by M. R. Forbes
It was only a matter of time before the time bomb he had been trying to disarm finally exploded, and there was nothing immediate he could do about it.
He could only hope that Abbey was having better luck.
He fell to the ground in front of the row of storefronts where Dilixix’ pharmacy sat. His muscles were weak, his body shaking. He clenched his teeth and forced himself up. He had gone too far, gotten too close to collapse now. He made it a few more steps, and then a pair of hands was beneath his shoulders, propping him up. A second pair lifted his legs, putting him into a sitting position. A head leaned in beside his.
“Captain Mann?” Dilixix said, cradling him. “What happened to you?”
Olus turned his head, looking into her small eyes. “I have a feeling you already know.”
She lowered her head. “I do. This is worse than we were expecting.”
“You knew who I was looking for?”
“Not who. What. An Evolent of the Nephilim.”
“So you know.”
“Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, Captain, but we’ve learned not to trust easily.”
“What are you?”
“A Servant of the Watchers,” she said. “An employee of the Ophanim.”
“Who?”
“You will find out, Captain. When you wake up.”
“Wake up? The pills.”
“I’m sorry, Captain. I didn’t have a choice. You needed it if you were going to confront an Evolent.”
“Needed what?”
“The Blood of the Shard.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“I know. You will find out.”
“When I wake up?”
“Yes.”
“I’m still awake.”
Dilixix made a clacking sound his translator couldn’t handle. He felt something stab into his arm, and he was vaguely aware of one of her hands having moved there.
“This will not harm you, Captain. Your body will heal and recover. Everything will be explained. We have much work to do. The time has come.”
Olus tried to reply, but he could feel himself fading. He considered resisting, but what would be the point? She had saved his life. Had she given him the Gift? He didn’t quite understand. He supposed he would.
When he woke up.
47
Gloritant Thraven looked down at the charred form of the Seraph at his feet. She was holding something in her hand. It was a small device, the front of which ended in a needle that led back to a cracked and empty reservoir behind it.
The Blood of the Shard had been spilled onto the blackened dirt. There would be no coming back for her this time.
He reached up and placed his hand against his neck. He ran his fingers over the roughness there, the remains of the damage Abigail Cage had inflicted on him.
Damage caused by the Gift.
Damage that would never completely heal.
He glanced over at the teleportation device, and the red light on its bent and burned surface. He was tired. He was in pain. He had used so much of his Gift. Cage would never know it, but if she had survived his final attack, she might have been able to kill him. That’s how weak he had allowed himself to become. That’s how desperately he wanted the Focus.
They couldn’t return to Elysium without it. The Gate was being built, but it required the Blood of the Shard. The true Blood, not the altered copy of the Father. It didn’t need much, only a single drop, but that was a single drop more than he possessed.
“It will come,” he told himself. “I will get it. The Father has Promised it in his Covenant. His Promise cannot be undone.”
He found Airi’s body on his way back to the Shrike. He paused ahead of it for only a moment, shaking his head. He had overestimated her, and she had failed him. If she weren’t dead, he would have killed her himself.
He stepped over her, continuing to the Shrike, climbing into it and leaning back into the seat. He needed the Font if he was going to survive. He needed to find the Fire and retrieve it.
“Report,” he said, activating the comm.
“Gloritant,” one of his Honorants replied. He didn’t know which one, or which ship. He didn’t care right now. “Four of the enemy ships escaped. We destroyed six battlecruisers.”
“The Seedships?”
“They escaped, Your Eminence.”
He was too weak to do more than sigh.
“Any word from the Fire?”
“No, Your Eminence. Gloritant, we also lost Warships Three and Six to the enemy. They had some kind of weapon on board that disabled all of our systems.”
“This is war, Honorant. There will be death.”
“Yes, Gloritant.”
“Regroup the ground units, and send two more dropships to the surface, fully loaded.”
“Your Eminence?” the Honorant replied, confused.
“They’re to search for remaining enemy combatants. One in particular. A woman named Abigail Cage. I want her dead. Send three dropships. She’s incredibly dangerous.”
“Yes, Gloritant.”
“Also, send a transport to the Fire.”
“Yes, Gloritant. It will be done.”
He disconnected the link and closed the canopy, bringing the Shrike into the air and ascending into the storms. He could sense the Font, and he altered course, crossing the hundreds of kilometers of distance, his body growing weaker by the second. He had almost gone too far. He had almost used too much.
He came upon the Fire. It was mostly intact, at the end of a massive crater of its own that had dislodged tons of dirt and rock. It was still dark. Still dead. He expected that none of the crew would be alive.
