Page 110 of Ashes of Honor

“This wasn’t random,” I said, glancing at Finley. “They were targeting you.”

She nodded grimly. “Yeah, just another day in The Expanse.”

A knot of discomfort twisted inside me, refusing to loosen. Whoever had blocked my Sight was still out there, powerful and dangerous. And if they’d help hide an attempt on Finley, what else were they capable of?

Alexiares

I’d never thought much of the future. Just surviving the day, the week, was enough. One day at a time. If I made it to the next, fantastic, great—if I didn’t, oh well.

But now the thoughts of what was to come were destroying me. I tried my best to shove them away—resist. It was impossible when I knew the woman I loved would be leading the fight into a war meant to ruin.

I was a monster. One of the dangerous ones. I knew what was out there, what she would face … what I had no choice but to sit back, and watch as she met the devil head-on.

No one was working together. That hadn’t changed over the last few weeks. A week ago someone made an attempt on Finley’s life—to absolutely fucking no one’s surprise.Yeah, no one could even pretend to care about that. I wish I’d been the one to make it—Iwouldn’t have missed.

Instead, Amaia had met it with the promise of an eye for an eye. You attack someone that was meant to be on your team, the rest of the group comes after you. Same manner, same death, same fate. It didn’t matter. Not anymore.

This was it, the final simulation. What we were all working toward. Three weeks of what felt like wasted efforts would all be put to the test. At least there had been no word on any movement from Ronan.

A good thing since it allowed us to focus on the here and now. Individual settlements may not be working as a team but at least individually they’d grown stronger, faster, smarter—more adaptable. We had that going for us and maybe that could be enough in the end.Maybe. Fucking doubtful, however.

No one wanted to think of the other possibility. That Ronan was making moves against us, silently so no one would be able to know what was happening. Not with him tucked safely behind his damn wards. Nope. He was safe from anySeer, no matter how powerful—no matter how many power-shared.

“You ready for this?” I asked, my eyes scanning up Amaia’s lean, muscular legs as she slid her black camo cargos on with a little hop.

She snapped her thigh holster into place right after. Quick and efficient in her movements, her weapons were in place before she even mustered a response.

“What did I tell you about asking stupid questions?” Deep brown eyes as beautiful as undisturbed earth met mine, the sides of them wrinkling with the small smirk curling the tail ends ofher lips. She pushed to the tips of her toes and leaned in to kiss the corner of my mouth.

I smiled in response, arguably irritated that she had already moved away from me to pull on the thickly padded vest over her dark gray t-shirt. “It’s not that I lack faith in you, don’t get me wrong.”

Opting to distract myself, I moved to get ready, studying the odd metallic barrel of some sonic gun Tomás had spent hours in my living room working on. Amaia and him made one hell of a team. Technically, he was in my service, but the way Amaia’s mind worked mixed with Tomás’s natural—and magical—genius, they created weapons I knew Finley was salivating for. It’d been fun to play with. Tiago would have loved this. Our interactions. The way his twin had webbed himself into my life. They were nothing alike except in their humor and loyalty.

“But the last few weeks have been a shitshow in some capacity and you think we’re doomed?”

“Is it too late to try Canada?” I teased, but I was dead fucking serious. If she wanted to bolt, I wouldn’t stop her. No, I’d follow like a lost fucking dog.

She rolled her eyes. “Ha ha.”

“You’re right, Mexico is closer.”

“Luckily, one of us speaks Spanish.” Her soft hands pressed against my bicep as she recalled how I’d surprised her with my knack for languages. Compliments to the chef—a.k.a. the dad from hell. Though, I supposed Reina had far worse luck in that department.

I swore quietly, stalling. I didn’t want to go there, not yet—but the window was closing. This information was detrimental to her final placements of individual units. “Speaking ofbrujas—Lola’s coven has done what they could with the time they had.”

Amaia’s head fell heavenward, her curls tickling her spine. “Sounds like bad news.”

“It’s not great news,” I said, pulling her hair tie taut and shooting it across the room to her. “Seventy-five percent, give or take.”

She caught it, bunching her curls in her fist and tying them out the way in a low bun that made her features sharp—dangerous and lethal. “Why do I have a feeling that it’s take? It’s almost always take when someone says that.”

“It’s better than nothing.”

“This is supposed to be ouroneadvantage.” This wasn’t the woman who loved me speaking anymore—it was an irritated general who expected results and, instead, was met with failure. “If only 75 percent of our troops can powershare, that still leaves 25 percent of us without enough power to go against Ronan. Expect the worst-case scenario and whatever it is, set that bar to the lowest level of hell andthat’swhat we’re dealing with when it comes to them.”

Them. Us. Us or them. It was all the same. The same game we’d been playing for over half a decade. A game played with such fealty, it nearly led to humanity’s destruction at the end of The Before.

Thanks to Reina’s work, we’d been able to give each soldier an additional gift. Something Amaia was certain would have consequences in the future but felt a necessary evil to accomplish our goals now. After all, Ronan was likely doing the same. That left us little time to teach them how to properly wield whatever new powers they received. Said complications were exactly why leadership thought it best to pair up as many people as possible with a complimenting partner and power. Hopeful was the word. Because hopefully, the blind would be able to lead the blind, guide each other into control in whatever magic emerged.

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