I didn’t know if I was fortunate enough to have this regenerating ability too. I was immortal, but I wasn’t a full demon, which was why I still occasionally used the bathroom, ate, and drank things. However, there wasn’t one part of me that I was willing to cut off to see if it would regrow.
“Are you okay?” the man demanded.
“I’m fine. Thanks.”
He didn’t reply as he stalked toward me and grasped my arm. “We have to go.”
As much as I appreciated his help with thatthing, and as relieved as I was to see him unharmed after his unscheduled flight, I had training to follow. “I have to find my team. They’re expecting me.”
“They’ll be on the field.”
He was right, but I had to get to them. We broke free of the tents, and my mouth dropped when the field outside the town came into view. At this time of year, it was normally a sea of grass where we trained and ran drills, but now it was awash in fire and bodies littered the ground.
Troops poured out of the town and away from the wall to clash with those still emerging from the woods. They’d met each other closer to the wall than the woods. The flames of the drakón illuminated the thousands of fighters and bathed them in a blue light as they slashed, stabbed, and shot their way through the enemies.
My team was somewhere down there, but I’d never find them. In this chaos, all our training had been tossed out, and only a battle for survival was left. If we lost, these things would get past the wall, into the towns, and destroy what little remained of the world that existed before the gateway opened.
My body felt encased in ice as the screams of the injured and dying echoed over the land. Death was marching toward us, and there was a good possibility I wouldn’t see the sunrise today. It was so strange that I’d passed out last night with the knowledge I would wake up, go to training, wash my clothes, and take my turn at nightshift on the wall.
Instead, I’d woken to a different world, and all those things might never matter again. Somehow, I found my hand in the man’s as we ran down the hill and toward the battle.
If we somehow won this, would someone let my parents know if I died here today? My poor mom would take it the hardest. Before I learned what I was, she was already questioning why she hadn’t aged a day in fifteen years. My father had gray hairs, laugh lines, and put on a few pounds, but my mom still looked like she did at thirty-four.
When I also stopped aging at twenty-three, and my ability to create small balls of fire awakened, the demons told me what I was. Upon this discovery, they also brought my parents to the wall in Virginia, where it became clear my demon heritage came from my mom. She never manifested any physical abilities, as I did, but it was clear she’d stopped aging.
To say she was stunned was an understatement, but her sadness was the worst part. My parents loved each other deeply; they’d expected to grow old and die together, but now my mom would watch my father become an old man while she remained the same. And she would stay on this earth for centuries after he passed. Her only consolation was that I would stay with her, but if she lost me too…
A lump clogged my throat, and I shut down all thoughts of my parents. They were strong; they would get through this, and they were the reason I fought these things. If we didn’t win tonight, none of it would matter, because these things would destroy everything in their path as they swept across the rest of the wall and the country.
The screams intensified, and smoke from the fires clogged the air as both drakóns turned and soared low over the land. Chunks of dirt and flaming bodies flew into the air as they released more blue fire and wiped out a row of attackers, yet they didn’t make a dent in the army spilling from the woods.
“What’s your name?” I panted as we ran.
In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t important, but if I was going to die tonight, then I’d like to know his name.
“Hawk!” he shouted over his shoulder
The name tickled something in my memory, but it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was making sure this army from Hell didn’t make it beyond the wall.
Chapter Eight
Hawk
I kept hold of Aisling’s wrist as we raced toward the battle. I couldn’t let her go; I’d just found her, and I wouldnotlose her. Some of the smoke cleared enough to reveal Corson and Wren slicing their way through a horde of lower-level demons. I bent to scavenge a sword from the headless body of a fallen demon. I rose and plunged the blade into the belly of the next one who lunged at me.
With no other choice, I released Aisling’s hand to yank the blade from the demon’s belly. I glanced back at Aisling as she ducked a demon lunging at her before plunging her knife into the eye of another.
“Stay close to me!” I shouted as I reclaimed her hand and carved my way toward Corson and Wren.
All around us, steel clashed against steel and demons and humans fell. Blood already stained the ground and ran in rivulets over the land as the bodies piled up. But as the dead fell, more rose to take their place.
My hand tightened on Aisling’s when she tugged on mine before pulling me to a stop. I turned when she released my hand to pry a dead demon’s hand away from its spear. When a demon lunged at her, I swung my sword out and sliced its head off. Aisling pulled the spear away and rose beside me.
“Thank you,” she said.
When her haunted eyes met mine, I saw she was far paler than she’d been earlier in the night. I wanted to draw her into my arms, kiss her forehead, and shelter her from all this, but that would only get us both killed. I wished she’d gone to the hall, but I’d known she would refuse when I suggested it. Demons and soldiers didn’t walk away from a fight, and they especially didn’t leave their friends behind.
I would keep her safe; it was the only option. I kept Aisling at my back while I hacked my way through more demons to reach Corson and Wren.
