The Monster MASH

by Angie Fox

  Of course I knew not to get too attached to the beauty of the flame. By morning, it would be as dead and lifeless as the dirt under my feet.

  Imps screeched and chattered out in the desert. Maybe one would eat me and put me out of my misery. As I reached the turnoff for the minefield, a shadowy figure stepped out from among the twisted debris. My heart skipped a beat when I realized who it was.

  “Galen.” I didn’t know what else to say.

  We each stood alone for a moment, cloaked by the night. I was so scared to lose what we had. I knew without words that he felt the same. There was nothing as terrible as being torn from the one who made you whole, the one who made you feel.

  He’d been alone for so long.

  So had I.

  “Petra.” He closed the distance between us. “I didn’t want to surprise you.”

  I leaned against him, enjoying the simple act of letting him hold me. “What were you doing in the dark?”

  “Looking for you.”

  “Are you still leaving?”

  His chin dipped and he nodded, strong and accepting in the light of the low luminous moon. A part of me broke when I saw he’d embraced his fate. He was willing to go it alone, willing to be abandoned again, to accept this final battle as he had all the countless ones before.

  I drew back, my fingers tracing the outline of his face. “I’m sorry.”

  For running, for struggling, for not being able to accept what he had to do.

  For not being able to live up to my part.

  He caught my hand and held it. “You don’t need to be sorry.” He scanned the darkness behind me as hellhound barks echoed up the path. “Kill your lamp.”

  I didn’t understand, but I did it. And when I’d blown out the light, he led me farther into the darkness.

  “Wait,” I said. “The camp is over here.”

  Galen glanced back toward the minefield. “Not that way.”

  “Why?” I didn’t know what he was getting at.

  “Come with me,” he said, a note of urgency in his voice.

  I went with him. Truth be told, I’d follow him anywhere.

  He was going to stop this insane act of the gods. He was going to bring hope back to countless mortals who didn’t even know they were about to lose everything.

  He was going to die.

  I walked with him. I’d stay by his side this time. I wouldn’t run and make him face it alone.

  He’d known about the Mountain of Flames before I’d ever met him. He’d carried the burden. Now I would at least try to share it with him.

  We traveled the path until we came to an outcropping of rocks. It took me a moment to realize where we were.

  Stones rose from the base of the desert, washed black by the night. Some were large, with nooks and crannies big enough to be considered small caves. Others squatted like giant bald eggs.

  “So this is the rocks,” I said.

  Galen surveyed the area. “You told me about this place.”

  “You’re assuming a lot,” I joked. This was the make-out spot.

  “I am going off to war.” He grinned as my stomach sank.

  This might be the last time I saw him. The last time to kiss him and hold him. My last chance to tell him how I felt.

  I’d gotten so good at blocking out emotion. Before I met Galen, I’d existed on humor and light companionship, enough to get by. I’d been starving, living on scraps.

  There were no uncomfortable questions. No commitment. Rodger never pushed me. I’d never let anyone else close. No one had noticed or tried. The world was content to pass me by.

  But Galen had seen me. He’d roused me.

  Galen had broken through. He’d drawn me out slowly, like a neglected animal he needed to tame. He’d played the waiting game, letting me come to him.

  He’d challenged me, protected me. He’d stirred up the kind of hope and joy and soul-deep connection that I’d never let myself think was possible. It was too raw, too exposing.

  And now this was it. The end.

  I looked up at him, the moonlight playing off his strong features. “I love you,” I said, and I meant it with all my heart.

  He looked at me with such tenderness, it stole my breath away. “I love you, too.” He cupped the back of my head and kissed me, and I was lost.

  His kiss was raw, almost pleading. I answered, desperate for his touch, for him.

  He loved me. Oh my god, this man loved me.

  I relished the way he held me, the way his thumbs stroked the edges of my cheeks.

  No one had affected me the way Galen had. He was light. He was hope.

  This demigod, this immortal soldier, he was everything.

