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“Is something happening?” Palan asked and nudged Raea. He noticed the purple tint in her eyes. “Your eyes are turning into your angry eyes.”
Raea’s brow furrowed as her head turned towards Palan instead of focusing on Cherri. “I have angry eyes?” she asked. Her hand wiped at the corner of her eyes as she blinked.
“They turn purple,” Palan said and nodded.
“Like yours?” Raea asked. The ring of purple in her eyes blurred and faded as she continued to speak. “Your eyes turned purple when you pulled everyone towards the center in the prison. I forgot to mention it because you said you had a contract with Abaddon. Then I forgot about it until now.”
Palan shrugged. “Are you going to explode?” he asked.
Raea snorted and smacked his shoulder. “As if,” she said and rolled her eyes. “I have a lot of self-control.” She bit her lip as they rounded a corner, ascending a sloped tunnel. “I just got a little peeved at what Cherri said.” Her head lowered. “Sely isn’t suffering in hell, is she?”
Palan crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back, lifting his feet off the ground. His tails continued to propel him forwards. “I’m not going to comment because you’ll probably explode, and I don’t want to deal with that,” he said.
Raea stamped her foot. “Why do you say explode? That’s not a normal action angels do!” she said. “How about saying, ‘You’ll probably get angry?’ Or ‘I don’t want to irritate you?’ Why are you blaming me for”—she air-quoted—“exploding?”
Palan confirmed his suspicions. Raea was definitely on the cusp of creating giant balls of fire. Maybe he should tell her to calm down. His brow furrowed. The last time he told her to calm down and be rational, she tried to kill him. Raea’s snort interrupted his train of thought. “Now what are you thinking of?” she asked as her wings pressed against her body. “Not going to answer my last question?”
Palan scratched his head. Was it worth it to start a fight with Raea? It wasn’t even a matter of his pride anymore. He wasn’t scared of her, but the whole process of arguing, then trying to kill each other, then making up and venting frustrations in other ways was tiring. It wasn’t the time for infighting— especially since he had to confirm Solra’s death. Before Raea could say anything, Palan said, “I don’t think Selena’s suffering.”
Raea blinked and furrowed her brow. She forgot what she was going to say. “Why not?” she asked and pursed her lips.
“You’re asking why she isn’t suffering?” Palan asked and raised an eyebrow. “Do you want her to?”
“Well, no,” Raea said. She stepped over a sleeping dwarf and frowned at the sight. To the right of the path, there was another passage leading into a room with hundreds of halflings. The sounds of explosions and collisions rang through the air. She directed her voice towards Cherri and asked, “What room is that?”
The young centaur’s ear twitched as she turned around. “That’s the training room,” she said. “The benefactor requires us to practice using his inventions every day. I’m really good with the hand cannon.” Her chest puffed up as her back straightened. “Want to see?”
“Not interested,” Palan said. Cherri’s face fell. “Keep walking.”
“I was interested,” Justitia muttered and pouted as she turned away from the training room. As someone who was always on the opposite end of Pyre’s inventions, she really wanted to know how they worked, so one day, she could shoot him with one. Well, there’d always be more chances in the future to get her revenge.
A wingtip touched the top of her head. Cory, still perched on Cherri, said, “Don’t worry. They’re boring—impossible to hold.” She nodded and retracted her wing. “It’s much more fun to shoot lightning at people.”
Justitia’s brow furrowed. “How’d you know I could shoot lightning?” she asked.
Cory blinked. “I smelled it,” she said. “Obviously.” She pointed at her nose. “This beautiful organ isn’t just for looks, you know?”
“You can smell sins and virtues?” Palan asked and raised an eyebrow. Raea’s brow furrowed. She wanted to continue questioning Palan about Selena, but she was also curious about Cory.
“No, silly,” Cory said and rolled her eyes. “I can smell the lightning inside her body. She smells crispy, but not as crispy as the harbinger. The harbinger smells like a barbeque.” She inhaled through her nose and exhaled while smiling.
Raea raised her arm and sniffed herself. “Do I?” she asked Palan, her eyebrows touching.
“A bit,” Palan said and nodded. “It’s mostly on your wings.”
“Huh.” Raea preened herself with her hands before sniffing her fingers. “I don’t smell it.”
“What do I smell like?” Cherri asked. She continued to walk forward as her torso twisted around to face the harpy on her back.
“Stupid,” Cory said and nodded. “You smell stupid.” Cherri snorted and stuck her tongue out at Cory. A second later, she yelped as she walked into a wall because she wasn’t watching where she was going. Cory clutched her belly with her wings and laughed. She fell off the centaur’s back and rolled around on the ground as Cherri stamped her feet and fixed her hair. Cory’s feet kicked the ground repeatedly as tears streamed down her eyes. “You’re even worse than that blockhead!”
Cherri cleared her throat as she stopped in front of a fork with three paths. She said with a red face, staring at the ground, “We’re almost there.” Her gaze landed on Palan. “Can I enter the tribal ground first? Then you can force yourself in after. I’m really not allowed to bring guests into the land—I might even be excommunicated.” She bit her lower lip as her weight shifted from one side to the other. “It’s a holy ground. And you’re not centaurs.”
Palan placed his feet on the ground. His tails rose into the air and wrapped around Cherri, suspending her above his head. “A hostage is always nice,” he said, ignoring the centaur’s shouts and squeals.
“Let me down!”
“You know the remaining way?” Cory asked and tilted her head.
“Let me down this instant!”
“I can smell them,” Palan said as he stopped in front of a dark passage. “And hear them.”
“Please?”
Raea pursed her lips. “I could hear them, but I couldn’t pinpoint the passage the noise was coming from,” she said.
Justitia shrugged. “I can’t hear them at all,” she said. She never wanted to contract with a demon before. But after witnessing the disparity between herself and Raea, she was reconsidering her decision.
“You’re going the wrong way!”
The group ignored the aggrieved centaur and followed Palan into the darkness.