Page 36 of Echoes of War

Amaia’s hair was knotted around her heart-shaped face, her large brown eyes scanned the room. Her clothes were painted by splotches of deep red blood, the long coat she sported tattered. Alexiares’ stare pierced beyond the doorway behind her. His dark brown hair was completely grown on the side and tousled. A deep frown formed on his usual pissed off face; he had no coat and what was left of his sweater underneath was burned at the sleeves.

“You guys look like shit.” Sloan laughed, my gaze shot toward her unappeased, “Sorry.”

“Umm,” I said, taking a step closer to the two Pansies Amaia had chained to her waist.

The other end of the metal chains was wrapped around their torsos, and a makeshift muzzle was melded around their mouths. No biting would take place here. Then it dawned on me, maybe they’d been bitten in the process. I rushed over to her before realizing I couldn’t get much closer to check her.

I skirted around them, deciding to check on Alexiares first. Pushing his sleeves up, I examined his arms and sent my gifts out to search throughout the rest of his and Amaia’s bodies. Nothing. When I was sure they weren’t harmed, I yanked his sleeves down and glared up at him.

“Don’t look at me,” he grumbled with displeasure. “Look at your general.”

There was an audible shift in the room as everyone turned to Amaia. A stupid, fat grin pulled at her features. Nothing but chaos buzzed behind her eyes.

“I figured since we’re running tests, we might as well have some test samples.” Amaia said proudly, genuinely confused why we were confused.

Abel shuffled through some drawers and cabinets before pulling additional chains out. For what purpose? Only God knew. “Here, I’ll go get some nails or … something. Honestly, I’m not sure what will hold them.”

If the wheels weren’t churning in my mind, I would have laughed. He had so much to get used to; I think I would enjoy watching him immerse in the mayhem.Ifwe survived this war, that is.

“Yeah, you go do that.” Amaia grinned at him. “Get some meat too, help with their appetite. I think they’re hungry.”

“Seriously, what is your problem?” Alexiares ground out.

He was growing impatient with the havoc she caused. I felt it. Strangely enough, I had no desire to tame it because honestly, I knew there were at least two other people behind me that were too.

Sloan huffed a hoarse laugh. “Don’t know why you’re surprised,Bloodhound, you should have realized long ago to expect the unexpected from your girl.”

Amaia turned her head slightly, awkwardly meeting Alexiares eye at the ‘your girl’ portion of Sloan’s loaded statement. Neither of them offered any corrections. Amaia ungracefully took a side step away from him only to be pushed back over by the Pansies snapping through the muzzles.

“Okay, I’m going to pretend like I haven’t seen through the bullshit and let you announce your idiotic plan to the rest of these agreeable fools,” Tomoe deadpanned.

Sloan uncrossed her arms, moving to grab her cigarette from the ashtray on the table. “This should be good,” she mumbled, lighting the tip and taking a deep inhale.

I laughed maniacally, understanding exactly what my sister wanted from me. “She wants to play their game.”

Heads swiveled from Amaia to me, then back at Amaia, as they awaited an explanation. The only one she offered was a simple shrug and a head toss toward my test equipment in the corner of the lab.

“You know, Amaia, that is absolutely ridiculous, and I applaud you for it,” I said, clasping her on the shoulder before jumping back at the snapping heads to my right. “She wants me to test them against each other, learn how my father manipulates our DNA even further.”

“Correct,” she confirmed, explaining her thought process further. “If she can figure that out, we might be able to use that to our advantage. Michael and Logan gained extra powers, why can’t we?”

“This is a terrible idea.” Tomoe groaned, her cheeks resting against her fists.

Amaia gave her a leveled-stare of dismissal. “Says the devil on my shoulder.”

“You’ve got a replacement for that now,” Tomoe slammed, throwing a finger at Alexiares. We both knew from the obvious disapproval in his body language that he had protested every way. Be that as it may, it was still fun to point the finger at the new guy.

“Don’t you dare blame me. I tried to stop her. You know how she gets.”

“Stop her?” I said excitedly, “Why would you? She’s right.”

That earned a few moments of stunned silence.

Sloan choked on smoke at the turn of events, “Reina …”

“Don’tReiname, she’s right. You all want me to stop waiting for Seth to come back, save us with some master plan. Okay, I don’t believe it anymore.” It pained me to say, but the words felt bitterly right leaving my lips. “And I will stop at nothing to make sure he and my father don’t succeed in their plan. If that’s what y’all really want, then we have no choice other than to play their silly little game.”

“Welp, that took significantly less convincing than I had planned, so I guess, I rest my case.” Amaia took a mocking curtsy as the door behind them flew back open.

---