  Kissing him was pure pleasure. And pain. I wanted to cling to it. To live in it. To treasure it and hold it for as long as I could.

  He broke away. “I’ve been called to the front,” he said simply. “I should have already left, except…”

  He’d waited for me.

  His fingers glided up my neck to cup my jaw. “I promised I wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye.”

  I kissed him again and again. I let him know he was loved.

  He was hurting. He was in pain. This sacrifice wasn’t any easier for him than it was for me. It was impossible and horrible, and it was coming sooner than either of us ever imagined.

  The distant barks of hellhounds echoed off the rocks. “They’re looking for me.”

  The blunt truth of it slammed into me. This soldier, this commander, had broken the rules for me. He’d lingered when he should have left. He’d come to me. He’d found me.

  He’d kept his promise.

  That was why we’d hidden my light, why he’d led me in the opposite direction of camp.

  I knew I needed to let him go, but I couldn’t. Not yet.

  I’d never experienced anyone like Galen. This man who believed in the impossible and was willing to die for it.

  I touched my fingers over the scars on his chest, feeling them through his thin shirt, lingering on the jagged slice above his heart where the dagger had torn through skin and muscle. I remembered how overwhelmed I’d been when I’d held his soul in my hands, when I’d seen his true strength and beauty for the first time.

  I’d saved his life that day, only to lose him now.

  He touched his cheek to mine, and I felt the rough scrape of skin. “I love you, Petra.”

  My heart swelled. “I’ll always love you, Galen.”

  The world might be crashing down around us, but for this moment, we held each other safe.

  We were cherished.

  We were loved.

  Deep inside, an aching part of me eased.

  He touched his forehead to mine. “I have to go now.”

  I closed my eyes. Hadn’t I known this moment would come eventually? I wasn’t ready. I’d never be. We stood for a moment as the cool breeze from the desert whistled between the rocks.

  My heart wrenched as he drew back. He looked at me with such utter desolation that I wanted to hide away. My chest tightened. I wanted to run, to protect myself and him.

  But I didn’t this time. I allowed myself to see him, to feel him, even as it tore me apart.

  The cold breeze iced our sweat-slicked skin. Once again, I was empty and alone.

  He relit the lantern. I already felt hollow without him, but I wouldn’t push him anymore. We’d already given each other everything we had.

  And so he took my hand, and together we walked back to camp.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Galen held Father McArio’s lantern out in front of us as we wound our way through the minefield. The star cast a red flickering glow over the rocky path.

  Hulking metal skeletons blocked the moonlight in many places, and I could hear scurrying from some of the banged-up heaps.

  The wind picked up, whistling through the debris. It bit at my skin and I slowed, drawing nearer to Galen. “This is where we saw the giant scorpions,” I said as we passed the m
angled ruin that had been a jeep. It seemed like a long time ago. Everything had changed since then.

  “I don’t think you need to worry about them anymore.” He drew an arm around me, taking away the chill as he scanned the darkness. “The gods are disturbingly practical,” he added pointedly. “Now that the prophecies have come to be, there’s no reason to kill you anymore.”

  I almost didn’t care.

  “It seems we’ve solved everything,” I said, other than the fact that the man I loved was going to die.

  I hated the gods and their prophecies and the way they ruined lives without as much as a thought. Every single stinking one of them deserved a firsthand look at Hades.

  We eased past the Hickey Horns bus. The old VW rattled with faint clicks and gloppy footsteps.

  I didn’t want to go back. I’d rather wander through a junkyard as long as I was with him.

  Put that on a Hallmark card.

  I looked up at his profile in the moonlight. This would be my last time with Galen. I would always remember the feel of him next to me, his hand in mine.

  As if he could read my thoughts, he stopped and stood over me. The lantern cast harsh shadows over his face. “It’s out of our hands now.”

  He kissed me once, twice. I luxuriated in the feel of him, so warm against me. Losing him would be like cutting away a part of myself.

