Read Abyss (Songs of Megiddo) for Free Online Page B

bit of a ...‘personnel reshuffle’. There’re some big changes on the way, and we’re trying to optimise placements ahead of that. Speaking of which: as it turns out, the good work you two have been doing has been noticed.” Dio was concerned. When men of few words started speaking excessively, they generally weren’t about to say anything good.
    “You’re being reassigned.” Smoke snapped, seeming bored.
    “Yes.” Wright cast a doubtful glance in her direction, to which she simply rolled her eyes. “Two vacancies have been...created. First: there are several minor details to briefly touch on pertaining to your newly upgraded levels of clearance. Subsequently, operative Smoke will accompany you to your new home.”
    “Where?” Yvonne asked.
    “Palatine Hill.” Smoke elaborated coldly.

III – Certifiable Migrator
    ~ Kayla ~
    23/11/2023
    I gues s I should probably explain why Meg was walking me down the aisle. See...Naithe and I – in part because of my lack of family or close, in-country friends – had decided that instead of fighting the situation and trying to be ‘traditional’ regardless, we’d embrace it...and just change bits and pieces as we saw fit. This was one such change. More to the point, it was one of my favourite changes. I’d even go so far as to say that I would’ve wanted it that way regardless of alternative options. After all, I’d never really loved the idea of being ‘given away’. But having Meg there with me, just being my best friend, all the way to the final moment? I liked that just fine.
    As Meg and I made our way along the path to the pavili on, my eyes sought out Naithe’s. Not for reassurance, really, so much as to verify that he’d either been freaking out too, or holding it together better than I had. Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure which of the two things I wanted to see. Hell, in retrospect, I’m not even sure which I did see. As I’d expected, he seemed to be quietly edging around the perimeter of a panic attack, but – apart from that – it was difficult to tell much of anything. He was twitchy, sure, and showing plenty of physical signs of nerves...but his facial expression was inscrutable. Ultimately, he seemed to be handling things about as well as he had been since the day started.
    At least he isn’t getting worse?
    Yeah...but, then again, ‘worse’ would have required either some kind of outburst or brea kdown. So, saying ‘at least he isn’t getting worse’ was sort of like saying ‘at least we haven’t stepped on a mine in this mine-field that we’ve only walked through half of’. I casually wondered if Meg had brought her Valium. If anyone had ever needed a downer, Naithe needed one then. And, like I said: physically, it showed.
    It showed in the way he shifted his weight awkwardly from one foot to the other. It showed in the way that he kept looking around, adjusting the knot of the tie that was claustrophobically nestled up and into the bottom of his throat. The fidgeting, too: he seemed unsure of what to do with his hands. On the tie thing, though: I’d known that that it would piss him off: It was that fucking top button. For a second – if it was even that long – I was irritated that it was irritating him. Mostly because...y’know...I’d spent the last twenty minutes having an existential crisis in a fucking corset.
    Our first corset. Our last fucking corset...
    Yeah. Absolutely, definitely. That said, though...it was almost worth it. Even I couldn’t stop glancing down at my chest. For a fleeting moment in time, I utterly, genuinely understood the desire to get a boob-job.
    Anyway ...
    A rriving at the Pavilion, I moved into position facing him: grimacing sympathetically. Meg took her place off to my left, giving me a subtle, reassuring nudge with her elbow as she did so. I threw Naithe my best approximation of a reassuring smile: just...y’know... ‘paying it forward’, or whatever the saying is.
    Naithe smiled at me,