Page 12 of Echoes of War

“Your bed just happens to be more comfortable than mine.” It was a lie. They were both shitty mattresses. “And you talk a lot. Your voice reminds me of one of those audiobooks. Puts me right to sleep.”

Amaia blinked dramatically, jaw slack. “Sorry, every time you bring up reading, it catches me off guard.”

I smiled at the insult, closing my eyes as she talked about the moments I’d missed in her day.

There was no such thing as peace in this hellhole. I thought The Compound was a magnet for attacks, but this place might as well have a blimp floating over it with a giant arrow sayingAttack Here.

Rapid banging against Amaia’s door startled me out of my sleep. Amaia sprung from the tuck of my body that she somehow always ended up huddled into. Her head smacked into my jaw in the process.

“Ouch, damn it.”

She glanced up, tugging some cargos out of the dresser in front of the bed with a smirk.

“You’ve taken worse hits, you’ll be alright,” she said, before striding to the door.

I followed her, standing at her six as she cracked open the door. Sloan pushed her way in, Elliot paused in the door frame, an awkward smile on his face in apology to Amaia.

He was a real weirdo if you asked me. Elliot never said anything unless it agreed with Sloan. Professional backup.

“Good morning to you too,” Amaia muttered.

Sloan glared at me, whipping around to face Amaia. “No, not a good morning, Amaia. We’ve got a problem.”

“We always have a problem, Sloan. How are the shields coming?” Amaia yawned, brushing off Sloan’s urgency.

Everything was an issue to her. If Sloan said jump, the only thing she expected in response washow high?It was exhausting. I would respect it if Sloan’s demands ever came with working solutions. Instead, she made demands and expected others to solve her problems.

“Thereareno shields.” Sloan shook her head in annoyance. “We pulled the scientists from working on them to train.”

We’d been trying to replicate Finley’s shield, to no avail. I hadn’t been in the business of caring about what went on in Finley’s lab. She’d never discussed the specifics with me. I wouldn’t understand and she didn’t exactly have the patience Reina had with breaking things down.

Amaia groaned, brushing past her to shove her pants and shoes on. “Move, Sloan. Must I do it all my damn self? Learn how to delegate properly. Why would you have your scientists training for physical combat?”

Amaia had long forgotten the hope that she may get her long-lost friend back, desperate to have someone here besides me to lean on, confide in, feel welcomed by. Instead, I’d seen two women who had once trusted each other and now chose to do so again for the sake of their people. Their past friendship had saved our lives, allowed us to have a chance in this war. Nothing more.

There was a chance it could have been redeemed, had Amaia chosen to push for it. But she didn’t. She had lost respect for her friend. They both had been placed in a position of power without the desire to have it, but only one had stepped into their role with a mind of a leader. Amaia’s trust in me hadn’t exactly helped Sloan have confidence in her judgment. The tension between them only increased in my presence.

“Sure. If you want to go out there and die, be my guest. Your scientist is here, clearly had some training. Why should mine be any different?” Sloan said dismissively.

Something about the defiance in her eyes made me decide this was a cat fight that I didn’t wish to be present for this damn early in the morning. I let out a sigh, moving across the room to put my shoes on for whatever order of the day Sloan insisted we tended to.

“What are you talking about?” Amaia asked, arms crossing over her chest.

“We’re about to be surrounded by a hundred soldiers. Jig is up. They know you’re here, alive. I’ll take a guess and say my cousin is fine and made it to his father.”

I stopped in my tracks. “Fuck.”

“You’re cursing doesn’t help,Bloodhound,” Sloan bit out. “Unless you have a solution, stay over there. Hasn’t anyone ever enlightened you on the principles of being seen and not heard?”

I smiled at her. “If only Finley had handed me your name on a folded piece of paper. This is my?—”

“Alexiares, hush.” Amaia said, her hand going up as her brows pushed. She was thinking, doing some calculations.

Elliot pushed from the corner of the room, strolling over to Sloan’s side with a “no bullshit” glare on his face.

My face flushed, heating with anger at her silencing me. Whatever was happening between us, whatever the fuck this was, didn’t stop her award-winning attitude from shining through. This little act in front of others only fueled the canine nicknames people annoyingly attributed to my name.

“I wasgoingto say that thisismy territory.” My voice was colder than I expected, but it was too early in the morning for their verbal assaults. “Before her shields, Finley was working on using the resources we had at hand. Can I continue or are you two going to keep telling me to shut my mouth?”

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