Sacrifice

by Jennifer Quintenz

  I risked one quick glance back. Karayan watched us go, frozen at the door. Her eyes looked hollow. A dull ache spread through my chest, but there was nothing I could do to help her. That was the curse of a broken heart; the suffering Karayan faced, she had to face alone.

  Hale drove in silence. I wasn’t about to intrude on his thoughts.

  I sat still as a statue, hands clutched tightly in my lap, through the long drive out to the mission. When he finally pulled to a stop outside the old stone building, he killed the engine and sat, silent, for a long moment, still gripping the wheel.

  “Did you know?” Hale spoke quietly, but the pain in his voice was quite audible. “Did she tell you what she was up to?”

  I took a deep breath, then let it out. “She never meant to hurt you.”

  Hale glanced at me. “Why didn’t you warn me?”

  “I thought—” I shook my head, miserable. “She loves you, Hale. I think she thought you loved her, too.”

  He winced.

  “Look, I’m not making excuses for her. What she did was totally wrong.” I couldn’t keep my voice from trembling—this was suddenly way too close to home. “But visiting your dreams? It was the only way you two could be together without you getting hurt.”

  “You don’t think I got hurt?” Hale’s eyes smoldered.

  “You know what I mean.” I swallowed, then caught his eye. “I know how it feels to love someone you can barely touch for fear of hurting them. You think it’s easy? It’s not. If Karayan didn’t care for you, do you think she would be fighting her attraction to you so hard? Do you think she’d limit her pursuit of you to dreams?”

  “She has no right to pursue me,” Hale snapped.

  “You don’t see how you led her on?” My voice came out sharper than I’d intended. Hale looked up, gauging me closely. “All those long post-shift conversations on our front porch? All that talk of how two adults shouldn’t have to explain themselves to anyone else?”

  Hale had the good grace to lower his gaze then.

  “Come on, you got drunk with her, alone, and ended up wrestling all over my living room floor. I hate to be the one to break this to you, but where I come from that’s pretty obviously flirting. Are you honestly going to tell me you don’t have feelings for her?”

  Hale didn’t respond.

  “Hale.” I wasn’t willing to let it go. “Do you have feelings for Karayan or not?”

  Hale was silent for an aching moment. When he finally spoke, his voice was hoarse with conflicting emotions. “It doesn’t matter. A relationship between a human and a Lilitu will never work.” In one swift motion, he opened his door. “That’s something I shouldn’t have to explain to you.” He climbed out of the car and slammed the door behind him.

  I stared after him, stricken. His words trickled icy fingers of despair down the back of my neck. Lost in my own thoughts, I didn’t hear the other car pull into the dirt lot behind me. I opened my door and stood, coming face to face with Amber.

  But it was another voice that sent a new tension shooting through my body.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Rhea straightened, having just pulled two bags of supplies out of the back of her car.

  “Excuse me?” I felt myself bristling. This was getting old, and fast. “I’m doing my job, same as you, Rhea.”

  Rhea shook her head. She tossed a bag to Amber. “Here.” Rhea eyed me as she closed and locked her car. “Listen, demon. You stay out of our way.”

  Rhea shouldered me aside. Amber’s eyebrow quirked up, but she followed Rhea into the mission wordlessly. Perfect. The last thing I needed was for Rhea to take Amber under her wing. If Amber had to train with a spotter, why couldn’t it be Gretchen or—well, anyone other than that stocky Ice Bitch.

  I sighed, closing the truck’s door behind me. A brief hope flared in my mind. Maybe now that Amber was here, I’d be excused to return to my previously scheduled cave-day with Dad. Because even that hot, dusty work seemed suddenly pleasant compared to the prospect of spending the day trapped in a stone mission with Amber and Rhea for company.

  When I entered the mission, however, that fledgling hope withered and died.

  “Braedyn, I need you here.” Hale gestured to the front post, facing the Seal straight on.

  “Um… what about Amber and Rhea?” I asked quietly. Hale glanced at me, frowning.

  “Rhea’s training Amber today. I need someone who can devote her full attention to watching for Lilitu movement from the Seal.” Hale strode away without another word.

