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“Tell me how to make you stop crying,” Wild whispered against my mouth. “I need to make it stop. I’ll do anything to see you smile again.”
“These are happy tears,” I promised him. “I’m working my way up to a smile.”
I had so many questions, so many things I wanted to say, but the din of the battle, the crunch of the Spartoi’s spears into the backs of the scorpions that occasionally got past T’s literal line of fire drowned me out. It wasn’t the time.
Wild looked over my shoulder at the fight, his hands tightening around my waist, clearly torn.
“Go,” I told him seriously, cupping his cheeks and planting a firm kiss against his lips before we both climbed to our feet. “I’ll be here.”
“Hereisn’t safe for you—”
“Nowhere is safe.” I straightened my spine. “And we don’t have the luxury of wasting manpower by letting anyone sit on the sidelines. Think you can bring me some scorpion corpses?”
Wild startled. “Um, okay. Here, take this. It’s not much, but it’s some defense.”
I nodded once, my hand wrapping around the handle of the heavy knife Wild unclipped from his belt before I took a step back. “Let’s get to work. We’ve got a battle to win.”
Wild growled once, pulling me in for a hard kiss, his eyes searching mine. “You’re damn fucking right we’re going to win. Then I’m going to greet you properly, and show you exactly how much I missed you.”
“I can’t wait,” I whispered, walking backward a few steps, hating to let him out of my sight but needing to. Just for a moment, at least. We all had a job to do.
The Spartoi parted for me as I made my way to the very back of the ranks, then back a little further still, not wanting to get in their way. The fight continued while I gathered up all the branches and broken bits of spears I could, building the base of a fire in a ring of stones.
I paused, looking at it.No, two.I needed two fires. With a resigned sigh, I began the process all over again a few feet away until I had two piles of sticks, encircled by rocks, ready to ignite.
I couldn’t fight the way the Spartoi and Wild could, but I had weapons of my own.
“T!” I yelled, somehow knowing he’d be able to hear me over the crash of weapons even if no mortal would ever be able to. “I need fire!”
There was a pause, and then the Spartoi were shouting as T rose into the air, looping around the back of the army just long enough to blow a stream of fire onto my pile of wood, and I used a stick as a torch to light the second one.
The mass of scorpion carcasses was steadily growing nearby as Wild sent them back down the lines, and I grabbed the first one, careful not to get anywhere near the stinger. They were heavier than I expected, and it took all of my meager strength to drag them along the ground to the fire, before dumping them next to the flames.
I remembered, what felt like a million years ago now, Bullet telling me that the meat of sacrifices used to be consumed by the people, with the inedible parts burned in offering. It was that tradition that had led to me being smeared in sheep blood in the basement of the agathos temple—a long-lost relic of the tradition of sacrifice.
How edible were giant scorpions?
I guess we’d find out.
I kicked the scorpion over to reveal the soft belly and, feeling more squeamish than I ever had in my life, sliced the tail about halfway down, taking off the stinger and hopefully the source of venom.
Pausing for a moment to gag into my elbow, I straightened, setting the knife aside and lifted the scorpion, holding it as far away from my body as possible, before tossing it onto the flames.
While it crackled away—possibly the most disgusting sound I’d ever heard—I headed over to the pile and began the process all over again, slicing off the tail and dragging it to my makeshift kitchen-cum-sacrificial-altar, ready for cooking once the first one was done.
Now, how was I going to get it out of the fire?I mused, staring at the scorpion which looked… cooked? I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for, but surely it had been on there long enough to kill any bacteria at the very least. One of the Spartoi from the back ranks jogged over, gesturing at himself, and holding up his spear before pointing at the flames.
“Oh! Yes please, if you don’t mind.”
He made quick work of dragging it off the fire, picking up the knife and holding it over the flame for a moment before expertly butchering it to pull the fleshy meat out of the claws and remaining tail.
“Here we go,” I muttered, pulling the overly long sleeves of my jacket down and scooping the still hot scraps of scorpion shell into my arms.
What next?
“I just… Could you pay close attention to the ritual, Amazing Grace? Just in case you ever need to do it on your own.”
I scrunched my eyes shut at the memory of Bullet’s smiling face tinged with resignation. He’d known, and I’d argued.
