Page 16 of Until the End of Ever (To the Cruel Gods #2)

KLEOS

U nsure where the dragon hunt team would show up, I marched between Gideon and Timothee’s office and the hangars containing the Guard’s vehicles on the first basement, pacing back and forth between the two, though they were separated by eight levels.

“Trainee Valesco,” Master Arion greeted me just as I strode past the Grand Hall on the ground floor. “I wasn’t aware you were in today. You missed warm-up this morning.”

A senior Guard, often in charge of our training sessions, he was only slightly less intimating than Auntie Hilda.

“Sorry, I technically am off-site this week again,” I clarified. “Master Valesco—either of them—should have cleared it? I’m only here because of the dragon hunt.”

I wished I could tell him I’d kept up with his torturous endurance drills, but well, I wasn’t much of a liar. And really, if my survival depended on my ability to run for an hour straight? I was good with just sitting down and greeting my doom.

“Ah, yes. I believe they’re expected shortly in the landing zone. We received a communication from the helicopter that picked them up a while ago.”

“Thank you!” I shouted, already running.

It only occurred to me that I should have asked Master Arion if everyone was fine when I was already halfway outside.

The Arena housing the Guard was a building modelled after ancient amphitheaters.

While we mostly used the space inside the edifice, there were stands and lodges and even a royal box outside that were only used a few times a year for various games and celebrations.

The next would be on the day of Poseidon, in a few short weeks.

Just like the Colosseum and other elaborate theatres, the sanded center was a platform that could open up. On ordinary days, it was mostly used for helicopters to land. Wild pegasi also liked to use it to take a nap away from most of the population, occasionally.

I wasn’t the only one to have been alerted of the team’s arrival. With a grimace, I took in the medical team, already straightening their spines and narrowing their eyes at me. Great . Just what I needed.

At last, the chopper, marked with the ornate G of the Guard over a shield and two swords, soon made its appearance, smoothly avoiding a black pegasus over the hills.

It landed perfectly in the unmarked arena, which told me Stillwater was piloting before I even saw the tall, pointy-eared protector.

Of the team out today, the only other member with a license was Gideon, and if he’d been in charge, there would be iridescent feathers all over the cockpit, angry hoofprints on the blades, and he would have landed on the elders’ box.

I had to stand back as the medics rushed forward with a stretcher. The door opened in front of a half-naked, grime-covered Gideon, who hopped out before offering them a hand to help carry an unconscious shape.

I was going to go to one of the hells for the relief I felt the moment I spotted Isla’s blonde locks.

I liked Isla. We made fun of Francois’s accent and Irwin’s existence together.

But better her than Silver. Besides, I was close enough to feel that most of her vitals were fine.

She was as dirty as Gideon, passed out, and the general sense of unease taking me by the throat when I looked at her face told me she had a minor concussion.

I’d have to sneak in and fix it when I didn’t have a disapproving audience.

Two of the healers lowered her to the stretcher and started their work, shouting directions at each other as they rolled her away, leaving another two behind, which meant they expected a second patient. But before I started to worry again, Silver jumped down.

I gasped, rushing towards her. “Your hair!”

The thing about Silver’s hair was, like much about my best friend, it was weird.

It was pure shining silver, and every morning, when she showered, she dyed it pink.

By the end of the day, it was back to silver, her natural color eating away at the dye approximatively a hundred times faster than a normal person’s would.

But I wasn’t shocked because it was half silver again. Yesterday, when I left her place, it was as long as mine. This afternoon, it was cut in a fashionable, elegant bob.

She flipped it, grinning. “You like?”

“I fucking love .” It perfectly went with her bone structure, highlighting her delicate, elvish air. “When did that happen? Did you squeeze in a haircut before hunting dragons?”

“During, actually. One of the fuckers burned most of it. Thankfully, we had a wannabe hairdresser amongst us. He fixed it.”

I glanced inside the chopper, half expecting to see Irwin holding a pair of shears. It would make a lot of sense, actually. But he left the helicopter next, tear-stained and looking positively traumatized, with a wet patch on the front of his pants.

I stepped to the side, giving him a wide berth. Ew.

Francois came next, his overly tight trousers and shirt in one piece, if a little grimy, too, followed by Barron.

I frowned. Everyone seemed fine so far. That was the whole team—as Alden was still in the cockpit to handle the end-of-flight checks, which meant the only person left was Lucian. Surely he wasn’t the one hurt, was he?

The two healers were still standing around expectantly.

Lucian felt grander than life, untouchable. Yes, the concept of dragons was seriously frightening, but surely, if everyone else made it back more or less in one piece, so did he.

Unless he’d done something stupid to help everyone else. Sadly, I knew him capable of that.

I met the healers’ glare head-on. He wasn’t part of the Guard any longer. If he was hurt, it was my business, not theirs.

But he walked out on his own two feet, gorgeous and graceful as ever in the dark duster he’d thrown on before we ran out of the manor. Like everyone else, he was considerably filthier than usual, but otherwise seemed perfectly fine.

I was too relieved at first to notice the boy tucked as close as possible against his side, holding on to the sleeve of the leather duster.

The boy was the only passenger of the chopper who came out of it relatively clean.

So pale I could see veins, a more vivid blue than they should be, and with green hair, as well as eyes as bright as fire, he was maybe fifteen, sixteen at most. He wore nothing except a blanket tied tightly around him.

Instinctively, I reached out for him, and watched him flinch.

Fuck.

The healers all but muscled their way between us. “We got this. We’re fully trained in various species,” Julia Woods announced proudly.

I was certain of it. But the boy needed food and warmth and hydration right now .

Calm down, Kleos. They can handle it.

It took all my restraint, but I made myself let go.

They demanded he follow, and the boy clung harder to Lucian, fear and mistrust at the prospect of accompanying any stranger evident.

“I’ll tag along,” Lucian said with a shrug, and I had never been more desperate to throw myself at him. “But you have to let them take care of you, yes?”

The boy nodded, and they departed, healers casting various spells to detect the boy’s various ailments.

I could have recited them.

They wouldn’t have listened.

I reeled on Silver. Gideon was already gone, off to give an official recap to his superiors. “ Talk .”