Page 29 of Echoes of War

“Yet,” Abel, added meekly; every soul in the room turned to stare at him instead. “I mean, just give Reina some time. I’m sure by the time the two of you get back, she’ll have it figured out. I can help her.”

Sloan tugged at her long wavy hair, shaking her head as she turned to face her cousin. “Fine. Get it done.”

“I’ll help too. If I focus enough, I can try to pull out the smaller details. She’ll do what she has to; you worry about keeping another laboratory from blowing up,” Tomoe offered up, wanting to help her sister where she could.

The two had been inseparable, yes, but Reina still kept her at an arm’s length. She hadn’t completely forgiven either of her sisters for their betrayals, though Tomoe got the better end of Reina’s shit-on stick.

Sloan motioned in show of giving zero shits about what Moe spent her time on now that she had completed her portion of the mission and headed toward the door. She stopped before Amaiaand glanced her over, then past Amaia’s shoulder back at me. I tensed, waiting for whatever insult ensued.

To our surprise, she pulled Amaia into a hug then pulled her back to meet her eye. It was an uncomfortable display, like they both didn’t know where it came from or how to receive it. Amaia would be coming with me to meet thebrujas, with Sloan’s permission of course. Not that we needed it, but she did have the authority to not let us back in the gates if we rubbed her the wrong way. Amaia’s abandoning her promise to ready her troops would definitely count as doing so.

“I’ll be fine, Sloan,” Amaia said, rolling her eyes. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

Sloan sighed, frustrated that Amaia was clearly missing something. Her line of sight fell on me once more, and I moved away, pretending to be distracted by whatever Abel, Moe, and Reina were debating on the other side of the room.

I heard every word, everyone did.

“It’s not you that I’m worried about. It’s him. You don’t understand what he put our people through.”

“Then enlighten me,” Amaia replied, iciness recapturing her tone.

I couldn’t help but grin smugly at the back of Sloan’s head. It was nice to be cared about, supported. Defended. Not that I deserved it though; Sloan was right. The things Finley had me do to these people still haunted me when my eyes closed at night. Hell, it had been my last mission here that had made me snap, fleeing home to Finley, and had kicked my desertion into a reality.

“He terrorized us,” Sloan ground out, a thumb jutting out in my direction. “For months our strongest and brightest were slaughtered like animals. Limbs and fingers were found in loved ones’ beds, the rest of their bodies never recovered.”

My breath caught, waiting to hear Amaia’s response. Reina glanced up at me, then shied away when I met her stare. Abelshifted nervously, eyeing me as though he remembered every detail. He probably did, probably knew some of them too. Some of them had been emissaries. There was a chance he blamed himself if he had been the one to let me in while I was under disguise. The only one to pretend none of it was happening was Moe. Hell, she’d probably seen worse in her own mind.

She understood me to an extent, wasn’t bothered by gore. I mean how could she be? She chopped heads off like it was her day job, never hesitating as her blade swung down.

“As you said, Sloan, people change. He’s not that person anymore.” Amaia’s voice was unwavering, she didn’t care.

Everyone had a past, herself included though not as gruesome. It had been a job for me, a soldier completing their duties. I’d expressed as much when I’d woken her up with one of my many, many nightmares. Instead of kicking me out, she’d comforted me, saying nothing as I lay against her. Her sweet scent consumed my thoughts as I fell asleep in the comfort of her presence.

“People do change, Amaia,” Sloan said warmly, “but not that much.”

“I’m with him. For better or for worse, he’s not leaving my side.”

I fought to keep the widest grin off my stupid face.

“A starving dog is never loyal,” Sloan slammed, lighting her cigarette as she leaned against the door. “If I had Tomoe’s gifts, I’d likely be able to tell you concretely that it will, inevitably, be for the worse.”

Amaia smirked at her, careful to avoid the butt of her cancer stick as she pulled her in for a final embrace. “I knew that the moment I laid eyes on him.”

My stride was quick across the room, I huffed a laugh and pulled the door open moving Sloan aside in the process. Amaia understood my cue, walking beneath my arm and through thearch of the door. My heart damn near beat out my chest as I watched her lead the way. I was so fucked.

This girl will be the death of me.

For someone who had a strong chance of disintegrating from magic in a few days, I was riding an unsustainable, insatiable high. Amaia accepted me for everything I was and had told Sloan just that. Our family did too, even though it was fucked up at the moment.

I had a family. A real family. A dysfunctional family, but not anything similar to the one I’d been raised in. The thought was fucking crazy to me. I grabbed her hand, tugging her to the tunnel Abel had directed me to a few days ago.

“Oh shit, what’s this?” she asked, her dark brown eyes filled with mischief as we reached the end of the tunnel that was our way out.

I grabbed her shoulders in excitement, shaking her gently. “What’s it look like?”

“Ha ha, I meant, where did you get the gas for this?” She removed her gloves, fingers skimming along the length of the bike.

“I’ve been working on it with Abel.” I offered some insight, “It’s solar powered.”

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