You know you had a traitor within you when your best-laid plan failed.
I've never felt so betrayed in my entire life. I did not expect our plan to crumble easily, not with the meticulous planning we made. The day that I never thought I'd experience came, it was the day that I found out someone leaked our plans.
One of my generals. One of my fucking generals is a traitor.
*****
We were ready to leave for the crawlers, the plan had been set in motion. I've waited enough already, we need to get moving. I must get Basilea back. One night of her being their captive was enough for my mind.
I was getting creative in thinking of ways I was going to tear down their hideout and kill them all until their blood covered their grounds.
When we decided to move we didn't go through the passageways. Instead, we took the dragons and geared them with archers while the fallen angels scoured from above and the rest including Justus took the ground making sure none of the crawlers slipped through our invasion.
The attack was supposed to be an easy one, but the plan was flawed. The crawlers knew. They were waiting for us. They had archers, and legions of other demons more capable than them suddenly appeared. Flame arrows were directed toward our dragons. The sky was painted with fire, our dragons fought back. They breathed fire, their handlers shouting commands and they were succeeding until one of the dragons was hit, and then another.
Then their formation was broken. Titus called the dragons to retreat, they were an easy target and he didn't want to lose them. So I signaled my fallen angels to move forward, and we managed to get closer. Anger was bursting out of my chest, I put aside the possibility of our flawed plan and moved forward with my flight.
General Bharat was struggling below, I could see him and his warriors being surrounded by red demons and crawlers. What happened didn't make sense, they couldn't have gathered this many demons in a short amount of time. But I believe in our warriors and trust our generals to move forward as planned.
Titus was back, I could see him shouting commands to his flight. He was getting back on his formation, swords were drawn, and heads were rolling. He was merciless and my flight followed my command and we proceeded to the other side of their perimeter. Like Titus, our opponents lacked finesse, we fought them easily. Shouting was thrown, blades and daggers swooshed and limbs were fallen. The blood of our enemies paints the ground red.
We were about to move forward when Bharat shouted commands from below us, he was losing ground. Titus moved back to help his fellow general and I was about to move forward when I saw my men were failing.
"Retreat!" I heard Titus yell out.
I growled and shouted my flight to push forward, letting him deal with his battles. We were halfway in and I signaled my flight to draw their weapons once we managed to land in their courtyard. We split into three as planned and we quietly move in separate directions fanning wide to find where they kept Basilea. Five of my men followed me, spreading wide then all quietly descended into the dark dungeon belowground.
My eyes adjusted to the dim environment, it took seconds before I saw her being dragged out of a cell by two pathetic demon crawlers, I couldn't believe they put all their best demon out but none was guarding Basilea. It was just the luck that I needed. "Get them, I'll take care of Basilea."
Osirus was quick to grab two crawlers and snapped their necks with just his two bare hands. I swiftly grabbed Basilea and she was in my arms within seconds. I thought we were done, but then I could hear heavy steps coming down the stairs.
Fuck... fuck... fuck...
The dungeon looked like a dead end, I signaled my men to pull out their swords and blades, and when three red demons filled the space I knew we needed to move quickly.
"Armand, my King," Basilea chose the exact moment to notice me. Her throaty voice pulled me to her attention.
"Hey, you're coming back with us. I need you to stay still for me, can you do that my little demon?"
"You came for me..."
"We all did," I kissed her forehead, but got distracted when the hideous red giant demon almost killed my best general Osirus. "Stay here." I sat her down on the damp floor with her back to the dirty wall.
I moved quickly when one red demon was distracted and jumped to stab him right at his temple. It was easier and less meaty than trying to push my blade into his thick chest to get to his heart. The loud thump of the fallen body made the two other demons look my way. I smirked when I saw the rage in their eyes the moment they realized that I just killed one of them.
They growled and roared so loud making my ears hurt, but Osirus took the distraction and stabbed the nearest red demon at his temple. I nodded as he followed my direction and killed the giant red demon. The instant kill made the demon fall to the ground with another loud crashing sound. The last demon roared his anger again and this time I was ready and shoved my sword into his open mouth using all of my strength and pushed the blade straight, penetrating his skull.
Three giant red demons were down and we all hurriedly went back up the stairs, leaving the dungeon with me carrying Basilea. Osirus now commanded my flight and took over for me while my attention was to make sure Basilea did not die in my arms.
We were in the air, on our way back to my kingdom when the tip of my wing was hit. "Damn it!" my balance was off, and I almost dropped Basilea. The pain was excruciating and I knew I was going to fall.
"Osirus, take her! spread out! GO!" we had discussed this, it was our safety measure should we need to separate and distract the enemies. Break the flight and go separate ways and regroup back at the palace grounds.
It only takes seconds for him to take Basilea from my hands and within that same second I missed another arrow and I flapped my wings trying to distract the archers from his targets. My thigh was hit this time, I could feel the poison crawling through my veins already. I didn't realize I hit the ground until my body broke my fall and the arrow pushed deeper and pierced through the other side of my thigh. A through and through.
I hissed and cursed lowly, I dragged my body to a nearby rock to hide. I took a deep breath before making a decision to snap the arrow and free my thigh from the poisoned shaft. I know I need to do it quickly, and that was when I took three quick consecutive short breaths before I snapped the arrow and threw the poisonous shaft away. My thigh was hot from what was left of the poison, I knew I won't be able to walk. I need to get myself into safety before they come looking. Hopefully, my men would find me sooner than my enemy.
At least I now know that she was safe. I trust Osirus and my flight will take her back to the safety of my kingdom. Titus will be there to assist her and provide her with everything she needs.
The air was lighter when I finally found a hiding cave. It looked small but, small was better. It'll hide the cave perfectly, and any shelter would protect me from demon predators. Not wanting to think about the pain, I ignored my throbbing thigh. Then I quickly as I could, I got up to gather rocks and dirt to hide the cave entrance.
The air was cooler and I was about to drift off to sleep when I heard voices. I sat up straight, made my body ready to defend and fight for myself. Until I heard a familiar voice, a voice that I thought I'd never hear ever again.
"Magnus?"