  I sighed. Awesome. Not only did I have to share breathing space with Amber and Rhea, I’d managed to alienate the one friend I had within a 20-mile radius. It was going to be a kick-ass day, I could already tell. I let my eyes drift upwards and sucked in a sharp breath. I’d pictured the post-explosion mission with a hole in the roof – but the truth was, most of the structure that had once been the sanctuary’s ceiling was completely gone. Somehow—without the ceiling—the stone mission seemed even more beautiful. I could see the faint wispy clouds drifting lazily across an otherwise clear blue sky.

  I leaned back against one of the sanctuary’s stone columns, fixing my attention on the Seal. It was quiet. The late morning light poured through the two or three stained glass windows that hadn’t shattered above. It filled the small sanctuary with splashes of bright color. There was a certain majestic calm to this old mission—if you could forget about the portal-to-a-demon-plane parked right in the middle of the sanctuary.

  “Rounds,” Hale called. All but two other Guardsmen and Hale left then, to do their quick walk of the mission’s perimeter.

  Prepared for a long, boring shift, I pulled a bottle of water out of the bag at my feet, not taking my eyes off the Seal for more than a second. Might as well stay hydrated.

  But as I unscrewed the cap, I heard Rhea’s shrill voice cutting through the quiet sanctuary.

  “—made my feelings clear about being in the same place as her!”

  I spotted Rhea, nearby in a pool of shade under the sanctuary’s balcony. She was confronting Hale as Amber stood awkwardly by. I honed my attention onto them, suddenly alert.

  “And I believe I’ve made it clear that if you wish to continue serving in the Guard, you’ll follow the orders given to you.”

  Rhea shook her head, her lips peeled back in a superior grimace. “You can’t see where this is headed? Trusting her is going to end up costing someone their life, and you can be damn sure it won’t be mine.”

  Amber glanced in my direction.

  Quickly, I shifted my eyes back to the Seal, caught. I could feel the slow burn of embarrassment coloring my cheeks. I tried to tell myself I didn’t care what Rhea thought, that she’d made up her mind about me from the start and there was nothing I could do to change it so why waste the energy? And yet, prickles of shame cascaded over my back and arms anyway.

  Hale said something that inflamed Rhea further, but he turned and walked toward the mission’s doors without waiting for her response. I glanced back, unable to contain my curiosity. Rhea stared after Hale, rigid with anger. Then she noticed me watching, and her eyes clouded with an even darker rage.

  “Amber!” Rhea snapped her fingers, and Amber followed on her heels without argument. In Rhea’s hurry to get away from me, she turned her back on the Seal. Amber, following after her, was two steps behind when the Lilitu struck.

  It happened so fast I barely had time to scream a warning. “Behind you!”

  I leapt forward, drawing my daggers in one smooth motion. The blades snapped apart and I gripped the hilts, ready for the fight. Amber half-turned, sensing too late the demon launching toward her back.

  But Rhea’s eyes were fixed on me. Her mouth wrenched into a snarl and she drew her own daggers—lunging herself directly at me. I had a fraction of a second to adjust. As Rhea swept her daggers for my throat I dropped, hitting the slick stone floor with my hip and sliding under Rhea’s reach.

  Amber finished
her turn and saw the Lilitu sprinting toward her from the Seal, revealed in her full demon aspect. White skin stretched over a bony frame. Pitch black eyes fixed on Amber’s face. The demon grimaced as she charged, baring her weirdly metallic teeth.

  Amber let out a blood-curdling scream, frozen in place.

  I reached Amber as the Lilitu swiped at her—those long black claws just as fatal as the daggers Rhea had swung at me. Without time for thought, I kicked Amber’s feet out from under her. She fell backwards just as the Lilitu’s claws shredded the air where her head had been a microsecond earlier. Amber hit the ground hard, but the jolt seemed to snap her back to her senses. The Lilitu’s momentum carried her forward—and her legs tangled with Amber, now sprawled on the ground. The Lilitu pitched forward, colliding gracelessly with the stone floor. Wasting no time, Amber rolled to her hands and knees and scrambled to her feet, desperate to get away. The Lilitu’s hiss of rage sent a chill spearing through my middle.

  “Amber!” I shoved myself to my hands and knees, ready to tackle the Lilitu—

  When Rhea’s fist closed in my hair. Without a word, Rhea wrenched me back down to the ground and sprinted after the Lilitu. Unprepared, I hit the ground elbow first. A sickening snap just preceded a searing pain that shot through my arm. The pain was so intense it drove the air from my lungs. It wasn’t until the next breath that I found the strength to scream.