The hull was buried under the churned earth, so he landed the Shrike on top of the ship and peeled away the armor until he had a path to the inside, using the last of his strength to do so. He hobbled along the corridors almost peacefully, praying to his Father for strength as he made his way through the ship, passing dozens of corpses on the way.
His Immolent was standing at the entrance to his quarters, brought back to life by the Gift and still defending the Font. It didn’t react to his sudden appearance other than to move aside and allow him to enter.
He made his way to the pool. It was sealed over the top, the Blood contained within. He put his hands on the control pad, opening it once more. Then he climbed in still clothed, submerging himself and feeling the strength immediately begin to return.
He had hoped his conquest would be easier than this. Then again, nothing worth having was ever easily obtained. The Republic would be under his control within the coming weeks, and the rest of the galaxy would follow. There was nothing that Sylvan Kett could do about that.
He had lost more than he had won today. He had lost more than he expected. But he also knew the defeat was temporary.
He had been waiting thousands of years for the Great Return. He could wait a few weeks more.
48
Abbey didn’t know how long she spent sleeping. It hadn’t been a conscious decision. She remembered turning off the teleporter. She remembered crying. She didn’t remember anything else.
She was starving. She had never been so hungry before. She had woken up in a room made of stone, an unlit room with only a sliver of light pouring in from beneath a crack in one of the walls, betraying it as a hidden door. Not that there was anything to see. The room was empty.
She realized she had to be under the crater. There was no other way the teleporter could have reached. Had Jequn given it to her knowing she might need an emergency escape hatch? How could she? If she had planned it, why the hell hadn’t she put any food in the damn room?
Charmeine. She felt sadness at the loss of the Seraph, now that she had time to be sad. She felt anguish when she thought about the Rejects, too. Gant was going to be beside himself, and she had left her newly established force without their Queen. At least they had General Kett. He would help them continue what she had started.
&nbs
p; Besides, she was going to find her way back to them. No matter what.
She stood up, approaching the false wall. She was still tired. She couldn’t feel the Gift. It was nearly expended and required food to be able to replicate. Her body was sore. She reached back, putting her hand on the small bump over her rear. The tail. It felt a little larger. She shivered as she ran her fingers through hair that had grown nearly six centimeters while she was sleeping. She could feel the ridges along her scalp, the beginnings of the bone protrusions she recalled from Phlenel.
She needed the damn Serum.
She didn’t want to be a monster.
She put her hands on the fake wall. She couldn’t use the Gift to open it. She needed something else.
The ceiling above her shook slightly, dumping small bits of debris on her head. She glanced up at it. If she was underground, then someone was above her. Thraven? She doubted he would stick around just for her. He had other things to do, but he might have left some units behind. Maybe an entire warship. With the Republic Council soon to come under his control, he would have all the ships he needed.
If they were here and couldn’t find her, that meant she was well hidden, wherever she was. A single room, or a whole complex? The Ophanim had been on this planet for a long time. This had to be part of their original compound.
She felt along the seam of the wall. She had to get out. She had to get off Azure. She had to get back to the Rejects. Once she made it out of here, where was she going to get a ship?
From whoever was above her, maybe? She would figure it out.
She was the fragging Queen of Demons, damn it.
She would survive.
Chaos of the Covenant Book Four, Kill the Queen!, is coming soon. Want to know when it’s out? mrforbes.com/killthequeen
Author’s Note
Wow, I can’t believe this is the third book already. I feel like I just started writing this series a week ago. Time flies when you’re having fun, right? I hope you’re all having as much fun as I am. Thank you again for reading.
If you’ve read War Eternal, you’ve probably noticed that the two series are beginning to share a few elements. The two stories are (loosely) related, and they occur in the same overall multiverse, conceptualized like so:
Where the loop is time (think big numbers of years - billions, trillions, etc), each link is a universe, and each strand is a dimension (or parallel universe). Well, not exactly like that because the whole thing isn’t linear and two-dimensionally linked, but hopefully that gives you some idea of how it all fits, if you’re interested in such things (and no, this isn’t my necklace, or my wife’s. I just thought it was an appropriate visual).
For those of you really into this kind of science, keep in mind these books aren’t hard sci-fi and please be gentle :D. By the way, if you’re generally curious about multiverses, Wikipedia is a good place to start. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse.
With that being said, they can definitely both be read independently and you won’t miss a beat. Of course, I hope you’ll read War Eternal if you haven’t already (once you’ve finished Chaos of the Covenant ;)).
Once again, if you want to help me make this book and the entire series a success, or even if you want to tell the world how much this series sucks and that they should stay far, far away, please, please, please consider leaving a review. Here’s a link to make it really easy for you: mrforbes.com/thedevilsdoreview. It SHOULD redirect you to the correct Amazon site based on your location. My apologies if that isn’t where you actually purchased. Depending on how you’re reading, the Kindle app may have already asked you to leave a review as well. I hope you will.
