces.
“Oh my. Look at my man go.” I giggle, giddy with bloodlust. “Sandra, tell your cheater girlfriend to give up already.” I turn, smugness oozing like honey on hot toast. “I mean, Krogoth’s unarmed and my Mr. Frowny Face is extra frowny now.”
And best of all?That revolting bone belt is finally gone. And it’s fueling our glorious victory. How wonderful!
“I... I don’t understand,” Sandra mutters, her voice thin and heavy, like she’s just binged a year’s worth of emo ballads. “Why are you doing this? We should all be friends. We shouldn’t be here—fighting like this. Hacking each other to pieces. It’s... too much.”
“Oh, poor, sweet, innocent, Sandra,” I sigh, shaking my head. “You don’t know what it’s like, what it takes to reach the top. The backstabbing. The cliques. Those horrible boarding school bitches. My asshole parents. That’s why I liked you. Why I feltresponsiblefor you. You were different. A breath of fresh air. Genuine.”
My voice falters. Quivers. Like the words aren’t entirely mine. Like they’ve been waiting somewhere deep and dusty for years.
“You were the only real friend I ever had. And even you turned against me. I should’ve known. It always ends like this.”
A bitter laugh.
“Maybe that’s why I convinced myself you were mind-controlled. So I could pretend. Hold onto the lie a little longer.”
“Lexie...” she whispers.
But my attention’s pulled away—
