A Beast with a Smile {Book 1}

Chapter 30 (Scarlett): The Clear Winner

A humming from the black marbles of death seemed to match the tense aroma of the room. I didn't like the look on Archy's face. It resembled the same expression he had when he saw Ore back in the Devil's Den, but now he gave it to two cryo-pods and two steel crates.

"I like to believe that I am a fair man, so I'll give you a choice. Option one: I open up the crates and let you deal with your old toys. Option two: I open up those two cryo-pods and show you what I've been working on for the past four years," Atom offered, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrows.

Archy knew what was in those pods. The defeat in his sunken sockets told the whole story. He turned and in a blur he notched and fired a deadly pointed stick at Atom.

Clank, it cried as it fell hopelessly to the steel floor. Atom's mouth widened with joy as he pressed a button on the control pad.

The alarm rang again and hazard lights flashed as the doors to the pods opened, releasing a thick white fog into the room. Through it I could see faint red lights outlining the body of a human. The other was covered in the same lights outlining their hidden form in blue. One of the arms raised and in an instant hurricane winds filled the room, disintegrating the fog.

"That's not possible. How did you do this? You're a twisted devil, you know that?" Archy choked, backing away from the two figures made of smoke and in armor meant for the gods.

"How am I a devil for returning my children to the world of the living? If anything, I should be cherished for not going up to that little commune you worms call a home after what you did to my children.

Pyre was only twenty years old and Icarus was barely eighteen and you ripped my family apart! For what!? For a false sense of freedom?" he raged and punched the glass with a tight fist.

"I raised those girls since before they could walk. I got to watch them betray me, an act that I have forgiven, then I got to watch their skin be peeled off of their body, as their bones withered into ash, and as their final breath was a howl from the demons that clawed their way out of their mortal prisons."

His lips quivered as his body began to shiver. Archy looked even more defeated. He didn't even bother to notch another arrow and stood in the path of the two misty giants.

Pyre and Icarus must have sensed Atom's woes and began their attack on their old friend. Prye held out her hand and fire spun around in a vortex until it shaped into a fireball. She tossed it like a baseball player.

I didn't think that Archy would stay there and embrace the flames; I don't think anyone did. He stood in the fireball's path and let it hit his chest, igniting his shirt into an uncontrollable blaze. He fell to his knees, holding his chest and coughing from the black smoke of charred t-shirt.

"Archy! What are you doing? Fight them," Clark and I shouted down to him.

He looked up and shook his head, his face still full of dread and failure. Icarus shot a blast of air at the ground and expanded her golden wings. She was flying towards Archy, most likely for the killing blow, but I wasn't going to let that happen.

I jumped off of the railing and managed to grasp the edge of her steel feathers, pulling her down violently to the floor with me. She hissed when her body dented the floor after I made a forced crash landing.

She floated back to her feet and blasted me with a whirlwind of cold air. I stepped to the side to dodge it, but I wasn't quick enough. Where it touched, the skin pulled tightly like when I stick my head out the window on the highway.

The female scientist that Archy called Mrs. Hopper hid behind a desk next to where Icarus had landed. She was motioning with her eyes to look at something unnatural planted on the temple of both girls. A small square object blinked rapidly.