When Axel finally sees Lawson surrounded protectively by her own miniature army, he has to remind himself of what Miles had said to him.
Don't do anything reckless. He repeats again and again like a mantra, because he had massively underestimated the urge to storm through the violent crowd and go after Lawson himself.
It's the smug look on her face. Like she already knows she's won. Because there are more bodies on the floor that Axel recognises than doesn't. And the realisation makes him more angry than sad, which is good for the Axel that is here right now, but terrible for the Axel in the future, the one who has to deal with all the sadness and misery, the grief and regret.
Axel knows how to carry death. He bares it on his shoulders, on his heart. Has gotten used to the weight of it. Has managed to surpass the point where it feels weird, and instead more normal. He doesn't know how to carry a whole war. If he should cradle it like something delicate. Something that might shatter (even though Axel knows that the 'something' is him) or if he should seize it carelessly, haphazardly because he doesn't care if it gets broken.
Axel knows how to carry his own death, sometimes struggles under the weight of Miles', but to carry a war's worth seems too much. Too heavy. It takes a strength Axel knows nothing about. A strength that Axel will have to gain and exercise everyday after.
Axel thinks they're going to lose. Maybe then he won't have to worry about carrying death, and instead joining it. It would be like meeting up with an old friend. But Axel told Miles he would come back to him. Perhaps not as the same Axel as before (Can you really come back from war as the same person as before?) but he'll be back. Regardless.
Axel doesn't think he's going to die, but he thinks they're going to lose. There's way too many of them now. There's no way we're going to be able to fight them all off. We need more people.
And just like a wave, they come rushing in.
••••••••
Miles was done sitting around doing nothing. The urge to do something kept tugging at his limbs, making it hard for him to sit still. So he paced and he walked, thinking that's what his mind wanted his body to do, but the action didn't lessen his unease.
He could hear the echoes from the battlefield, see the top of the mansion that Axel had spent 4 years locked away in. The war was happening right on Lawson's turf. An advantage or disadvantage? Miles couldn't tell.
He's grown to hate the mansion, and the short time he had spent there hadn't helped. He shivered as he remembered Elias - The Man Without The Mask. How he led Elias straight to the bar. How those innocent vampires paid for it. He remembered how upset Sydney was when Axel wanted to leave without helping Fraser's clan. What she had said.
"They're probably being locked up like animals right now."
Miles may never feel like he can truly make up for what he did. But freeing them is a start, right?
There was a war going on, so Miles wasn't surprised when no one saw him scurrying off. No one paid attention to him when he snuck into the mansion. The halls were empty when he crept into the dungeons. But he paused as he came across his first obstacle, the locked doors.
How stupid he was. He needed the keys.
Miles went back up the twisting staircase and outside, crouching down to search the first body he came across on the ground. No keys. But the third was the charm. Miles ran back to the dungeons with the keys in hand. He unlocked the door.
He unlocked their cages.
•••••••
It's all at once. A tidal wave. The mansion doors burst open and they all pour out.
YOU ARE READING
Infinite Miles
Teen Fiction"Because you Miles, are infinite." It was never supposed to go that way for Axel and Miles. And it was definitely not supposed to end like that too. But this is the story about what happens after the end. Follow Axel, Miles and Sydney through their...