  The Lilitu curled one clawed hand around Amber’s shoulder. Rhea attacked her from behind. The Lilitu, prepared for this, whipped around savagely. She backhanded Rhea so hard the spotter dropped senselessly to the floor, her daggers clattering from her hands. Hale was sprinting toward Amber, but he was still halfway to the doors. The other two Guardsmen weren’t much closer, and one of them seemed to be heading for the unconscious Rhea.

  Ahead of me, Amber crashed into the sanctuary wall, trapped. The Lilitu stood between her and any chance of escape. I grabbed a dagger with my good hand and forced myself to my feet, battling another wave of nausea as my broken arm swung uselessly by my side. Amber turned to face the Lilitu. The demon closed on Amber, reaching for the girl’s throat—but Amber made a jerking motion and the Lilitu fell back, with another hiss. Only this time, it was a hiss of pain.

  Drops of an oily ichor spotted the ground between them. That’s when I saw the dagger clutched tight in Amber’s fist. She’d managed to slice a thin line across the Lilitu’s stomach—not deep enough to cripple her, but it did give her pause.

  It was the moment’s distraction I needed. I charged forward as the Lilitu recovered. The demon caught Amber’s wrist and slammed it into the stone wall, sending her dagger flying into the shadows.

  “Spotter,” the Lilitu hissed, gripping Amber’s neck in one clawed hand. Amber’s eyes bulged in panic—

  Just as I hit the demon from the side. I drove my dagger into her exposed ribs, up to the hilt. She released Amber reflexively. Momentum did the rest—I’d thrown myself against her hard enough to send us both crashing to the stone floor. We skidded away from Amber, coming to rest at the base of another support column.

  I pushed myself up off the Lilitu with my good arm, adrenaline flooding my system.

  Only—the Lilitu’s eyes were blank, staring. She’d died before we’d finished our slide across the floor.

  That’s when I started shaking. Bile rose in the back of my throat—a reaction to both the pain in my arm and the bitter after-taste of the adrenaline. I staggered to the column for support, then dropped to my knees, heaving the contents of my breakfast onto the floor.

  The Guardsmen reached us then. Hale went to Amber, catching her face in his hands and peering into her eyes. “It’s going to be okay, Amber. I just want to make sure you weren’t hurt.” He ran his hands over her frame, searching her quickly and impersonally for wounds.

  “I’m fine.” But Amber’s eyes were rooted to the dead Lilitu, and her face was pale.

  A second Guardsman knelt beside Rhea, trying to revive her. “Who’s got the smelling salts?”

  “Here.” The third Guardsmen reached into his pocket and tossed a small parcel over. Without waiting to see how Rhea responded, he prodded the Lilitu’s body with his boot, ensuring the demon wasn’t going to rise up again.

  I heard Rhea’s groan as she was jerked back into consciousness by the powerful odor of the smelling salts.

  “Easy,” the Guardsman was telling her. “You had a bad fall.”

  “What happened?” But then Rhea’s eyes found me. She pushed the Guardsman out of her line of sight. “You.”

  Rage flared through my body. “Are you kidding me?!”

  Hale, who’d finished his examination of Amber, turned. “Stand down, Rhea.”

  “This marks the second time a Lilitu attacked through the Seal. Both on her watch.” Rhea rose to her feet, unsteady but driven by fury nonetheless. “Are you going to tell me that’s a coincidence? She’s a liability.”

  “She saved my life,” Amber said. I turned. Amber stood, wrapping her arms around herself as though cold. “If it weren’t for Braedyn, that demon would have killed me.”

  Rhea shook her head.

  “It’s true, Rhea,” Hale said. “None of us could have reached her in time.”

  “It doesn’t prove she’s harmless,” Rhea said. Her eyes raked over me. “How do we know she didn’t put the Lilitu up to this, in an effort to make herself look like the hero?”

  “You’re insane. I’m on your side.” I glared at Rhea. But nothing I did would ever be enough to win her trust—that was perfectly obvious now.

