"Mya."

"Yes, Nix?" I glanced up from my perch on the roof of the apartment complex. Our city was as urban as they came and there was something about it I would never get used to. The way the name changed every time a new Electress was appointed, or how the special operations groups kept trying to keep a cut of the territory. The local werewolf pack had lost all control and now their main rivals were looking to expand their territory. And fairies were trying to cut in and sell drugs to teenagers. Dionysus was always sitting drunk in the same bar every Thursday at 11 o clock. 

A thousand stories told by a million people and all we had to show for it was a delayed supply delivery.

I squinted through the scope of my borrowed gun. Why they left me with the assault rifle – the only one in our squad with no distance coordination – I'll never know. Who cared what Zayden said about anyone being able to shoot once you could see through the scope; I didn't become second in command of this shindig by sitting at a distance.

"Watch your shoulders this time, sis." Phoenix continued through the headset. Secretly she was sitting up in command central, at the very top of the Revolution's main headquarters. We had to kill a fortune 500 CEO and his brother to secure all the assets we had. It didn't end very well, but at least we were all alive.

"Yeah, yeah, I promise." I muttered under my breath.

Her voice was hard. Phoenix Revenge was not one to be brushed off. A 'yeah yeah' had gotten better soldiers than I killed; but this time her tone was anything but murderous."For real, please just be careful – I can't bail you out this time, My – that flash bomb your old friend set off messed with my ability to move through the shadows. Dylan and Zay are having the same problem. May I remind you that our backup plans C-F are all reliant on the shadow travel thing?"

"You have Noma looking into this right?" I cringed and cracked my neck to one side. My bad.

All of it...was my bad.

"Of course. But in the meantime I'm not very comfortable having half my team incapacitated like this."

"Are you saying we're only useful to you for our powers?" I joked weakly but tried not to sound too threatening about it. It was mainly my fault the revolution got targeted in the first place. Old friends of mine had tendencies never to rest in peace.

"No, but it is definitely a setback –" She was tired, more tired than she would admit to the team and much more tired than she would admit to me. All certainties were up in the air. Manpower. Loyalty. Assets. Alliances are only alliances as long as you can keep all parties happy. " –especially with the covens looking for trouble."

"Okay the flash bang had nothing to do with the covens. I may make dangerous friends, but you woman, make dangerous enemies." I bit my tongue with a lopsided smile.

Nix sighed through the speaker. "Fair enough, but you really need to talk to Cadence before this happens again. This is our city, Mya. This place belongs rightfully to the children of the dark gods and we have no room for this sort of light sourced power taking over our shadows."

"I know. I know. It was an accident and there's nothing we can do about it now." My gaze wandered over the harbor where the sun was finally setting behind the water. The sea was calm as a single freight ship slipped just over the horizon. On foot Zayden and Dylan were prowling the area, ready with two jeeps on the sidelines for a quick escape. So far everything seemed calm – but everything seemed calm before, when some doucheface knocked me over the head and threw me into the harbor.

And the time before that, when my old best friend returned to earth and permeated the city with light to set me free from the grips of the revolution. For those minutes, as my comrades fell from the sky in flames too bright to see by, and I was faced with a decision that left me with an identity crisis the size of a god's ego. Man did it hurt. 

"She was my best friend, Nix. You gotta understand that. I grew up with her, would do anything for her – I still will if it comes down to it. Just the same way I would do anything for you."

"You're soft, Mya." Nix replied with a gentle laugh.

"Yeah?" I pulled out a pair of binoculars and scanned the sea in both directions, looking for any signs of an ambush – or the coven – or the other coven. Man, there are too many covens. One was vampires, and the others were mysterious closed mouthed magic users. We got our resident medic and 'finder of weird stuffs and information' from that coven. Noma, a child of Hekate and a person with wonderful taste in ice cream and snakes. "Well, uh, you're as stiff as that pole you and Dylan were swinging around last night."

There was a pause.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh please," I scoffed and put down the binoculars. "The entire rebellion knows about it, Nix. You two are by far the worse drunks in the revolution – but between you and me, I think he got you beat. You need to loosen up a bit, you should never be that stiff – especially around a pole –"

"How the fuck did you –"

"Check the company Instagram." I smirked and leaned my head down on my left hand. "And have a couple more drinks before you climb on the stage next time."

Her sigh of exasperation could have blown a blue whale. "Just keep an eye on the harbor, you Tart. We don't want you getting hurt again."

"Oh, is that affection I hear in your voice, Ms. Revenge? Could it be that you actually...care?"

"Look, I don't know what your kinks are, but if I can help it you aren't getting any asphyxiation on the clock anymore. Got it?"

"It's just a little drowning, Nix. Not everyone's afraid of water."

She didn't seem to hear that. "Eyes up front, Brava. Zayden's approaching the pier. Make sure everything goes smoothly this time. I don't need to lose a Matrix on a supply run."

