Page 41 of Echoes of War

“What do you mean plans for the day?” she asked, thinking back to what I’d mentioned briefly.

“Put your coat on and find out, princess.”

I walked over to the couch, grabbing the puffer coat I had picked out for her. Today would be a cold one and I wanted her warm enough to enjoy herself. Holding it open for her, she slidher arms in slowly, glancing up at me in shock at my gentleman behavior.

Winking, I grinned back at her. I was just getting started.

She zipped her coat up, and I leaned in close, my voice coming out barely above the octave of a whisper. “You look exquisite by the way.”

“Oh, stop with the bullshit. I just woke up.”

Her way of saying thank you, I’d take it. Grabbing her hand, I led the way for a birthday celebration that may be our last.

“The motorcycle,” she gasped as we rounded the corner to the tunnel. “How’d you get it back here?”

We’d left it about fifteen miles out in order to bring back her test-lab rat Pansies. I’d spent the better part of yesterday freezing my ass off to bring it back.

I glanced up at the sky impatiently. We were wasting time, and I didn’t want it to snow before we got there. “Doesn’t matter, let’s go.”

“Fine,” she said, crossing her arms and pretending to throw a fit. “But so you’re aware, riding this bike is a terrible way to celebrate the birthday of someone who is fucking terrified of being on the back of one.”

“Oh, shut up and get on.”

A short while later, we arrived at where we’d practiced my magic on the lake only weeks ago. There were logs set up in the fashion of a small campfire, two chairs lined up on one side, and a cooler half-buried in the snow. I peered down at my fingers, happy to not need Finley’s stupid rings anymore. The logs lit up with my magic and I smiled, proud of myself for beating the snow before it could ruin my plans.

Amaia hopped off the back of the bike like it would bite her, taking a few steps toward the fire. “For me?”

“Who else would it be for?” I teased. “We’re the only ones here.”

She gave me the finger. An ear-to-ear grin pulled over her face before dropping. A tear fell down her face, and I panicked.

I inched closer to her. “Hey, wait, no. I’m sorry. You hate it, don’t you?”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just,” a soft laugh escaped her now red lips, “when I think about my birthday last year, the people I spent it with, things are so different now. I will never spend it with some of those people again. They’re stuck inside my memories.”

I couldn’t argue with that. There were things Amaia and I would never relate to, this being one of them.

Tenderly, I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug. “Then let’s make new memories.”

She sniffled at the reassurance in my words but gazed up at me with curious eyes. I bent down, pulling the supplies out of my bag. A small pot, some water, and some chocolate. Pushing them aside, I emptied the rest, the small pan and some butchering knives purely for cooking.Notslaughtering, Sloan teased.

Amaia took a seat in one of the chairs, watching me intently. Something about this whole moment felt so fucking right. I couldn’t explain it. My heart quickened in pace, each beat louder and more pronounced than the next. Even in her silence, she filled every space with her presence. It was intoxicating.

I opened the cooler, brought out the fish and the cutting board Reina had arranged at my request. Of course, she had put it in some fancy display, little lemons and a cup of herbs tucked into the cutout on the side.

“Holy crap!” she exclaimed, jumping to her feet at the sight. “Get the fuck out, fish? No way!”

We hadn’t had fish since before St. Cloud, and Amaia had been sucking it up as best she could. She ate what meat was offered for the sole purpose of protein, but gagged at every bite.

“Sloan established a small fish farm right after Finley decided on AquaXelium.”

Her brows furrowed. It was obvious that no one had explained to her what had happened here. Even when she’d asked me why Finley didn’t rely on the river to feed St. Cloud all those months ago, taking the time to go over the history of it hadn’t been my top priority.

“I forgot you all might not have heard the news out in Monterey.” I offered, ready to tell her anything she wanted. Her wish was my command, “Yeah, AquaXelium was one of Finley’s experiments gone wrong. Oddly enough, it had been her attempt to do some good and help feed our people, but it backfired. AquaXelium is a synthetic compound she created. I don’t know the ins and outs of it, but she wanted to temporarily alter the laws of physics, governing the water molecules within a certain radius of St. Cloud. She fucked it up somehow. It caused a chain reaction and ruined every aquatic environment east of St. Cloud for about a hundred miles. Mostly marine life mutations from the toxic taint on the bodies of water. It didn’t completely wipe out Lake Superior, but did enough damage that Duluth took it upon themselves to try to build the fish population back up in farms. Sloan said not to be mad by the way. No one has had any fish in months, they were due to release them back into the water but then, well, war. She never officially rolled it out.”

“How thoughtful of the two of you to make me the test dummy,” she teased.

I grinned at that, my fingers pulling off her beanie and ruffling her curls underneath. “Just another day in your life.”

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