  “Outside.” Hale bent over the Lilitu’s body and pulled my dagger free. He cleaned the blade on the Lilitu’s clothes. When he looked up, Rhea hadn’t moved. “Outside, Rhea. And if you ever raise a hand to Braedyn again, I’ll see you court-martialed.”

  Rhea sneered. “Clay would never discipline someone for attacking a Lilitu.”

  “Are you willing to bet your life on that?” Hale’s voice held a steely note I’d never heard before. “Last I checked, the penalty for mutiny was still death.”

  Rhea’s face grew still. She glanced at the other Guardsmen, looking for backup. They avoided her gaze. She scoffed, smiling faintly. “I could use the fresh air.” She turned and walked out of the roof-less mission, where we had fresh air to spare. The doors swung shut behind her before any of the rest of us moved.

  Hale moved to my side. “Let me see your arm.”

  “Don’t,” I hissed. But Hale was exceedingly gentle. He felt for the fracture, wincing in empathy when I gasped.

  “You’re lucky the bone didn’t break the surface of your skin,” he said. He pulled his T-shirt over his head. I glanced quickly away. Hale’s chest was a pile of well-defined muscles. They rippled smoothly under his skin as he worked, tearing the shirt into strips. He fashioned a field splint, binding my arm securely to the empty hilt of a set of daggers, then carefully looped a swatch of shirt over my neck to keep my arm secured. “I’ll drive you to the hospital. We should get a cast on that before you start to heal.”

  “What about the Seal?” I glanced at Amber. She looked shell-shocked; she’d be no use for the rest of the shift.

  “I’ll send Rhea back in here when we’ve gone.” Hale glanced at his watch. “The patrol should be reporting back soon. We’ll wait for them.”

  I nodded, trying to breathe through the pain. Now that the adrenaline was fading from my system, the dull, throbbing ache in my arm seemed to grow more intense with every heartbeat.

  Thankfully, the Guardsmen—perhaps alerted by Rhea’s appearance at the mission doors—returned sooner than we expected. As Hale was collecting my things, Amber approached me. She shot a look at the Seal, clearly still shaken.

  “I guess—I guess Hale was right about you.” Amber blushed, staring at her feet. “Look, I’m sorry. I’ve treated you pretty freakin’ horribly, but it’s over now, I promise.”

  I stared at Amber, not bothering to conceal the wash of disbelief moving thr
ough me.

  Amber read my expression and bit her lip. “Right. I guess it’s going to take more than an apology to make up for—”

  “No.” I cleared my throat. “That’s—I mean, it’s okay.”

  Amber met my gaze, troubled. “How can you say that after everything—?”

  “Braedyn, we should get a move on.” Hale gestured for me to join him at the mission’s doors.

  “Right.” I glanced back at Amber. “See you at practice.”

  Amber smiled faintly, then nodded. I can’t say the moment wasn’t awkward. But it was also a welcome relief. After all, we were fighting for the same side. Now—at long last—Amber knew it, too.

  Dad joined us at the hospital, freaking out, as expected. After the chaos of the fight at the mission, the long wait in the emergency room felt even more boring than usual. Is it a bad thing that I was starting to get comfortable in hospitals?

  By the time we got home—me sporting my swanky new cast—Karayan was waiting for us on the porch. News of the attack must have spread throughout the Guard. I could see the concern etched into Karayan’s features.

  Dad helped me out of the car and walked me to the door. Hale, carrying my bag, followed.

  “Seriously? Tackling a full grown Lilitu with a broken arm?” Karayan caught me by the shoulders, searching my face for any sign of pain.

  I shrugged, smiling loopily. “It’s cool. Paracetamol. It’s definitely doing the trick.”

  Karayan glanced at Dad.

  “Painkillers,” he offered by way of translation.

  Karayan shook her head, but stepped aside. Dad opened the front door for me. Before I walked through it, I glanced back at Karayan and Hale. I saw Karayan searching Hale’s face for any kind of reaction. He avoided her gaze entirely—seemingly as ignorant of her presence as if she’d been cloaked. When Dad turned back for me, Hale held out my bag.

  “Take it easy tonight, Braedyn.” Hale put a hand on my good shoulder and gave me a comforting squeeze. “You did good.”

  “Thanks.”

  Hale turned and walked away. Not once did he acknowledge Karayan’s presence. Her expression fell, the open pain on her face so intense it pierced the comfy haze of my painkillers.