Page 12 of When Death Called Life Home (When Deities Awaken #1)

Chapter 12

Run

ASCIAN

C hatter filtered through the leaves of the trees and bushes that encompassed the camp site. ‘Camp site’ was perhaps a little bit of an understatement to what this place actually was. Barely any temporary houses sat at ground level, and the few that did only looked recently set up. Everything else, every other occupied shelter, had been built in the heights of the trees and camouflaged well.

This wasn’t a new camp. Not even close. So either the Elders had once again lied to him, or their spies weren’t very good at their jobs and only noticed the location because of the few houses recently set up at ground level. After their meeting, Ascian leaned towards the former. Unease grew within the pit of his stomach because of it.

“Want me to signal for the others?” Maelo asked in a whisper from his right.

Ascian calculated silently in his mind; the size of the treehouses, the number of voices he could barely decipher, the small movements he could make out among the leaves. “Yes.”

The two of them could get started, but would likely lose if they tried to finish the place off alone.

Maelo disappeared from his side, and above voices rose steadily, or grew closer. It was difficult to truly tell from the distance he crouched at. He discovered it to be the latter when a couple of nymphs exited from one of the smaller treehouses he’d decided they’d move on first. Neither was Xylia, only confirming suspicions that perhaps the Elders hadn’t lied about that information.

Ascian lifted a hand to his lips, opening his fist and blowing the contents from his palm. Black dust-like particles lifted up onto a swift breeze, rising higher into the branches and attaching to both the nymphs’ bodies without so much as a blink from them. Nothing changed. Not even the clothing they wore. He swiftly tightened the ties of the small bag hidden within his cloak.

“I wouldn’t expect any of them to be disguised,” Maelo murmured as she crouched back down at his side.

Without glancing towards her, Ascian asked, “Why not?”

Maelo motioned to the multitude of structures above them again. “They’ve been here long enough to feel secure within the area. They either think we’ve been and gone before they started setting up on the ground and won’t return for a second look, or that we won’t venture into what could be considered nymph territory.”

Ascian’s lip curved on one side.

“What?” Maelo asked, pulling her gaze from the pair of nymphs to her brother’s face. “Why have you got that stupid grin?”

His gaze slid mischievously to meet hers. “Just amused at your intelligence.”

Maelo raised a brow. “You find my intelligence funny?”

“No.” Ascian shook his head, returning his attention to their targets. “I find you using it funny.”

Maelo slapped his thigh and muttered a few disrespectful words beneath her breath. His grin only spread.

“How long do you think we have to have our fun?” Ascian queried, legs tensing as he readied to step into the clearing beneath the ladder that led into the treetops.

“Enough to enjoy it if you want to stop chit-chatting.”

A dark chuckle echoed in response to her words and then Ascian pushed himself up and into the path of the two nymphs. The conversation they’d been saving until they were far enough away from the others died before even leaving their mouths as they took in the two black hooded figures.

Maelo dropped her hood, flashing a charming grin and lifting a delicate hand to wave. “All of them?”

Ascian released a long breath as he nodded. “All of them.”

The nymph on the left dropped their shoulders, almost like they realised what was about to happen and knew they could do nothing to stop it. Whether that was from the look on their faces, or the fact they’d been waiting for them.

Maelo returned the relaxed stance by shifting that charming grin into a feral one, and curling her fingers down around a curved blade. Ascian applauded the nymph for at least accepting his fate like any Reaper would when greeting Death.

“I’ll take him,” his sister purred. The curved blade spun in her hand with each step, then blood splattered and Ascian moved quickly with a wide swing of his own scythe before the other nymph let out an alarming scream.

“Head to the back shelter and work your way forward. The others should be here by the time we meet at the ladder.” Maelo nodded at his command. “And don’t let any of them sound the alarm beforehand. They all die today.”

“You’re sure about this?” Maelo asked, her tone mimicking Ascian’s own thoughts when the Elders had first given the command.

“I have to be,” he muttered in response.

Maelo lifted two fingers to her brow and headed to the back of the ground shelters. Ascian gave her five minutes before he entered the first one.

Empty.

His steps to the next were quick and silent, the magic in his scythe singing for the souls within.

Two nymphs, one vitarce.

Only a soft breath left their lips as his blade sliced into their throats and removed their ability to scream. He took their souls next, sliding the scythe over the forest floor on his way to the next shelter. Two green ribbons of light flowed from it and into the foliage before Ascian lifted the blade from the dirt and cleaned it off. Each ground shelter was the same; three bodies within it. Sometimes two nymphs, one vitarce, and other times two vitarce, one nymph. Always green ribbons of light flowing behind him into the forest.