  I only wanted one more day, one more hour. One more minute back at the rocks.

  “It’s time,” he said, pulling away.

  I nodded.

  We pressed on; we kept moving. We sacrificed because it was who we were. And a part of me died when we reached the edge of the minefield and saw the lights from camp.

  Galen stiffened, his body instantly at the ready.

  “What?” I asked. Then I heard it, too, the faint ring of alarms.

  My breath caught. “They’ve sounded the alert.”

  I began to run. The shrill clanging had gone off only once before, and that was right before the bombing that killed Charlie. Kosta would only order a high alert in cases of immediate emergency or attack.

  My heart beat wildly as we zigzagged through the cemetery, toward the skeletons of long-dead funeral pyres. It was the shortest route. The bells grew louder the closer we got. My colleagues scrambled over the camp like one of the gods had kicked over their anthill.

  “Jeffe!” I called, tasting dirt as I half slid, half fell down the rise that separated the burning yard from camp. “What’s going on?”

  He bounded toward me. “Prisoner escape,” he said, his mane flying out behind him, his tail sticking straight up. “Level one emergency!”

  “What prisoner?” I was having trouble hearing over the racket. “Thaïs?” Please let it be Thaïs. He was a fundamentalist nutball, but he wouldn’t endanger the camp.

  “No, no, no.” Jeffe shook his head. “The patient. Dagr. God of hope and fertility.”

  Great. Our high-profile babysitting case. He must have been more dangerous than I realized. “How did it happen?”

  Jeffe’s eyes were wide. “Kosta sent his guards looking for you. They were only gone a minute, but the son of a god was fast.”

  Shock slapped against adrenaline, muddling my brain. “Kosta sent guards after me?” I wasn’t on call. Even if I had been, it didn’t make any sense. I was a mortal. Disposable. I could fall headlong into the tar swamp, and nobody but my friends would notice.

  Jeffe wrinkled his nose. “Not you.” He pointed behind me. “You.”

  Galen. I turned and was shocked to see only darkness.

  Jeffe snarled, baring his teeth. “I see you lurking in the shadows. You may be good at sneaking, but you cannot fool a guard sphinx. Well, maybe once. But not twice!”

  Galen stepped out from the shadows of a spent funeral bier, his face hard. He wore a stillness about him, a distinct aura of danger.

  Galen the man had already morphed into Galen the soldier.

  He navigated the rise with a warrior’s grace and approached the sphinx, his steps measured. “At least allow me to turn myself in,” he said.

  Jeffe shook out his mane and pawed at the ground. “That I can do. But no more funny business.”

  Galen stood at my side, his body pressed against mine. “I told you I wouldn’t leave you.”

  “Without saying goodbye,” I finished, every word tearing at me.

  He lowered his mouth for a bittersweet kiss. I savored it, and him.

  “Ack. Please,” Jeffe said. “I don’t need a show.” He nudged our legs with his shoulder. “Now come with me. Kosta is having fits.”

  We walked hand in hand through camp, ready to face the firing squad.

  MPs rushed past in squads of three, going hutch-to-hutch, searching for Dagr, the god who had most likely fled to the front.

  Dagr had wanted war. He’d wanted glory. Frankly, I hoped he made it. Let him battle like ten gods, be a hero. Let him try to even the score for the rest of us.

  But I knew that was futile. There were just too many to fight.

  A troop truck carrying a detail of red-robed imperial guards sped into camp right as we reached Colonel Kosta’s office. They began piling out as the brakes creaked to a stop.

  I craned my neck to watch them fan out in groups of two. “They’re going to tear this camp apart.” I could see it in their eyes.

  “I’ve heard stories about Dellingr,” Galen said. “He has no sanity, no reason where his son is concerned.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of.” I gritted my teeth and followed Galen into Kosta’s outer office.

  Shirley sat at her desk with her head in her hands as two sprites clanged a series of thick bells in front of the PA system.

