Page 57 of Ballad of Nightmares

Sam met her eyes, and he knew she was remembering herself in those ditches on her final moments. He shuddered, cracking his neck, and his eyes blazed carmine.

“Do you want me to save them, Milliscent?” he asked in a low voice.

“I want Death to collect,” she practically growled. “Collect for vengeance as we did—“

“I cannot save everyone—“

“You saved us,” she said, her voice rising. “How are we any different from them?”

Luna jumped on the desk then and curled herself around Sam’s rigid arms, her purr sounding loud over the screams and terror on the television then. Sam took a deep breath, his eyes closing, and he picked the cat up to cradle against his chest.

“What would you have me do?” he asked calmly.

Millie shifted on her feet and took her phone out this time. “Let me talk to Damien. If there are any that he can see that edge for, that might want something after, I’ll have him bring them to the neutral place. We can meet there and come back over this border with those who want an extension of this life.”

“If we are caught, Prei will call it an act of war,” Sam said.

“It is only helping the wounded,” Millie countered.

“It is taking souls for an army!” Sam hissed.

Millie didn’t stand down. She simply stared pointedly in his direction. “Maybe we could use a few more souls,” she said. “And a declaration of war.”

“Just a few weeks ago, you were adamant about not going in without a plan,” he snapped.

“That was about Ironmyer,” she argued. “Not us. We’re prepared.”

“And I told you, I’m dealing with our current threat.”

“Yes, Samarius, and how is that going for you?” she practically spat, head tilting. “Have you killed her yet? I don’t hear her in the dungeons screaming.”

A loud snarl left Sam as he nearly lunged at Millie, teeth bared. “I don’t have to explain every detail of my plans. All I have ever asked is that you trust me.”

“And I do,” she said. “We all do. The only thing I am saying here is that these people are close enough to us that we could do something about it. Increase our strength. Show those that will watch their loved ones cross over that we give a damn, and maybe… just maybe… when the time comes for us to declare that war, we might have a few more on our side. I’m not asking you to declare war yet. I’m asking you to recruit.”

Sam sighed and looked at Rolfe.

“And you?” he asked his friend. “What would you have me do?”

Rolfe finished chewing his toast and looked back at the television. “We’re all waiting on the day you give the order, boss,” he said. “What’s a few more in our pocket going to hurt?”

“What if we’re caught? If Prei finds out I’m turning demons in his new territory to eventually fight against him?” Sam asked.

“Assume that’d be the same result as when he finds out you’ve been keeping The Tower safe and sound here,” Rolfe said bluntly.

Triumph littered Millie’s face, and Sam fully expected her to kiss Rolfe in response, but she just raised an arrogant brow in Sam’s direction.

Sam cursed. “When I think we are ready for that war, I will gladly cause an uproar large enough that the southernmost isles of Windmoor hear it,” he said slowly. “But it will be on my terms. Whether those terms are my offering up Deianira as bait or something different, you two will be the first to know. But right now, my concern is the demons that have been hiding in the other realms for centuries. Bring them home first.” His gaze flashed between Millie and Rolfe. “Once they get here, I’ll consider their reports and the humans left.”

“You bring all of them home, and the dead souls won’t have a new existence to go into,” Millie said. “They’ll have no bridge, Samarius.”

A flash of lightning silhouetted Sam’s wings on the wall behind him as he braced his palms on the desk once more. “And that, Milliscent, sounds like the perfect army.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

ANA COULDN’T TURN away from the broadcast on her television.

She had different streams pulled up on all her devices, the research she had been doing on Shadowmyer now amiss.