As he exited the last shelter, Ascian shifted his focus to above. There, running as quietly as they could along the bridges interconnecting every treehouse structure, were hundreds of Nymphs and Vitarce alike. They’d been alerted, somehow, but that got shoved to the back of Ascian’s mind because staring down at him were the same pair of eyes he’d recognised in the clearing. The same pair that he’d recognise anywhere. A pair he wouldn’t forget even in the lifetimes ahead of him. He couldn’t – wouldn’t – look away, not until she broke his stare when another body knocked into hers.

The muscles in Ascian’s jaw tightened and he let out a low whistle, one no human could hear, one that he could barely hear himself. A command to his guardian. A couple minutes later she went whizzing past as Maelo finally joined him at the ladder into the trees.

“Took you long enough,” Ascian muttered, starting his ascent. “They sounded the alarm somehow.”

“I ran into an old pal,” Maelo replied sarcastically and lifted her arm to show sliced fabric and skin. The wound wasn’t deep, and would disappear quickly enough with help from their healers.

Ascian grunted. “Super happy to see you, then.”

Maelo grinned with a renewed feral-ness. “Oh, she was, her beloved not so much.”

“Nobody wants to hear about your indecencies, Maelo,” came the lilted voice of Verena, easily closing the distance between them up the ladder. Ascian braced himself as he gripped onto each of their arms and heaved them up the last few rungs.

“It’s not my indecency if I didn’t know she had a beloved,” Maelo replied.

Ascian cut them both off before they could speak any more. “Save it for later. We have a mission to complete.”

“I could do this in my sleep.” Maelo slid her curved blades into her hands once more and Ascian watched her get to work, slicing throats and chests and abdomens until blood rained down to the forest floor beneath them. He turned his attention to Verena but she’d already moved in the opposite direction, long claw-like nails out and the whites of her eyes a bloodlust red.

Without another thought, Ascian took his own direction through what appeared to be the main building. He heard rather than saw the rest of his reapers arrive and divide to cover as much ground as possible, to ensure no one walked away from the camp.

He used his scythe as nothing more than an extension of his arms as he cut down any Nymph or Vitarce in his path. Some of those in the healers’ beds he needn’t even touch. The moment he killed the healer tending to them, their life forces were his to release to the forest.

He scanned the faces he came across, none of which he recognised. No Xylia or Kallias. A part of him wondered if he’d truly seen her, or whether his mind played tricks on him.

Ascian shook the thought away, pushing his focus back on the vitarce before him as energy surged for his chest. He spun his scythe and let his energy flow from him and followed the movement of the weapon, battling the vitarce’s energy and rebounding it back towards them. Their body stilled, feet quivering with the thoughts he encouraged. Run . Ascian swiped his scythe and removed their head before they could either fight it or follow through on it.

His movements repeated in a dance of death for hours. There were more people, more bodies than he’d initially realised there would be. Nymphs and Vitarce littered the floorboards to the point Ascian couldn’t avoid stepping on them to reach the opposite end of the room. It was the same predicament outside on the bridges that connected the houses.

Maelo and Verena bore enough respect that they found ways around stepping on the dead. Osiris, however, appeared to take great joy in walking all over them unnecessarily.

“Ascian!”

His attention drew away from the massive brute and towards Izel, blood dripping from the daggers she held at her sides. “Kallias was spotted basically dragging a nymph to the ground at the southernmost exit point.”

Ascian glanced southbound, tongue brushing over his top teeth. He slid his scythe back into its sheath on his back then tucked his hands in the pockets of his cloak. His gaze moved to Izel and the tiny pride hiding behind a begging wall of approval. He tore his gaze back south.

“Go. Collect them and take them back to the Golden Grotto. We’ll return with them to the Elders tomorrow.”

At Izel’s nod, Ascian moved in the opposite direction as them. Well, not all of them. Quiet footfalls followed behind him, footfalls that he didn’t acknowledge until they were both on the ground again with no prying ears to hear their words. He paused then, waiting to hear why Maelo followed him.

“You’ve seen her.”

It wasn’t a question. His sister knew him well enough that he couldn’t lie, either. How long could he have truly kept it hidden from her? She’d picked up on a change in him straight away, no matter how much he tried to act like it meant nothing to him. Like his world hadn’t been pulled into a tornado and pulverised into something unrecognisable.

“I have,” he finally replied. A quiet, soft tone that few ever heard him use. Even Maelo hadn’t heard it in years.

“Are you going to find her?”

Ascian turned his head to look at her, gaze hardening despite the growing numbness flooding his body. At the look, Maelo sighed and lifted her hands in a sign of surrender.

“I’ll make sure they don’t kill Kallias or Xylia.” She took a step back and dropped her hands. “Be careful, Az, if the Elders find out…”

“Worry about yourself, Maelo, and I’ll worry about me.”