Secrets And Sins Part 3: Happy ever after

Chapter 53

***Sorry for the delay guys, I've been sick and, to be honest, I've been finding this part of the story quite complex to put together. Anyways, I hope you enjoy.***

~Beatrice~

Beatrice had never seen such a vast number of demons.

Bael's army spread as far as the eye could see, the landscape crawling with red and black. Tens of thousands of twisting lines of smoke from the numerous fires cooking God knows what, wound their way into the strangely cloudless, sepia sky. Three suns hung on the horizon casting the plains in harsh yellow light. It was enough to put a strain on her eyes, but she ignored the ache.

Though the fact that she was now in another world wasn't lost on her, Beatrice focused entirely on following the demon lord as he led them towards the command tent. She was consumed with her need to find Ava and that need was only more intense now they were in the same realm.

"I got this a few days ago." Bael said as they walked into the tent, waving a dismissal at the handful of soldiers in there.

A fancy cursive letter lay in the middle of the table. Mary picked it up, scanning it grim-faced before handing it to Beatrice.

We have your Queen. Bend the knee and disband the alliance, we are the masters of this realm.

"Abducting my Queen is a declaration of war." Bael growled, fury barely contained. "The demons will not stand for this."

"They took Ava as well." Mary replied as Beatrice continued staring down at the note. There had to be a reason why the angels had taken both women in such quick succession.

"Then we must fight together. No one has ever taken the Golden One's Citadel before; they are incredibly well defended." Bael pushed the note to the edge of the table that Beatrice now realized was an enormous map. "This is the boundary, a week's march from here." He traced a fingertip along a black line on the far northern corner of the map. "Of the two dozen scouts I have sent, only one returned. Apparently, Reya's tarask army was tasked with guarding the border. Their numbers are huge. Beyond that," he moved his hand towards a dotted blue line within the black one, "they have some sort of barrier of power shielding the inner walls. My plan is to throw everything we have at this section here to break through both. Our sheer numbers will overwhelm their defenses while the cliff face to the right will keep the tarasks from flanking us..."

When Bael had finished there was a sort of stunned silence in the room, the insurmountable challenge that lay ahead sinking in. What the demon lord had proposed would lead to thousands dying horribly, cannon fodder to the tarask line, but even worse they had no idea just what challenges the wall of power would pose. It wouldn't matter having the cliffs to their back if they couldn't breach that shield...

The tarasks would pick them off one at a time.

Fuck.

"We can't do this, it's certain death." Mary spoke first with an appalled look on her face.

"There is honor in a death fighting for one's mate." Bael challenged.

"Fuck that. I want all the time in the world with Lilith, in this life, not to die trying to fight somebody else's war." Mary stared him down, squaring her shoulders. "I want to live, for her."

Live for her.

"This is her war." Bael's tone darkened dangerously. "We are her people."