Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79726 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79726 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“Just kiss me, my love.”
Her eyes pop open wide.
“I love you,” I say to her shocked expression. “You’ve made my pointless existence worth living, and all I want in this moment is to taste your lips.”
She closes her eyes and breathes out, her body going limp against me. “One last time.”
I kiss her and she throws herself into me, her body coming back to life as our lips press furiously together. I’m glad to feel some of the fight come back into her because it’s what I live for.
I pull back, the fire inside me roaring. After all, I am the angel of War. Except now, for the first time in my life, I have something to fight for.
“I’ll see you soon, my love.” I grin at her, all glamours gone, wanting it to be my face she looks into just in case it really is for the last time.
She clings to me, but I pull back. “Wait, where are you going? Don’t leave!”
“I’m always in your heart,” I say, pressing my hand to her chest. “Some things are eternal.”
And then I yank away from her clinging grasp, turn, and sprint out of the room and down the hallway. Running is an inefficient way of travel, though, especially for where I’m going.
As soon as I reach the courtyard, I flare my black wings wide, leap, and take off into the air. Time for the fight of my life.
For all the many places I’ve been to all over the globe, this is my first time flying through the outer atmosphere into space. It’s very cold. Not to mention the whole lack of air thing.
It feels strange at first to not breathe and feel my feathers crystalize in the beyond freezing temperatures.
My flight slows as I struggle to adjust to the darkness lit only by a million stars. I can’t imagine the warmth of the woman I just left behind. But just the thought of her is enough to spur me forward in spite of the discomfort.
I am a Horseman of the Apocalypse, and a little discomfort is nothing to me. Finally, I have a worthy opponent.
Not that I have any idea how to fight them. I don’t have sword or spear, and I don’t think they’re capable of language, so I doubt I’ll be able to persuade them to turn back. But I am rage, and I am chaos, and there is no turning back now. So, I press on.
Ten more minutes, and I cannot feel my legs, arms, or face. But my wings continue to propel me, and what is the point of feeling one’s limbs anyway? My tail has curled around my legs as if that can stave off the sub-freezing temperatures, and I’m vaguely afraid it might snap and break off completely.
The thought doesn’t deter me.
I am made of eternal material. My father grew back to full strength from a mere ember of ash. Granted, my brothers and I are not the same as him—he was merely our architect.
But surely being eternal means being able to survive a little interspace travel? Too late now, anyway. I’m closer to the sun now than I am to the Earth, and I can just see the tail end of the Devourers. I press myself to move with even more speed.
I hear the crack but don’t look back. All feeling is secondary, but I think it’s what I feared. I think I’ve just lost my tail. By the time I reach the back of the line of glowing Devourers, my mind has started to grow fuzzy.
I may be eternal but I’m starting to suspect that doesn’t mean indestructible. Maybe there is something beyond hell-metal that can kill us. Huh. All this time, it was waiting in the deep sky above our heads, and we simply didn’t realize it.
I mean, even I had heard the story of Icarus. The storytellers just got it wrong. He didn’t die because his wings melted off. They froze, and then he fell from the sky. But there’s no gravity here. I won’t fall back to Earth, my body to be mourned by my beloved in the moments before her sky goes dark forever.
At least I will have finally killed Romulus. Which is what I wanted all this time, isn’t it? Saying I wanted to get rid of the parasite and other euphemisms was a coward’s way out. I wanted to kill him. Like Cain and Abel, I wanted to fight him to the death, standing over my brother as the sole owner of this body.
If I get the both of us killed, will that give half the satisfaction?
I’m too cold and exhausted to even laugh.
Chaos reigns to the end.
I can’t flap my wings anymore; it’s just the propulsion I began that continues me forward in the airless void of space.