"Roger that. I'll ping you back when we're all set here." I muted the com from my side and leaned over the scope of the gun again. The weapon was heavy and unnatural in my arms but at this point it was a necessary precaution. On one of our most recent supply runs, where it was just me and Zayden, the child of Eris, we had been ambushed by a coven (still not sure if it was magic users or vamps) and lost the supplies for that quarter. That left us low on weapons, intel, tech, and means for remote funding for almost three months. We couldn't let that happen again. Especially with warriors from the Academia of Chaos running around.

On top of that, it made me and Zayden the first recipients of the brand-new hospital ward at headquarters. The other Matrixes of the revolution (our fancy name for the top gun children of darkness) were never letting us live it down.

The children of the dark gods ran a covert revolution under the aid and supply of the main Counsel. The Counsel were the ones with the real power, at least that's what they were meant to think. Over the last couple years, Phoenix and I had begun establishing a framework for probably one of the largest territorial, "voluntary" take overs, known to the world.

In a world where gods exist, there is nothing but a few kids standing between the old branches of hierarchy and setting forth a new social order – of course with a bit of mange and bloodshed along the way – because to be honest, the revolution was a group of lunatics who couldn't help being who they were. I stand with them for their cause. As a child of the Underworld, living and breathing in the land over the deceased, I fight to establish some sort of misguided respect for me and people like me.

My sister, Phoenix Revenge, a daughter of Hades was the leader of the revolution and her right hand man, Dylan Umbra was a son of Alecto, a goddess of fear. Then there was Zayden Atara, my right wing in more ways than one. He had the wings of a fallen angel; never too soon might they be torn from his spine. Back at headquarters, standing guard to everything we hold valuable was Nokoma Crane, a daughter of Hekate most fluent in dark magic.

And then of course there's me, Mya Brava. I think this is the fourth or fifth time using this name. Crazy thing about me is I always come back, alive and new and just a bit different from the time before. Come back from what? You may ask? 

Death. Death is one of the single most versatile concepts of all time, I've been reborn more times than I've lived. And I lived more times than you can in a single lifetime.

If I sound overdramatic, that's because I am.

Sometimes the life I tried to leave behind follows me. Sometimes, nothing really changes but the people I see day to day, and that is the greatest travesty of them all.

Before joining the revolution, I was a demigod like anyone else. Well not like anyone else. You're not like everyone else if you're a demigod. You inherit the best and worst qualities of your immortal parent – which is a mess sometimes, but that never really hurt me too much. If anything, my friends treated me as an uber goth, which was fine because I was pale and happened to wear a lot of black anyway – so it fit.

And speaking of them. My friends were my family. They always were and always will be. It's a rough thing...scoping out your family that is. When blood doesn't bind you, those people who seem like they'll be by your side forever slowly morph and change. One moment I'm sharing mac n cheese with a daughter of Iris at the interdimensional Academy for fallen heroes – and the next I'm drinking hard orange juice at a bar with a bunch of dark demigods who just want to be accepted.

Yeah...life is confusing.

I sleep in a room at headquarters because I never found it in myself to get my own place when I came to this city. My appearance was paired with static and teeth that could tear my flesh from my bones. And a set of those teeth rose and fell in my own mouth on occasion. Never found the need to tell Phoenix that every once in a while I had an irritable urge to do some very vampirey things like drink blood and knock on peoples doors at night just for the fun of cursing them. I wasn't born like that, but things happen when you run into bad luck and boy have I run into my unfair share of that.

I sat back in my chair momentarily to push my hair away from face. The night was warmer than usual. Peak of summer sort of thing. It was more humid than was to my taste and it made dressing difficult. I was a cold weather demigod for sure. I was the cold rain, dusty motes, undisturbed bones of the family. Phoenix was the fire and brimstone side of the family, though we shared the fair complexion of anyone born of the world of the dead.

Well at least we usually do. Since the whole thing with Cadence, she was sporting a fresh sun burn type coloration. Trust me when I say the pinkness to her skin didn't go well with her red lipstick red hair sociopath vibe.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed movement. It was down below near the front door of the harbor office building. I squinted through the scope to get a better view. It didn't really help because I'm about as good at looking through scopes as I am through binoculars. This whole cover fire sniper thing was not my area of expertise – clearly. 

I sighed and lowered the weapon before switching my communicator back on. "Zay? What's the lowdown – down there?"

"Looks like everything is coming in on schedule." He paused and glanced around before continuing. "I don't like the way this feels."

"You just don't like things being orderly," I bit back and leaned down to squint through the scope again. Zayden stood ridged as a board at the edge of the pier, gazing out into the black sea with eyes darker than the depths. The wind was russeling his dark hair and it seemed to be occupying his attention more than the mission was. He was insistently combing the locks from his eyes with a furiousity that matched his angsty attitude. Served him right. "Having problems down there Atara?"

