Page 67 of Echoes of War

Millie snickered under her breath, silenced by the glare of her father. “Nash is fine,” he said, taking my hand with a tight squeeze.

“What a lovely name, Nash.” I batted my eyelashes, letting him see me as the naive girl he believed me to be. “You see, a good leader knows that a sacrifice to themselves often benefits their people. While my general and her counterparts may be subjectively self-sacrificial, our people thrive. The people within our networkthrive. After all, a helping hand is a benefit to us all. Something I’m sure you remember during the last war.”

Nash shifted uncomfortably in his seat, his knuckles tightened around the knife he used to dig into his chicken. “We did not fight in the last war.”

Abel jumped in, sparing me a response, “Oh, we know, Nash. That doesn’t matter; while you all sat back idly and watched the world around you fall into turmoil, the few people here still gained from all of our loss. We’re not gonna let that happen a second time.”

I squinted my eyes, nearly missing the flickering of his eyes as he spoke.Holy moly. Go, Abel.I sensed that there was more to Abel and his gifts than him or Amaia had let on.

“Excuse me?” Nash thundered, his fist pounded the top of the table at the mild threat.

“It’s not a threat,” Moe said with a thin smile. “It’s a warning, as we said we were here to offer. You side with Covert, then you’ll understand what arealthreat is.”

Nash focused on me, eyes narrowing with accusation. He raised his knife, scoffing as he pointed it across the table in my face.

“You’re Reina Moore, yourfatheris the threat,” Nash scoffed. “Yet here you stand, on the other side.”

I shrugged, deciding to bring up the obvious. “Shouldn’t that tell you enough? If his daughter fights against him, why would you want to be on his side?”

“Your brother stands by him,” Millie said, her plate remaining untouched, hands in her lap.

“I thought you understood women in power.” I snapped my attention toward her. “Why would a woman align herself with misogynistic, prejudiced men?”

Millie’s mouth tightened, her eyes darted away from me and over to her father.

“So, that’s your final argument?” Nash sneered, unimpressed. “That is a foolish reason to get us to fight on your side.”

Millie put her hand out, timidly silencing her father. “Who said we even wanted to fight at all?”

“To not fight,” Abel said calmly, “to not choose a sideischoosing a side.”

“You think you can do what you did in the last war, but you’re wrong. That vision we showed you, that was not our own projections. That was the true outcome for your people if you don’t fight with us,” Moe insisted, nothing but honesty in her eyes.

I’d had little control over the vision portion of our power sharing. Truthfully, I hadn’t even stopped to think if what we’d shown them had been real.

“What is she talking about?” Nash whipped around to face his daughter, daggers flying from his glare.

“They showed us a vision when they arrived at the gates,” Millie stopped, trying to recall what she saw. “I thought it was a trick of the mind?—”

Nash shoved himself free from the confines of the table, pacing around his seat. “What kind of vision?”

“It was so vivid, like nothing before,” Millie recalled, tucking her hair behind her large, pointed ear. “How did you do that? My own rest inside my mind, unable to be shared and only described.”

Seerand Supra.We hadn’t realized she was either, let alone both.

She had a powerful build that I’d attributed to riding. Most of the girls I’d grown up knowing had a similar frame. Riding had never interested me much outside a contender in my array of hobbies, so I hadn’t been as blessed in the thigh area as them.

Moe offered a cunning smirk. “A secret we only disclose to those we trust.”

“If you aren’t ready to trust us, then you should walk right back through those gates,” Nash taunted us, walking his fingers around the air.

“Father,” Millie’s lips pulled into a thin line.

Nash slapped the wall, silencing her for a split second. “Quiet, Millie.”

“No, Father,” Millie commanded, rising to her feet in defiance. Genuine concern scattered her simple features. “You be quiet. We need to hear them out. What they showed us, we’ll be destroyed.”

He said nothing, only stared at her with the promise of punishment later. I feared for her, the anger spewing from his flesh was overwhelming. I’d witnessed the other end of anger like that before.

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