Page 63 of Rising

Riley glared at her.

She offered a fake grin. “If she can go, I go too.”

Reina clapped excitedly, pushing the emotion through the room before it simmered under the weight of my intense stare.Well, hell,I knew there was no convincing them otherwise.

If I told them no, they’d only trail us in the end anyway. Moe would simply use her power to determine our route. Even if I was sure to change it up and keep all the details at random, Reina’s tracking abilities were innate from her time hunting as a child. They’d be right on our ass for days until ultimately, I pretended not to notice someone was hot on our trail and let them join, anyway. We’d been down that path many times in the past for smaller missions, both of them eager to see what Jax and I did. Wanting to leave the congestion of The Compound.

Seth’s irritation shone through and he groaned as Moe and Reina beamed at me, knowing they’d won.

“Well, if we don’t die this is gonna make one helluva story,” Alexiares mumbled low enough where only I could hear, and probably Seth with his hearing.

* * *

Prescott’s facewas fuming across the table though he kept his voice even and calm in front of the Council. Four hours had passed since Alexiares had plopped chunks of flesh down on my desk and we were now standing in front of an emergency Council meeting. Luna squeezed Prescott’s knee under the table, urging him to keep his cool and sending me supportive yet disgruntled glances for putting him on the spot. Like adoptive father like daughter.

It wasn’t that I wanted to put him on the spot, so much as we didn’t have the time to argue with him on this for hours. That would force us to postpone the meeting with the Council until the morning. The hour was already creeping into the later side of night and if we were going to do this; we needed to leave soon in order to beat the winter weather extremes.

We’d already likely have to find refuge through the worst of the weather and make it back here by early Spring at best. Two thousand thirty-five miles, if we remained healthy and well fed, pushed ourselves. We could cover about thirty miles a day, weather permitting of course. If all went well, it’d take us about seventy days to arrive, and who knew how much longer after that would be spent on recon and playing ignorant emissary?

My lips swished side to side as I watched Prescott awaiting his response. The Council was merely here as a courtesy call. I’d hear them out, but ultimately, I wasn’t putting any soldiers at risk other than the ones that had volunteered to move at my side. It was a military based mission and as General; I had final jurisdiction, but I’d fully expect pushback on my second in command accompanying me. Taking the best healer and Moe, who they knew was focused on developing more on her visions, would be a tough sell.

None of us had pushed her, but they had. They’d demanded answers and were tired of being scared, of biting their nails every time their loved ones went on patrol or went out to trade. Which I guess is why I wasn’t surprised when the Head Council of Trade voiced the first, “Yea,” followed by Head of Fire. The rest bellowed in at once.

All ‘yeas.’

“Clear the room please,” Prescott requested, making it clear he intended on speaking directly to Seth and I and no one else.

Seth tugged at his ear and placed his head down, before remembering to appear unfazed and gazing past Prescott’s head as if he were bored.

I took a deep breath, waiting for whatever argument would happen as soon as the door shut. Alexiares was the last one to leave, his eyes trailing over me before he offered a small reassuring smile, and walked out.

The second the door clicked shut Prescott’s voice boomed across the walls. “This is ridiculous, the answer is no.”

“Pres, I need you to trust me on this,” I tried, deciding the innocent daughter approach may get me farther than playing General at this moment.

The expression on his face told me he wasn’t going for it. “Oh, don’t ‘Pres’ me. Now I love you Amaia, but trusting you is asking for a hell of a lot as of late.”

“Okay, well first, ouch. I deserved that,” I agreed, pursing my lips, “But I have the right people coming with me and a solid plan in place. You didn’t even let me get that far!”

Seth grumbled in agreement and something about not wanting to get caught with our pants down again.

“I need you to forget about the last six months, and focus on the last fewyearsthat you’ve known me. Molded me into who I am today. Right here, right in front of you. You once told me that the strongest soldiers learn from a stronger leader. And that the ‘greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things, but that—”

“‘He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things. Don’t Ronald Reagan me, Amaia.”

I grinned, feeling prideful in gaining a foothold in the conversation, “One of theonlygood things to come out the man’s mouth might I add.”

He sighed; the internal struggle displayed behind his eyes.

Keep pushing.“So let me be the woman you helped mold me into being. Let me do the great thing,please. Trust us, trust me to do this. Blindly if you will, but just know that in my heart I’ll do anything to keep the people here safe. Compound first. If not for them, then you, and Riley, and Luna, and Elie. For all of you guys that I have to leave behind, even when I know there’s a chance I won’t come back to enjoy your safety.”

Seth cleared his throat. “At least let us explain the plan, man.”

“Fine,” he gave in, “have at it.”

So we explained it all. How long it would take. How one of Riley’s men had already been placed there as a sleeper agent shortly after the war, was placed on guard duty and would sneak us into the walls where we would gather as much information as we could from the shadows. They were more unorganized than us and wouldn’t recognize individual citizens by the time we arrived.

The weather would be beyond freezing at that point, large coats and scarves, hats and all would be a must unless you were a fire wielder. In the meantime, Riley’s sleeper would get to work on his own. Finally able to see if the contacts and relationships he’d established with disgruntled high placed citizens over the years could play in our favor in getting any helpful information they could.

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