Page 115 of Echoes of War

“Right about what?” I asked, genuinely confused. “Where’s the old man, anyway? I can’t wait to see his face when he?—”

Unease seared through the room, and my words fell off. The room was silent, every pair of eyes focused on the ground except for Alexiares’ and mine.

“Someone fucking speak,” I commanded, cold trickling down my spine. “Now!” I yelled when no one spoke up. They winced, Alexiares coming to my side, his hand falling to the small of my back.

Reina’s hand trailed down my arm in her approach. A sense of calm washed over me and I accepted it, having no doubt I’d need it for whatever was about to come out. “Amaia, there’s something we need to talk about. Maybe you should sit down,” she cooed.

“I don’t want to take a seat,Reina. I want to know what the hell is going on.”

“She’s fine where she is,” Alexiares growled in my defense.

I knew then, knew from the sadness I read in his tone and the stiffness taking hold of his shoulders, that he had guessed it. Riley moved in front of me once Reina backed up. He grabbed onto my shoulders, leaning down to meet me face to face.

“Maia,” he said, his voice trembling with regret. “I screwed up. I failed you. I’m so sorry. Prescott is dead.”

My heart shattered into a million pieces that I no longer had the capacity to know how to put back together.

Prescott. My savior. My hero. My father. The last of my great trio was gone, and Riley, the person I trusted the most in this world, had been the bearer of this news. Riley watched me, his eyes filled with sorrow. He had been my confidant, my partner through many adventures, and now he was the messenger of utter heartbreak.

Prescott rooted himself in my life as an anchor in a turbulent apocalyptic sea, and now that anchor was gone.

My tears hadn’t stopped flowing, despite Reina’s best efforts. “So you … you saw him? Was he …?”

Riley nodded solemnly. “Prescott thought of you till the very end, Amaia. He loved you. He said … he told me to tell you that it’s okay to be angry, but never okay to give up.”

It wasn’t possible for my heart to ache anymore. Those words were so Prescott that I almost found it in me to laugh. Almost. Not quite.

“Prescott was brave,” Alexiares said. “Must’ve done something right. I see the old man in you every day.”

I found comfort in that. Strength. Clinging to Riley, I glanced up, his dark brown eyes, the remorse in them striking another pang through my heart. He may have claimed to not be a soldier, but he was one through and through. Duty had always come first for him and now I understood the truth, a painful one.

Riley had done what I wouldn’t have had the strength to do. Prescott’s last wishes.Compound first, Riley had said he’d taunted him with. Riley closed the gates—not out of cruelty, but out of loyalty to our leader, hisfriend, and our people.

“What do you need?” Riley asked softly.

Wiping away my tears on his shirt, I sat up. Anger and blame wouldn’t bring Prescott back. This wasn’t on Riley any more than it was on me. I’d chosen to leave. It was me who thought it was necessary to go to Duluth with the traitor we’d all called a brother. Had I listened to Riley at his first suspicions …no. I wouldn’t let myself go there. Couldn’t let myself go there. Right now, the only thing that mattered was getting my people through this.Thatis what Prescott would have wanted me to do at this moment, and I’d be damned sure to make him proud.

The others sat around me in a circle, hands resting on my lap in support, even Emma. She hadn’t known Prescott, but there was a way about her that told me she had known pain.

“Amaia,” Riley whimpered, crouching in front of me, pleading with me to stay present. “Tell me what you need and I swear on everything and everyone we love, I will do it.”

“There’s a soldier we have tied up. Alexiares can show you where. Get him here. Find out what he knows. Kill him, then help me kill them all.” Pushing myself from the ground, I walked into my bedroom, closing the door behind me, and raged.

Alexiares

Riley was silent the entire walk to get this sack of shit back to The Compound for questioning. He kept side-eyeing me, waiting for me to damn him for what happened to Prescott. It wasn’t any of my business; I barely knew the guy.

I did feel somewhat sorry that Riley blamed himself. From what I heard, he’d been following orders. Blaming yourself for loyalty was something I could relate to. Riley’s case was different though. At least his blind loyalty had been for a good man.

He wasn’t the type to want to open up and talk about his problems. I respected that, deciding to stroll quietly by his side. The best thing I could offer him was the peace he desired.

Emma had done a bang-up job of slicing through his ankles. My kinda kid. I’d stuffed some torn up cloth down his throatand used my earth magic to bury him in the ground to his neck. Fucker wasn’t going anywhere on his own anytime soon.

I’d grabbed a sandwich from The Kitchens on the way out to help fill up my energy reserves, but my magic was damn useless. Riley, on the other hand, had more than enough to open up his little earth portal to get us there and back. The hardest part was lugging the soldier’s heavy-ass body a few miles back. I was exhausted, but sleep could wait.

Riley had one of his men meet us in The Gardens when we returned to heal the guy’s ankles. We’d shoved non-bloody clothes over his body and threatened to slit his throat if he made a scene as we transported him through the settlement.

We didn’t have to worry about him having any elemental abilities to escape. If he did, no doubt he would have used them already. Our first stop was testing his blood in The Elemental Room and getting a scan on his head, double checking he wasn’t simply tapped out, ensuring he wasn’t like Seth. The guy was pureSupra,which served him no benefit now that he was captured.

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