Page 114 of Ashes of Honor

We joined hands, her calloused thumb brushing over the space where our bodies connected.I love you too. The words remained unsaid, but innately, so deeply understood. Flames roared from our hands, cutting a blazing, blinding blue path through the swarm. The Pansies screeched, their bodies bursting into ash, but the relief was temporary. They just kept coming.

Wave.

After wave.

After wave.

We kept at it.Every single soldieron the battlefield worked as a unituntil the ground was littered with the remnants of Pansies twisted forms. The swarm thinned as the battlefield settled into an uneasy rhythm of stale victory.

The wreckage was staggering. They would hang Amaia for this. It would not be her fault, yet she would still burn. Blood soaked the earth. Human, not Pansie. Bodies heaped in unnatural angles, and the acrid stench of mortality clung to the air. My muscles burned, every gasp of air a struggle. Through the haze of exhaustion, a scream tore through the eerie quiet. Raw. Piercing.

“Reina.”

I didn’t think,just ran. The ground was slick with gore. I found her in a clearing, pinned beneath a Pansie, its teeth buried deep in her calf. Blood gushed in sickening pulses.

My blade sliced, carving a clean path through its neck up into its brain. Its jaws snapped one final time as it hit the ground.

Reina sat crumpled, pale as death, her hands clamped over her calf as blood seeped through her fingers in rhythmic pulses. “I’m fine,” she hissed.

“Right. Because fine usually comes with arterial spray.” I crouched down and ripped a strip from my shirt and wrapped it around her leg, yanking it tight.

“Aw,” she chuckled weakly, eyes rolling to the back of her head. “Ya actually listen to me when I try to teach you things. How sweet. I’m fine. Just get my healing herbs from my pack. I’m low on magic.”

“Shut up, press your hand to stall for a minute. Where’s Hunter?”

Before she could respond, I hauled her into my arms. She was dead weight. My gaze swept the battlefield, still a writhing mess. Her fight was not over. Not today.

Reina pointed weakly toward a partially collapsed building at the edge of the chaos. Through the haze of smoke and carnage, I spotted Hunter, dragging the wounded toward the makeshift shelter. Amaia sprinted toward us. Her fury was palpable, her movements sharp and violent as she carved a path through the remnants of the herd.

“What happened?” she snapped.

“What do you think happened?” I bit back, hoisting Reina higher in my arms. Her blood was soaked through my shirt, warm and sticky, and her breathing was shallow. It was an effort to keep myself calm—Reina usually did that for me.

Amaia spared a glance at Reina’s mangled calf, her muscles tensing. “Keep behind me.”

I followed, staying close as she cleared the path ahead. Hunter was already rushing toward us as we reached the building, his face having aged ten years in the last few minutes.

“Reina …” His voice cracked as he took her from me. “I’ve got her.”

Amaia’s eyes flicked to mine, rage bleeding into every movement. I pulled my knife back free, the weight familiar in my hand, and nodded.

“Let’s end this.”

We didn’t fight like a storm—we fought like predators. Every move was calculated to kill. No wasted effort. By the time the last Pansie fell, the battlefield was an open graveyard, thick with ash and blood. Grabbing injured soldiers, we dragged them toward the triage area without a word.

Inside, it was a hellscape of its own. Healers scrambled, their hands slick with blood, trying to hold lives together with spit, grit and magic. Surgeries were happening in dim corners, the screams raw enough to scrape nerves. No anesthetic. No respite—only survival.

Amaia rushed to Reina’s side. Tomoe was already there. Her tawny hands shook as she tried to channel. She resembled someone who’d been dragged through a war zone—and she had.

“I … I can’t see. I can’tsee,” Moe muttered through clenched teeth. “I need time to recharge.”

AnotherSeerat the bedside across the aisle shook their head, just as battered. “We barely had enough strength to warn them in time?—”

Tomoe shot them a glare. “Doesn’t matter. We did all that we could.”

Hunter stumbled over, his face lined with exhaustion but holding steady.

“Serenity? Caleb?” Amaia asked, sharp and direct.

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