"This fucking wind," he snapped and flung his hood over his head. "Gods, who pissed them off today?"

"Maybe you should cut your hair then." I smirked, not that he could see it, and waved down at him. He lifted his arm in my general direction and made what I assumed was a loving gesture of comradery.

"Fuck you, Brava."

"Oh you'd like that wouldn't you?" I rolled my eyes and focused the magnification over to the little tug boat about to dock. "Remember, ID, boarding papers, and inventory sheet are to be presented first. If they offer you a drink you have to take it, even if its poisoned. It's a sign of good will."

"But do I have to drink it?"

"Yes!"

"Well then I'm counting on you and Umbra to get me out of there."

I grunted and narrowed my eyes. Something didn't feel right, not that things typically felt okay running with the revolution. We made a lot of dangerous enemies along the way to the top, among them being the children of the light. The mainstream demipeople of interest who typically dictated this world's order. So far they played by the rules since they were supposed to be the good guys, but something about the appearance of my old classmate and best friend, Cadence, put me on edge. She was a child of a minor god more powerful than most -- hand that over from her training and exposure to Chaos at the Academy. She was more human than any human on this planet.

She didn't have an alliance as the Earth stood currently. She existed just to exist, doing what she felt right.

Even if what was right in her eyes wasn't the same as what was right for us.

And when she talked, people tend to listen. It wasn't just a talent; it was a way out. A guarantee she'll live to see the next day.

Probably why we got along so well in the beginning.

The boat docked on the side of the pier and Zayden pulled a handful of papers from the manila envelope he had in his jacket. Our deliveries were shipped from the Revolution's main headquarters down in the Isles. They ran our intel back and forth to every corner of the rebellion's stronghold. They liked to think that we couldn't run without them – and as it stood, they were right.

"Careful in there, Zayden." I murmured as he put his first step down on the plank.

Across the harbor back by the faculty building, Dylan waited with the getaway vehicles. I could see his head poking out of the driver side window. There was crackle in my headset as I heard the manual takeover being switched on. Phoenix's voice rang through the headset with a new edge on it. "Mya, I'm deploying Noma to help you guys."

"Noma?" I echoed distantly. Dylan's head perked up an inch, and I saw Zayden's shoulders square up an inch. They were both hearing the message too. Her voice was shaky, cracking like porcelain on the noonday pavement. "She doesn't usually come out onto the field like this. What if the coven – "

"It doesn't matter," she cut me off abruptly. "There's a large energy signature coming in from that ship. Hot. Radioactive in nature. Zayden, just back out of this now. Please, just get out."

Zayden stopped midstep but otherwise didn't halt his approach. He knew just as good as the rest of us that we needed what was on that ship. We couldn't stop now. We couldn't continue running on what we had for another month. Yet at the same time...

"Zayden Atara, please move now!" Phoenix growled.

...she never ordered retreat.

She never sent Noma out as a field soldier.

She never said please.

I switched to the communal frequency. "Zay, Dylan get out of there."

"Mya, I'm on my way. Cover the guys, I got this but I need some time." Noma said hurriedly, slightly out of breathe as if she were running. In the background, an engine revved to life. Even over the sound I recognized the familiar purr of Dylan's motorcycle.

Down below, Zayden was still frozen in his tracks. I could tell he had a lot of questions, but he was in too close vocal range of the ship.

"Zay! Move! Get out of there. We've been betrayed! It's rigged to blow. Arghhh –"

I winced at the sound of my sister's yell. "Don't try and shadow travel." I whispered. "You can't force it to happen under these conditions." I growled and checked my safety before slinging the gun over my shoulder by the strap. The heavy metal dug into my back, adding a good 15 pounds to my total body mass. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

Zayden seemed to be moving in slow motion as he backed away from the ship.

"I'm almost there!" Noma yelled.

Dylan was start trying to start the car but the engine wasn't igniting. "Guys, we have a problem."

I closed my eyes and breathed in deep.

"You all need to get out of there." It sounded like there were tears in her screams. There was a loud slam in the background like a fist against the consoles. "I can't lose you all like this."

"How bad is it, Nix?" I murmured. What was she seeing that we couldn't? What was she – 

When I opened my eyes the world was alive with shadows. I allowed my body to slowly be shredded to atoms to become one with a matter Earth scientists would kill to prove existed. I was the only one left who could still control the dark to my whim. Moving through the subliminal plane of dark matter was a gift to those born of the shadows. A cry for power. And an ability to flee and plot another day.

I was the only one of us left who could still do it.

Nix screamed unintelligibly and hit something else.

"Phoenix," I demanded just as my mouth dissolved into nothingness. "How bad – "

And then the world was gone, her voice the only thing to exist in the cover of black nothing.

Enough to blow our city.

Kill our people.

And pave the ground with our bones.

Enough to make the world forget, the children of the dark gods.