Thank you again.
Cheers,
Michael.
Other Books By M.R Forbes
M.R. Forbes on Amazon
mrforbes.com/amazon
Starship Eternal (War Eternal, Book One)
mrforbes.com/starshipeternal
A lost starship...
A dire warning from futures past...
A desperate search for salvation…
Captain Mitchell “Ares” Williams is a Space Marine and the hero of the Battle for Liberty, whose Shot Heard ‘Round the Universe saved the planet from a nearly unstoppable war machine. He’s handsome, charismatic, and the perfect poster boy to help the military drive enlistment. Pulled from the war and thrown into the spotlight, he’s as efficient at charming the media and bedding beautiful celebrities as he was at shooting down enemy starfighters.
After an assassination attempt leaves Mitchell critically wounded, he begins to suffer from strange hallucinations that carry a chilling and oddly familiar warning:
They are coming. Find the Goliath or humankind will be destroyed.
Convinced that the visions are a side-effect of his injuries, he tries to ignore them, only to learn that he may not be as crazy as he thinks. The enemy is real and closer than he imagined, and they’ll do whatever it takes to prevent him from rediscovering the centuries lost starship.
Narrowly escaping capture, out of time and out of air, Mitchell lands at the mercy of the Riggers - a ragtag crew of former commandos who patrol the lawless outer reaches of the galaxy. Guided by a captain with a reputation for cold-blooded murder, they’re dangerous, immoral, and possibly insane.
They may also be humanity’s last hope for survival in a war that has raged beyond eternity.
(War Eternal is also available in a box set of the first three books here: mrforbes.com/wareternalbox)
Man of War (Rebellion)
mrforbes.com/manofwar
In the year 2280, an alien fleet attacked the Earth.
Their weapons were unstoppable, their defenses unbreakable.
Our technology was inferior, our militaries overwhelmed.
Only one starship escaped before civilization fell.
Earth was lost.
It was never forgotten.
Fifty-two years have passed.
A message from home has been received.
The time to fight for what is ours has come.
Welcome to the rebellion.
Or maybe something completely different?
Dead of Night (Ghosts & Magic)
mrforbes.com/deadofnight
For Conor Night, the world’s only surviving necromancer, staying alive is an expensive proposition. So when the promise of a big payout for a small bit of thievery presents itself, Conor is all in. But nothing comes easy in the world of ghosts and magic, and it isn’t long before Conor is caught up in the machinations of the most powerful wizards on Earth and left with only two ways out:
Finish the job, or be finished himself.
Balance (The Divine)
mrforbes.com/balance
My name is Landon Hamilton. Once upon a time I was a twenty-three year old security guard, trying to regain my life after spending a year in prison for stealing people’s credit card numbers.
Now, I’m dead.
Okay, I was supposed to be dead. I got killed after all; but a funny thing happened after I had turned the mortal coil...
I met Dante Alighieri - yeah, that Dante. He told me I was special, a diuscrucis. That’s what they call a perfect balance of human, demon, and angel. Apparently, I’m the only one of my kind.
I also learned that there was a war raging on Earth between Heaven and Hell, and that I was the only one who could save the human race from annihilation. He asked me to help, and I was naive enough to agree.
Sounds crazy, I know, but he wished me luck and sent me back to the mortal world. Oh yeah, he also gave me instructions on how to use my Divine "magic” to bend the universe to my will. The problem is, a sexy vampire crushed them while I was crushing on her.
Now I have to somehow find my own way to stay alive in a world of angels, vampires, werewolves, and an assortment of other enemies that all want to kill me before I can mess up their plans for humanity’s future. If that isn’t enough, I also have to find the queen of all demons and rec
over the Holy Grail.
It’s not like it’s the end of the world if I fail.
Wait. It is.
Tears of Blood (Books 1-3)
mrforbes.com/tearsofblood
One thousand years ago, the world was broken and reborn beneath the boot of a nameless, ageless tyrant. He erased all history of the time before, enslaving the people and hunting those with the power to unseat him.
The power of magic.
Eryn is such a girl. Born with the Curse, she fights to control and conceal it to protect those she loves. But when the truth is revealed, and his soldiers come, she is forced away from her home and into the company of Silas, a deadly fugitive tormented by a fractured past.
Silas knows only that he is a murderer who once hunted the Cursed, and that he and his brothers butchered armies and innocents alike to keep the deep, dark secrets of the time before from ever coming to light.
Secrets which could save the world.
Or destroy it completely.
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