This is not treachery.
This is freedom.
In the middle of Heaven and Hell, the days of rain and mist are long gone. Now, the Gap World is a kingdom of light and darkness, goodness and evilness, sunshine and clouds. When clandestine forces weave toget...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
THE NIGHT HADN'T EVEN FALLEN YET, and the war games had commenced.
There was not a part of me that was willing to take a step back, hide in the bushes and wait until the battle was over. It was madness. It was chaos. It was screaming and fighting, catching glimpses of men and demons falling lifeless on holy ground. It was moving forward despite the monstrosities because you had no other choice but to fight for your life. The edge of a sword, the end of a life. An outburst of magic, a twinkling tragedy. Josh had come to fight with us, thirsty for vengeance, desperate to see Amanda weak and miserable, losing the fight against the Gap World.
The thing was that Amanda hadn't shown up on the battlefield yet, and we weren't really winning, either. But Dominic had kept his word and had sent some of his demons to help us. So that was something.
To my left, there was an injured man whose leg was broken and the bone was jutting out. To my right, another man was bellowing, trying to lift his own mood by screaming words of encouragement to himself, so that he would have a higher chance at ending the demon before him. As for me, I reeled off names and orders to the soldiers near me while avoiding hits and blows.
I knew what I was doing. I'd done this so many times before that I didn't even have to deeply think about my next movement. War had become a habit. Fighting had become a talent.
And those demons were everywhere. Should I be considered one of them for everything I'd done in my lifetime? I thought to myself.
Killing your brother was worse than killing strangers. That was what I believed.
So . . . No. I wasn't like them.
I was worse.
The thought castrated me, and the nagging uneasiness it provoked could cost me. I had to do something. I had to either ignore the thought and the memories these demons brought into my mind with just once glance or get away from here.
Drenched in sweat and riddled with agony, I was about to focus on the battle, empty my head from these useless thoughts and go on. A hand on my shoulder stopped me.
"Your Majesty, General Normant has gone missing." The voice of one of my soldiers brought me out of that spiral of contemplation.
I almost didn't manage to avoid the demon coming at me, which earned me a stab wound in the arm, but I ignored it. "What?" I shouted, my sword meeting the demon's one.
I gritted my teeth so hard that I thought I might break them, but at least the demon stepped back defeated, and I managed to stab him with the sword in his chest. I watched him falling on to the ground.
"Some soldiers claim they saw Amanda taking him toward the canyon," the soldier screamed and ran back to his position.
Amanda must have taken Normant to make me run after her. That way she would get me alone.
The thing was that her trick would work, because I couldn't lose Normant. And she knew that, too. I was a fool for going. But I wouldn't go alone.