  I touched her shoulder and she jumped a foot.

  “Petra.” She let out a whoosh of air. The poor woman was frazzled from her twin ponytails down to her combat boots. She pressed her mouth closed when she saw Galen with me. “Go on in.”

  I wasn’t sure if she was only talking to Galen or if it included me, but I pushed into the office behind him anyway. I wanted to know where he was headed, and when.

  The door closed behind us with a whomp, and the level of the incessant clanging grew fainter.

  Kosta glared at us from behind his desk, his ears red. “It’s about damned time!” He slammed his hands against the metal and stood. “Do you know what you helped cause here? An incident, that’s what.” He strode around the desk until he stood eye to eye with Galen. “Dagr’s daddy’s gonna chew my hide, and when he gets done with me, you’re next.”

  Galen stood at attention. “I’m aware I didn’t report as requested.”

  “Didn’t report?” Kosta reared back. “Didn’t report?” He leaned into Galen until their noses almost touched. “You’re AWOL, soldier.”

  “He was with me,” I said quickly. “Helping me.”

  Kosta leveled a glare in my direction. “Shut it.”

  He stepped back from Galen as if he couldn’t bear to breathe the same air for one second longer. “You screwed up, Commander. And I just got your punishment straight from the top.”

  Kosta shot me a glance as he made his way over to his desk. It was as if he was daring me to try to stop this.

  I knew better. Jumping in would only hurt Galen.

  So I waited, stomach twisting, hands at my sides, helpless once more against the wrath of the gods.

  Kosta snatched up a sheet of parchment from his desk. I knew that golden glow and the way the red script stood out against the page. It was directly from headquarters. He held the missive out in front of him. He glanced up, and I almost caught a glint of sympathy. Or maybe I imagined it.

  Kosta tightened his fingers on the page until it crackled, and read in a clipped, rusty tone that brooked no argument.

  Galen of Delphi

  Rank: Lokhagos

  Decorated unit commander and head of the Green Hawk Special Forces

  Is to join his unit immediately at Grid N1738.5.

  I could
n’t help it. I had to ask. “Is that by the Mountain of Flames?”

  Kosta gave me an almost pitying look. “Kid, that’s inside it.”

  He looked almost weary as he returned to the dispatch.

  As punishment for his vile act of disobedience, Galen of Delphi will be stripped of his immortal status. He will lose all rights as a demigod and be forced to live out the remainder of his life as a mortal.

  I turned to Galen. He was visibly shaken. It was the first time I’d ever seen him knocked off his game.

  Kosta did his best to ignore us as he cleared his throat.

  Signed, Huitzilopochtli, god of war and the sun

  Co-signed, Pele, goddess of fire, lightning, dance, volcanoes, and violence

  “This is a death sentence,” I protested.

  “Yes,” Galen said, his expression unreadable.

  “Don’t tell me you’re accepting this.” He’d served those gods for more than five hundred years, fighting for them, killing for them. He’d been viciously wounded time and time again, gone back without question—and this was how they treated him?

  Kosta dropped the golden parchment on his desk. “None of us would choose this,” he said, “but orders are orders.”

  “I broke the rules,” Galen said, his jaw tightening with the emotion of it. “I was the perfect soldier for five hundred twenty-three years. And now I’m not.” He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “And I don’t regret one second of it.”

  My heart swelled with his admission; at the same time, it threatened to break. “What they’re doing to you is wrong.”

  He gave me a small smile. “I can still fight.”

  As a mortal. At the mouth of Hades. Against an overwhelming immortal army.

  Kosta opened the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a squat jar with a round gold lid. It was filled with some kind of blue liquid.

  A shiver ran down my spine. “What is that?”

  “My punishment,” Galen responded, his voice tight.

  “Heaven have mercy,” I murmured as the bravest soldier I’d ever known stepped forward to accept the judgment of the gods.

  Kosta placed the jar in Galen’s hands and stepped back two paces.