Page 11 of Rising

“She’d have to be fast enough to get Wrath from your grasp first,” I teased, not missing the katana strapped to her back for a second. She went nowhere without it, and it’d take her dead body for anyone besides her to get their hands on it.

Satisfied with my response, she motioned for me to scoot over in the bed as she shifted the katana to hang from her side, pulling out a small bottle of sake.

“You little demon on my shoulder.” I grinned at my friend as I took a long swig. Once it was down, my suspicions took over, noticing the way my forthcoming friend opted to not meet my eye.

“Spit it out, Moe. Just get it over with.” Sighing, I laid back all the way. Savoring the taste of the sake on my tongue, Tomoe always made hers with a hint of honey for flavor.

“You need to appoint a second today. It’s time.”

“Let Prescott handle it. I trust his judgment. I’m not ready—”

“No one’s saying you need to get back to work. Take your time to heal. I promise we all want a mentally coherent General. But you need to appoint someone.Today. At the funeral. A show of strength and Compound first. If not from you, then who Amaia? Riley and Seth have been handling what they can, but their power only goes so far. The explosion led a herd this way, and they handled it well enough, but without the authority to send more companies out, they’re forced to redirect what was already out patrolling. That leaves our borders exposed, Amaia.” She took a breath, more words than I’d been accustomed to my friend saying at once. “I’m here for you, and I love you, but we need you today. Pull it together, just for a few hours.”

I observed my friend, hurt in her eyes. Not just from Jax’s passing, but from the strength she’s had to put on for me the last few days, without my concern for her own emotions. I was a shit friend, but right now I didn’t have the capacity to think of that. I would sift through that later. It was more than not being ready to return to my position. My thoughts had been all over the place in the days that passed, chewing over every detail Moe had offered up. I felt … unstable. And now I needed to put my people first.

“The Compound must survive at all costs. Compound first,” I said, chugging the rest of her bottle.

That didn’t mean anyone would be happy with my decision.

* * *

I forcedmyself to get out of the bed, opting to slide out on the side that didn’t require me to climb over the accountability partner, helicopter parenting to my left.

My bathing room was left untouched from the last time I had used it days before. My clothes and boots that had been stripped from me were still tossed on the floor. Rolling my eyes, I scooped them up and put them in the hamper that was nearby. Leave it to Tomoe to be visually blind to anything representing some semblance of organization.

Man, I truly stunk,gross. I yanked off Jax’s hoodie and snatched the scrunchie that was currently containing my black curls. Not caring to be careful enough to not pull any strands that had inevitably wrapped around due to lack of maintenance.

A single thought in the back of my mind sent a signal to the fireplace, the dim light casting shadows across the circular room. While the rest of my window ridden room allowed heat to enter naturally, the all-stone bathing room was nothing but cool air.

Stepping into the wooden tub, I pulled the lever and released the water from the aqueducts above. The cool water cascaded down my skin and I sent out small waves of my fire to warm the settled water to my desire.

Scrubbing my skin raw with the loofah grown in The Gardens and homemade soap, I ducked myself under to let the soapy water cleanse my hair as much as possible. Lack of motivation preventing me from cleaning it properly.

When I finished in the tub, I walked over to the wooden armoire at the edge of the room. Pulling out Jax’s favorite black dress of mine. We had just started the official establishment of The Compound and were out goofing off in the surrounding suburbs that had taken us months to completely clear. Everyone that was the new ‘normal’ was invited to reside within our walls. Pansies were cleared house by house.

We had gone for one of our walks that usually ended up with us taking things from those who were long gone. In an apocalypse, what was once theirs is now everyone’s. Everything is fair game when it was evident a space was uninhabited for an extended period.

Most of our walks at that point had been spent wandering through abandoned or deserted homes, making up stories about the people who populated all the photos. Our initial sweeps were to check for persons or Pansies, the second and anything after were for supplies.

We had entered this massive home. More bedrooms that they had space for and found one very lucky woman’s closet. It was less of a closet and more like an entire wardrobe room. Beautiful dresses hung from the wall of stacked racks and Levi’s folded over hangers, tags still on them. Athleisure galore. My own personal heaven. It appeared me and the homeowner had similar taste. My lucky day. While I shot over to her lovely shoe collection that had every color of Doc Martens and Vans one could think of, Jax had pulled this dress.

Told me that the second the first restaurant of the apocalypse popped up, we’d be there opening night, and I would be wearing this.

“The prettiest girl in the next world,” he’d said, taunting me, daring me to give him a sassy retort back.

I obliged, “It’ll go perfectly with your lumberjack attire. What a couple.”

Things had slowly turned flirtatious between us once we were settled and felt safe. Emotions that we hadn’t felt in well over a year had started to pour into our friendship, catching us both by surprise. We hadn’t discussed it, just silently agreed to let things naturally flow and see where they ended up.

I pulled the black cami slip dress over my head. It hit mid-thigh, falling less than an inch longer than the black spandex I wore underneath. My drop leg holster was next as I grabbed my Glock 43 from my weapon shelf in the armoire. Once it was holstered, I walked over to the mirror, examining the dark circles that now framed my prominent, deep brown eyes. My brown skin appeared ashen.Nothing you can do about that now.

Flipping my head over, I grabbed my thick hair and tossed it into a messy bun.Who cares what you look like? Jax is gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.I caught the tear that burned my left cheek before it could fall to the ground.

Sniffling, I reached down for my platform black Doc Martens and slid them on, tucking my throwing knife into the sock near my ankle. As dressed up as I cared to be. I took a deep breath and opened the door, finding both of my friends now waiting on my bed, Seth and Riley at the door.

Refusing to meet the eyes of those who remained to be taken from me, I entered the room under their watchful gaze.

“Thank you,” I said, and pushed out the room, each of them falling into line. Riley a step behind to my left, Seth taking suit to my right. Tomoe and Reina at my six.

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