The minutes stretched by, the shouts increasing among our cohorts as more angels took hits, their shields weakening far too quickly under the level of attack we were under. Yet, aside from the shouts of anguish and the cohort leaders’ commands, no one spoke.
We were all focused on one task. Focused on staying alive.
Another bullet cut through the air, narrowly missing my arm, before I heard a frustrated grunt beside me, then felt the illustratio shield surrounding us waver slightly.
“You good?” I forced the words out, even as my eyes continued scanning the air surrounding me.
“Could be worse,” Axel answered from my side, and I took the briefest of moments to glance at him, spotting a line of red skimming his shoulder. “It just grazed me. Nothing I can’t handle.”
I nodded and tucked my wings slightly as a barrage of bullets tore through our ranks and curses lit the space around me. My stomach lurched as I dropped further, carefully attempting to evade the bullets in our midst.
The guards along The Wall were prepared for us on every section we flew past, guns loaded as they shot toward our ranks.
But we didn’t stop flying.
Didn’t fight back.
Didn’t advance on The Wall.
We simply circled their Quarter, flying the entire span of The Wall in a threatening display of force. We flew along every portion of The Wall that Lucanus and his followers had hidden behind until the hour ran up.
Finally—finally—we spotted the marker that indicated our veer-off point. The marker that told us we had completed a full loop around The Wall.
And only then, once we’d veered out of range of the looming cement slabs, did we begin to relax as we fought our way back toward the war camp . . . only to prepare to do this all again tomorrow.
DAY TWO
I’m still not sure why I thought the second day would be better.
It wasn’t.
If anything, today was worse than yesterday because the RSG were expecting us. They’d lain in wait in anticipation of our attack today.
Today, they’d had drones circling the space around The Wall, the whirling machines loaded with firepower as they shot through our ranks, forcing us to drop rank far more often than anticipated to avoid attacks.
Every muscle in my body was taut with tension as I flew along the jagged edge that bordered The Rift. Every beat of my wings was a measured calculation, knowing that a single miscalculation could potentially lead to an injured wing, a bullet through my feathers, and the resulting fall into The Rift.
My gaze darted toward the ledge. The darkness that shrouded the drop-off was a deep onyx. Nothing was visible beyond the jagged edge of the ground, which crumbled into the abyss. No one knew how long it went down for—how deep The Rift truly was. My head tilted as I glanced down again. Once, twice.
“For the love of Aeternus—” Eleana snapped from behind me. “Stop just looking over the edge. You’re making me far more concerned about plummeting to my imminent death than I already am.”
“And here we thought you loved to travel through The Rift.” Axel forced a joke from beside me before a curse fell from his lips, and he dropped lower, avoiding a drone that was charging toward him.
“You’re lucky I don’t pushyouin for that comment,” Eleana bit back after Axel rejoined our ranks.
I heard the series of clicks from The Wall before the trigger was pulled. Calling on my affinity, I reinforced my shields to protect myself seconds before a series of bullets flew into the array.
“Shield,” was the only word I could muster before a round of bullets rained down on us, and I thanked Aeternus that my shields held. That Axel’s illustratio affinity was still holding strong around our cohort.
“Fuck this,” Axel grunted from beside me as his own affinity swirled around him as though forming an additional layer of protection between him and the bullets being aimed at us.
I kept pulling from within, reinforcing my shield as I called on my fire affinity, holding it in place above me as bullets rained down on us.
“If they start using bullets laced with affinities, this is going to get bloody fast,” Axel bit out as he reinforced his own shield, a bullet landing just beside him.
So far today, they’d only utilized guns with regular ammunition. That and the stars-damned drones that were flying and wreaking havoc across our aerial fleets. But I’d take the drones over affinity-laced bullets any day.
At least the drones could be spotted from a few feet away.
