Page 58 of Hell’s Weapon

“It’s not funny. It’s messing with me a bit.”

“Sweetie, it’s about time someone got under your skin.”

“It’s draining.”

“Yes, it is.” He takes a deep breath and huffs it out as if remembering something. “But ride it out, you never know where it could lead.”

“Cryptic,” I deadpan.

“Try not to let it get you down, and if you need to talk, get Officer Grumpy-pants to give me a call.”

I chuckle as Khaos nicknames Garrick very similarly to how I’ve been thinking of him until the last couple of days. “Thank you. Fuck, I’ve missed you.”

“Me too. When this is over, we need a weekend together.”

“Please,” I tell him as the door opens and Garrick re-enters.

“I’ve dismissed the staff. Khaos, I’ll walk you out. Tacita, if you get changed, you can leave your stuff here, then wait until it's quiet before sneaking back to your room. I assume I can trust you to get out again.”

“Thought I was spending a night in the cells?” I quip.

“Changed my mind, pretend you figured out how to escape. I thought you could use a proper bed to sleep in, unless you’d rather the concrete floor?”

“No, bed sounds fantastic,” I say, then add, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Garrick looks slightly taken aback with my sincere gratitude but doesn’t say another word before leaving again with Khaos in tow. He’ll need to be outside to open a portal, seeing as the Guards’ quarters have been magically locked to them–one thing I did learn from reading every document in Garrick’s desk.

Crossing the space, I open the bottom drawer to pull out my prison uniform from where I’d stashed it earlier. Hades had transported my assassin gear when Garrick had called to inform him about the latest murders.

Changing after I’ve shifted fully back to my human form, I hang around for a while longer until I’m sure I can sneak out without running into any of the guards. I decide to go out through the tunnel where the cells are. It takes me a while to get past the patrolling officers but eventually I’m clicking open the door to my room with my wristband and dropping down onto my bed.

I’m nearly asleep when the mattress dips and Milo’s scent washes over me as he sneaks into bed with me. Not lucid enough to protest, or ask questions, I simply let him tuck himself around my body. Nestling into the crook of my elbow, he comes to rest and his breathing evens out whilst I try to sort through the feelings rising in me at having him safe in my embrace.

His body heat is foreign against my side but it’s comforting on a level I’m not sure I’ve experienced before. I decide to let myself relax into whatever is happening here and sink into the deepest sleep I’ve had in weeks.

Chapter 20

Milo

“Welcome to the second round, contestants,” Officer Zephyr announces as he strides into the food hall.

It's breakfast and we’ve all been escorted here, as has become the norm so that the guards can check our rooms each morning. We’re not segregated anymore but there has been an increase of bag searches, room searches, and just general questioning by the staff.

Behind Zephyr, a few of the others he commands trail in carrying stacks of those card-like folders. The ones you see doctors and such with on TV shows. They fan out as Zephyr strides to the middle of the room, and start distributing the files, giving one to each of us.

“This one is a longer game,” he starts to explain. “We’ve allocated a week to it and you’ll need a different skill set from what you demonstrated in the first challenge. Each folder contains all the information you need, read it carefully.”

Murmurs break out as the first few tables start opening their folders and looking at what’s inside. Tacita and I are sitting with Seffy on one of the far benches, so we’re nearly last to receive ours.

“You may ask any of the Guard Team questions throughout the week but don’t expect us to have the answers.” Zephyr folds his arms across his chest as his voice rises above the noise. “I’ll only give you this one hint: rushing will result in death.”

A young looking male guard with auburn curls hands me a folder and I quickly move my breakfast tray to lay it down on the table. Opening it up, there are three pages inside. It’s a profile of some random guy I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen before. Name, age, all the usual details are at the top of the first page before it moves into longer passages of text. A few diagrams and pictures litter the subsequent sheets.

Flicking back to the start, my eyes catch on the ‘species’ category under the basic information section. Dark Angel is written next to it.

Okay, so this is someone from Hell then. It’s another reminder that we’re not in the human realm anymore.

Confused, I look across at Tacita. She looks just as perplexed. As she lifts the first page in her document to read the ones underneath, I catch sight of it, she has a different person’s profile.