wild eyes, the teeth splitting its once-human face from ear to ear. Then I launch from the top of the wreck onto the creature’s back. Before it can throw me off, I’m prying underneath its iron collar and jamming a dagger deep into its rotting flesh.
It whirls so hard that it throws me completely off, slamming me into a ruin. Stars erupt in my head. My ankle twists in a strange way and pain lances up my leg. Red leaps from the top of the ruins and attacks one of the Ghosts, but he’s too far away to get to me in time. Four Ghosts close in on me, their jaws grinding, sensing victory.
The same scene is playing out all around us. The gate has collapsed at the defense compound. A battalion of scarlet-clad Karensan soldiers march through the inferno. Our dead are littered everywhere.
A stillness washes over me. My gaze settles helplessly on the monsters that twitch toward me now. I wonder if this is what Corian had felt when he realized it was too late. I wonder how bad the pain will be when a Ghost’s fangs break my skin, when it tears my flesh until its poisons flood my own veins.
It occurs to me that I will never see my mother again. Strange; my next thought is that I wish I’d stopped to have tea with her.
The Ghosts stalk closer. I brace myself, ready to fight to the end. My vision blurs.
That’s when I realize Red is no longer where I saw him last. He has vanished. I blink in the haze of night, searching for his silhouette. Maybe he’s taken the opportunity to leave me behind and make his escape, test his luck elsewhere. It would be smart of him, something I might have done in his position. Or maybe he’s even fooled us all and decided to surrender to the Federation, take his chances by begging forgiveness from his Premier. Maybe a Ghost had grabbed him—
A blast of wind cuts off my thoughts.
An impact shakes the ground so hard that I’m thrown to my knees. The shudder of it rattles my teeth. An earthquake, goes my first thought, like one I’d felt back in Basea that had rocked our entire house, leaving us to run out the door in terror. The world beneath me cracks and caves in, as if from a mighty force.
Something powerful lands behind me.
I flinch, dagger clutched so tightly in my fist that my fingers feel like they might break, ready to stab the creature about to attack me.
But when I glance behind me, I don’t see rotting, ashen limbs—instead, I see the outline of a mighty figure in the night, black steel extending from either side of his back.
It’s Red.
Except he is almost unrecognizable.
He crouches right behind me, close enough that his shoulder brushes mine. I have no idea how he reached me this quickly. His once-dark eyes now glow such a bright silver white that I can see neither pupil nor iris. Just light and fury. A low, inhuman growl rumbles in the back of his throat, and his teeth are bared, flashing a ferocious white.
And from his back … arch a pair of enormous black wings formed from blades of steel. They are the most massive things I’ve ever seen, easily forty feet wide, spread to form a protective shield on either side of us.
In ancient stories we salvaged from the Early Ones, there are mentions of figures called angels. They were mythical, winged humans, an order of armored supernatural beings that served some almighty god. Creatures with the power to both protect mankind and rain down destruction. Above all, the Early Ones seemed to believe in them as guardians. Warriors. Beings of incredible beauty, meant to be loved and feared.
It is the first thought that comes to me now. An angel of death.
For an instant, I think Red is finally going to reveal his true Federation nature. He is going to kill me.
Then I realize his face is turned toward the Ghosts, and his expression is that of sheer hatred. He hovers over me in a protective stance. I am a Striker, trained never to freeze in combat like a deer lost in its own panic—but now I do, unsure what I’m witnessing. Who do I defend myself from? The Ghosts, or him? Is he about to help me? With a jolt of terror, I finally remember what he said the Federation called him.