I rubbed at my neck as I picked up my pistol. “Maybe, but I was just starting to wrap my own head around things. This whole thing, it’s just?—”
“For the love of Aeternus, you’re three centuries old, Blackwood.”
I growled in response, pulling the headphones back over my ears as the lights flickered once again, realizing we’d forgotten to look at the first scores as the next round of targets appeared, this time the marks being less visible than before.
I lined up my shot, firing my weapon as the first of the targets briefly flashed across the range.
Ten minutes and thirty-two seconds later, I was tugging my headphones off once again and turning to check the scoreboard from our first round.
“I w—” I was cut off as Eleana interrupted.
“You won by three milliseconds. That’s not much to brag about, so just save it until the end, okay?”
“Sore loser,” I muttered under my breath as I folded my arms and looked at her. “Look, I lost focus in the middle of a mission.” I shook my head, disappointed in myself. “I shouldn’t even be team lead after what I put Axel through on ascoutingmission of all things.”
“For the love of Aeternus,” she bit out as she studied me. “It was one mistake in what . . . a few decades? We’re all fine. Axel’s not pissed at you, so why are you beating yourself up over this?”
I shook my head, rubbing at my jaw as I tried to organize mythoughts. “I just . . . I feel like I failed. We were spotted during scouting. For the first time in threecenturies,my face was captured on a surveillance system, and in Solis Quarter no less. We barely made it back in time, and the moment we set foot in Aurum, Elion was pissed. Ileftmy stars-damned starbound back in Solis Quarter, when Iknewhow corrupt the Quarter had become. When Iknowthat she’s a target for their king.”
I ground my teeth as I looked at Eleana. “Ilefther there, knowing that we would be planning war. That we would be overthrowing her Quarter. And I just . . . left her.”
Eleana was silent for a moment, her eyes perceptive as she stared at me. “Well then, go back for her,” she said after a few minutes, as if it were really that simple.
I scoffed. “If I could, I would. But we both know it doesn’t work like that. Elion won’t call off an entire mission just because I’vefound my starbound. You know what he always says . . .”
“Yeah, yeah.” She sighed dismally. “The mission comes first. We follow the commands of Aeternus above all else. I know. But we’ll figure something out, okay?”
“Figure what out?” Axel asked as he stepped inside the range, looking between the two of us.
“How to beat your ass this next round,” I responded as he took the lane beside me, not wanting to continue spilling my heart in the stars-damned range.
“Fine, I see how it is,” he answered as the lights flickered, warning us the next programmed round would begin shortly.
“We leavein three days for The Rift,” Elion stated as he sat near the king. We were in the war room at the Guild’sheadquarters, sitting around the table alongside the top generals and soldiers of the King of Aurum’s army. I’d attended too many briefings in this room during my time with the Guild, yet never with this many high-profile angels all sitting around one table.
“And this plan,” King Alarix interrupted. “You’re confident it will work? It seems fairly simple?” he questioned, and my eyes cut toward Axel, watching as he struggled to rein in the laughter I could tell was threatening to spill out.
Never, in the centuries I’d been working for Elion, had Ieverdared to question a plan Elion had proposed. But then again, I wasn’t the King of Aurum, so it had never been my place.
“Simple?” one of his generals cut in. “We’ll be moving targets. If we don’t start on the offense, our numbers will be cut down instantaneously.”
“I am certain the plan will prevail,” Elion replied with the confidence only the master of the Aurelian Guild could muster when speaking with Alarix. “Aeternus himself has given me instructions for how this battle is to play out, should we wish to take Solis Quarter and vanquish the corrupt darkness shrouding the land. And unless you lack faith in the Eternal himself, General . . .” Elion’s tone was sharp as his eyes cut to the male who contradicted his proposal. “I suggest you simply take the orders and instruct your men accordingly.”
“Very well,” Alarix stated as he pushed up from the table. “I’ve heard all I need to. All final details can be discussed with the Commander.” He indicated to the male to his left. “I will get the information I need from him once details have been finalized.”
Elion nodded as Alarix walked out the door of the war room, four soldiers following after him as he exited.
Elion spun, tapping against the table, before a holographed map appeared in the center of the table for all to see. The map was filled with numerous entry points to The Rift, along withlines indicating the routes to be taken and the ideal locations to set up our base camp.
“All right,” he began as he motioned toward The Rift access closest to Guild headquarters. “Let’s go over the plan once more.”
The next few hours of our evening were spent poring over the maps, organizing flight commands, and discussing potential flaws in the battle plans. The cohorts were assigned and numbered, the logic being that we would fly around The Wall in cohorts based on our affinities rather than our affiliations in Aurum, with our strongest affinity determining the cohort we were assigned to.
Which, for me, meant I would fly alone.
“I fail to see how you expect us to transport all units of soldiers over The Rift without being spottedandwithout losing any soldiers,” Alarix’s Commander, Drachen, stated for the second time, his eyes narrowing on the proposed flight path. “The Rift is not merely a mist that we must fly through. It is a divide of nightmares and chaos, where angels have plummeted to their deaths by unseen forces.”
“Your soldiers all fly in tactical flight patterns, do they not, Commander?” Elion’s tone was unmistakable as he stared at the commander, whose eyes narrowed at the comment.
