not about angels - solangelo au

Chapter 20

It had been about a month since the war began, and Reyna found out about Will. Hades had finally gotten himself together and helped with the war. 

From a strategical sense, making all the demons go fight, on an actual battlefield, was a great idea. From a personal sense, however, it was terrible. I just hoped that I never saw Will, and winced at every angel I killed.

My head began to pound as soon as Octavian's shrill voice began to call out orders before we shadow-traveled. I had some authority in this situation, but I hadn't taken advantage of it the first day we went to fight, and so Octavian assumed he had all the control. 

In retrospect, I had to wonder why they gave us knives that could kill both angels and demons, but in the moment, I was just thankful that I could stab Octavian in the midst of battle chaos if I wanted to. 

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After the sun went down, we called a temporary truce with the angels so everyone could heal and mourn their dead, the latter being mostly for the angels, considering we had only lost one or two people so far.

I wiped the sweat off my forehead, slipped my knife into it's sheath on my belt, and shadow-traveled to the park to see Will. I had to breathe a agh of relief when I saw him sitting at the bench, relatively uninjured. Throughout the entire day, the idea that he could be dead was a constant worry.

"Thank Hades," I said, sitting down beside him. "I'm so glad you're-"

"I knew it," said a triumphant voice behind us. "I knew  you were up to something suspicious."

I should have checked to make sure nobody was following me. I slowly spun around to face Octavian, struggling to keep the dread I felt off my face.

"Um, hi Octavian," I said, trying to think of an excuse.

"'Hi?'" he hissed. "Is that all you have to say for yourself? You've betrayed all of us!"

"Excuse me!" I snapped, standing up. "You're the one who started this whole war! If you had just followed Hades' orders and didn't send people to kill all those angels, we wouldn't have this problem!"

Octavian's face turned red. "This war isn't a problem. We're just weeding out the angels. They're weak and unnecessary and unwanted and they just get in the way!"

Will stands up and walks around the bench to stand in front of Octavian. "Without us, people like you would go crazy and kill everything! We're here for a reason-there needs to be balance between death and life."

"And I don't care," Octavian replied, his hair white as snow against his red face. 

"That doesn't matter," I reminded him. "Reyna and Hades are still your superiors; they make the decisions."

He shrugged. "Not if they're dead."

"What do you mean, 'not if they're dead?'" I asked.

"I mean, they wouldn't have authority if I killed them."

"You would kill your own people to get power?" I said, slightly surprised. I knew he was stupid and power-hungry, but I never thought he'd go this far. He really is insane, I thought. At least I can get him thrown in prison for treason, and nobody will believe him if he says anything about Will and I, it'll just sound crazy.

"Them," Octavian sneered. "Reyna and Hades don't know how to rule. They're too soft."

"They're better than you would ever be," Will snarled, his face inches from Octavian's.

"Like you've ever met them." Octavian leaned away from Will, looking vaguely intimidated.

"Reyna, yes," Will said. "Hades, no, but I'm sure anybody could do a better job than you, you stupid, cowardly, disloyal little-"

I knew what was going to happen even before it happened. Frozen with horror, I only had time to yell "Will, move!" before Octavian hit him straight in the heart with demon magic.

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Hahahahaha no I feel terrible. Remember, though, this is the nice author ending, so don't worry.