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I was scared of him again because of how badly he’d hurt me… But I still wanted to be closer, know him better.
“Sorry I asked,” he said, clearing his throat. “I didn’t mean to put pressure on you or ruin—”
“I can show you,” I agreed. “I might not be able to adjust it right for your vision and stuff, but I can show you how to adjust it all. We just need to know where to hunt, right? Or what’s labeled for next?”
“Not to step on Darius’s toes, but I would like to learn too,” Kristof muttered. “I can find out where we can hunt.”
I glanced between them as they shared a look, worried something was going on that I didn’t understand. Was Kristof testing Darius to make sure he wasn’t still jealous or… Again, the minds of men weren’t something I could keep up with.
Kristof went to go find the answer while my security took me back to the castle to get my sniper rifle. It wasn’t until I saw Sundar walking up that something hit me.
“I didn’t have any ghosts!” I gasped, blinking at him.
He nodded, moving closer. “Then I would suggest you have a side mission for some who aren’t watched as your nobles are and start wiping out the gobs of corrupted that could become soldiers. Especially in South America that can easily be moved up here.”
I thanked him and caught Joi’s gaze. I gestured for her to come with, glad when she did and met me in the armory. “You said you had some retired Sisters of the Earth, right?”
“Yes, they found happiness and wish to be—”
“I understand that, I’m happy for them, but this is the apocalypse and it’s all hands on deck,” I reminded her. “I’m willing to get them set up, and I doubt they aren’t out there killing corrupted already.”
The look in Joi’s eyes said otherwise.
Well, apparently, retired Sisters of the Earth became selfish. Whatever.
“Tell them the truth and we’re trying to make sure the world doesn’t end. If there aren’t humans or shifters left, there’s no blood for them. They’re old enough to be super lethal, right?” I nodded when she snorted. “But they’re not players on the board when Keres is watching us. So I’ll fix their stuff, get them a better house all rigged up—they have to want their electricity back too.”
“And you want?” Joi asked after a moment.
“Take my blood and let the corrupted go crazy and kill them like fish in a barrel. Let baddies gather and just hack them up. Warn the old farts about the changes and tell them I’m in their debt even. I don’t care. I just need more done faster.”
“You do more than anyone else even can, young princess, and I don’t say that as a slight, but to remind you that you are a baby,” she said gently, patting my shoulder.
I nodded, blinking back tears. “If humans die—good humans die because she infects them to get me—I don’t know I’ll recover from that, Joi. We could win and for what? Me to be broken beyond repair and that’s what’s left of Aether’s champion? How does the world get better and reboot if that’s the ending from fighting evil?”
“And do the rest of us deserve anything if one so young handles it all and we did not do more?” she muttered. “I know you trust me if you bring me this. I will handle your blood personally and work with them in secret. We also cannot let you be vulnerable with Risa overseas. Mozell and Kaci will always guard the castle while we hunt.”
My eyes went wide. “I didn’t think you were doing this at night.”
She nodded. “We will try it, and if something goes wrong, we can run and report it. The darkness must hide our fighting back as well.” She kept nodding when I seemed hesitant. “The darkness is not always bad but keeps hidden the best weapons to protect people.”
Fair enough. I just worried about people hunting at night with all the changes to how corrupted were behaving and like that nine-foot-tall one we found in fucking Russia.
That thing gave me all the nightmares.
I grabbed what we needed and met up with my husbands, seeing the questions in their eyes but glad when they held off. I waited until we were alone with just my security to tell them what I’d said to Joi. They agreed it was smart given what Sundar had learned.
We needed more pieces off the table and not just Erebus’s soldiers… Which was still really weird to think of the corrupted that way. Too much was just up in the air constantly and we needed more settled.
That was funny coming to me when I was the one always adding but like… What else was I supposed to do? Let it stand that Kaitlin killed members of her coven? Accept that Safie wanted to adopt me? Aether bringing fourteen princesses to see my power?
What should I have waited on? What could I wait on and not bring more problems?
Exactly.
We got set up on a roof on the outskirts of Minneapolis in what was still turkey territory no matter how many we seemed to kill. Seriously, that city was full of three times as many turkeys as it had ever had people.
No, I wasn’t kidding. I didn’t know the numbers, but I honestly thought there were more.
