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The owl coos and Echo seems to take that as a prompt to start speaking. She begins explaining a long story, one in which an Omega is trapped by the Fates in a cave and takes her into a dream and tells her that she, the witch of the woods, and other Omegas calledthe Fallenwill be the ones to take on the Fates and bring down the dead army and that, in order to succeed, they’ll need to work together and with the Berserkers and the Alphas of the cities.
When she finishes speaking, the circle is silent. Wariness streaks across my chest. They don’t believe her. I don’tnotbelieve her, but I don’t know who to trust.
Yaron is first to speak after Echo goes quiet. “The Omega in this cave who turned to ash — could he not have been an illusion created by the Fates? I have heard tales that they can manipulate thought.”
“It’s possible,” Echo says, swallowing nervously. She’s got a blanket spread across her lap but she still shivers. I pull her closer, tucking her under my arm. I feel her resist at first, and then her weight settle onto me more fully a few moments later.
“But you do not believe this to be the case?”
“No.”
Yaron stares at her brutally for a few more seconds before his attention shifts to me. “An Omega is not a likely source of reliable information. Two Omegas, even less. We should ignore these edicts and proceed as planned. Berserker to Berserker, we must confront Maengor. Should his Omegas prove difficult, then your Omega and the witch can be deployed as part of a larger strategy working in coordination with our armies.”
“We aren’t tools to be deployed how you see fit, Berserker,” Echo spits in a tone that borders on disrespect and makes me tense. Berserker Yaron is known for his antiquated ideas on heirarchy and respect, obedience and…torture. My hackles are up, prepared to defend against any retaliation. “This isn’t another Alpha War or Berserker battle. This is areckoningof Omegas. A reckoning for your hubris, for your treatment of Betas and Omegas throughout history. If the Fates weren’t so determined to wipe out the world along with you, I’d be hard pressed to tell them they’re wrong.”
“Silence. You speak of the murder and reanimation of Alphas as if it’s a game. There are newly ascended Alphas missing from Shadowlands —children.” His voice carries conviction that Echo does not try to dispel.
I don’t either. Instead, I clear my throat. “There’s no disputing that killin’ kids is wrong, but most of us Cities have been doin’ it for a long time to Betas and Mirage City has been doin’ it for even longer to Omegas. It’sOmegasdoin’ the killin’ of Omegas. They want everythin’ and if it takes four Omegas — one to match each of the Fates — to take ‘em down, then we can’t keep Echo and Freya and the other two as knights on our chessboards. They’re our queens. And if we’re the kings it’s our job to defend ‘em.”
I lean my elbows onto my knees, wonderin’ if my analogy made any fuckin’ sense at all as I never played a game a’ chess in my life — prefer games where I get to hit stuff — and hopin’ for all our sakes that even if I’m talkin’ shit, the stink at least got through to him. Hard to tell though. His face doesn’t change at all.
And then he says in a tone that borders on violence, “There is no universe in which I will allow an Omega command ofmyarmy, least of all a gaggle of Omegas, one of whom seems content to spend her days on four legs rather than two and another who wields flowers in place of a sword.Flowers, my dear pet,” he says, addressin’ Echo again, “will not frighten centuries old Fates and they will not kill Maengor.”
“Yaron,” I bark, “Take care in how you speak to the Dark City Omega.” My Berserker is strainin’, wantin’ out, wantin’ blood.
“Take care in how you speak tome,young Berserker, or it will not just be her tongue I tack to my dungeon walls.”
“This is how we all die,” Echo shouts, breathin’ hard. “This right here. If we can’t figure out a way to treat each other like equals, then Freya and I are going to be harvested for our blood and our gifts and the two of you are going to end up as breeders chained in the Fates’ basement and that’s only if you’re not turned into zombies, first.”
“Jesus, Echo. Ain’t makin’ this easy.”
“I refuse to entertain any more of this.” Yaron stands.
Echo stands.
“Fuck.” I stand beside her.
“Fuck.” Whiskey, Sierra, Vi, Balcazar, Peate, and Barbero stand with me. Several of Yaron’s Crimson Riders rise with him.
I snarl. Aggression fills the space.Yaron’s shoulders swell and his hand snaps back one edge of his cloak. He reaches for the axe on his back, a menacing blade that has absolutely no fuckin’ purpose since his Berserker form is his best weapon. The bandages crisscrossing over his skin shine bright white in the light of the fire. Ribbons of flame reach for the heavens.
And then Echo puts an end to it all. She shouts across the divide separating us,“I believe the man in the cave. He knew that we’d been set up for a trap. He knew that he would die for what he knew, but he still fought to tell us. He foughtfor us. For all of us. And I’m standing here now telling you that I will fight for him and I will fight for you. I will fight forallof you.” She angles her body to face me and takes my wrist in her rough palm. She gives it a squeeze and I feel the touch all over my body all at once. “I’ll die for you, too. For any of you.” She finishes by looking at Yaron. “I just won’tun-die for you.
“Freya and I can’t kill the Fates and the entire army by ourselves.” Freya’s owl coos, but Echo waves her off. “We can’t and you know it, Freya. But maybe, just maybe, if we get the other Berserker armies together and try to find the other Omegas, we’ll stand a chance against Mirage City. I know you don’t believe me about Maengor not being…well, Maengor, but who cares. Our enemy hasn’t changed and neither has our strategy. All of us. Together. As equals. As One.” She exhales and when Yaron doesn’t speak, she flicks her attention to his left. “Freya. Are you with me?”
The fire crackles. The owl hoots again. Its head spins all the way around its neck and as it settles, it unfurls, becoming human. Several in the circle who haven’t seen her transform before hiss. It’s a strange thing, seeing a human that has shifted into something that isn’t a Berserker.
She approaches the fire naked and, standing before it, her skin is so white it seems to shine, pure luminescence. “With all Fallen Omegas gathered, we do not need the Alphas. They areweak,irrelevant in the war of the Omegas.” The Alphas start to rile again — fuck, even I’m growlin’ at her assessment — but she ignores them and stares only at Echo. “But without all Four Omegas, the dead army will…get in our way. We can use living Alphas to reduce their numbers.”
“Wedidreduce their numbers. We obliterated them,” an Alpha from the crowd shouts to a chorus of agreement.
Freya hisses. “You know nothing. The army of dead Alphas number in the thousands.”
“How do you know this?” Yaron barks.
“I have seen it. I spy on their city. I have seen fields of dead Alphas penned and ready, waiting for their hunger to be sated.”
“Impossible. Mirage City would have no way of containing them. Word would have spread and my scouts would have heard of this.”
