Page 156 of Ashes of Honor

A sudden gust of wind slammed into us, cold and razor edged, scattering debris. It wasn’t natural. It was too controlled to come from mother nature. Dust and broken glass tore at my skin, and my horse reared, hooves striking the air as a panicked whinny escaped its throat. This wasn’t nature’s fury; it was too controlled.

“The air elementals Jessa warned us about,” I muttered, scanning the air around us. “They’re trying to disorient us.”

Alexiares’s voice carried across the street with desperation that nearly put me on my knees. “Amaia!”

It was not a question—it was a plea. A command to empty air, as though he expected the world itself to present her to him.

He called for her again, the words coming faster now, “Amaia, damn it, where are you?”

Alexiares knew she wasn’t here. We all knew.

I couldn’t see him through the smoke but he was close. I could feel the tension in the space between us, the primal need in his voice—a thread pulling tight, on the verge of snapping. He wasn’t asking for help. He searched, frantic, as though the idea of her being unreachable was unbearable. The panic was clear, the kind of emotion I was all too familiar with having the family I chose, but I never thought I’d hear it from him.

“Get a fucking grip right now.” I turned in time to see her press Wrath against Alexiares’s throat, her expression deadly calm. Riley hovered right beside them, pacing like a caged animal, his fists clenching and unclenching as though he might bolt after Amaia the moment Tomoe took her eyes off them.

TheBloodhoundwas unleashed, and the sheer ferocity of his fury sent a cold spike through my chest. He was a storm made flesh, eyes blazing with murderous intent. Even from here, his rage was suffocating.

“Don’t,” Tomoe growled, her eyes fixed on Alexiares. “She didn’t tell anyone what she was going to do, because shecouldn’t. Ronan is watching for one of us—just fucking one—to slip up. That’s all it takes for this plan to fall apart.”

“She shouldn’t have to do this alone!” Alexiares snarled, his voice cracking under the weight of his fury.

“She’s not alone,” I snapped, cutting in before the argument spiraled further. “But if you go storming in like this, shewillbe. We stick to the plan, or we might as well hand my father the victory now.”

Riley stood rigid beside him, jaw clenched, hands balled at his sides, watching Tomoe with narrowed eyes, his body trembling with each strained exhale. He was barely holding it together.Ugh, boys.You’d think they knew something the rest of us didn’t. Amaia was fine and she would continue to be that way if they could stop being so dang emotional. We had a job to do and a specific amount of time to do it.

“It’s done, Tomoe,” Millie said, her voice cutting through the tension as she joined us. She knew when to push and when to hold back, and this moment was a family one she was best not to interrupt—but she did anyway. Boldly and fiercely.

Moe ground her teeth, Wrath still dangerously close to Alexiares’s carotid. She yanked it away, frustration curling in her posture as Alexiares snarled at her. He pushed himself freeand found his composure—lethally scary composure, but he was calm now, nonetheless.

He swatted her hand away. “I’m fine.”

“We’re on the move,” Isabella called out over the disarray. They needed to clear out the adults now that we’d rounded up the kids. It wouldn’t be long before my father called reinforcements back to the city. We’d been left with the JV squad thus far. “See you at the rendezvous, good luck. It’s been fun, but let’s make sure this war is the last of it, yeah?”

Without hesitation, Moe swung up onto her horse, steadying herself on the reins. She moved to ride alongside me and I kicked my horse into motion. The pounding hooves on cobblestones echoed as we pushed through the streets, guiding the children through our established evacuation route—the battle behind us still creeping in. Lurking, following us with the promise of violence. Our tactical team was doing a dang good job engaging them. Hunter and his crew had kept them distracted, but that would only last for so long.

“Reina, don’t look,” Abel called out from up ahead, near the entrance of the park.

I narrowed my eyes, squinting in confusion, not sure what I wasn’t supposed to be looking at. Then I saw it.

My blood froze. The wind shifted, carrying with it a faint creak of rope swaying on the breeze, and my gaze locked onto the twisted oak tree standing sentinel over the horror. There, hanging akin to a broken doll, was Jessa.

Her lifeless body dangled from the rope, eyes wide and empty, staring at nothing. A sickeningly jagged sign swung beneath her, the words etched in cruel letters:Welcome, daughter.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. The sight of her, twisted and broken in such a careless, despicable manner … I had to swallow against the bile rising in my throat, but the wordswouldn’t leave my mouth. Nothing would. All I could do was stare at her.

Millie held steady with my pace, reaching for my hand with her free one. “Don’t,” she said softly, her voice firm but not unkind. “He wants you to break. Don’t give him the satisfaction.”

I swallowed hard, tearing my eyes away from the scene. We had to keep moving, keep evacuating what children we could before the city went up in flames.

Amaia

For the first time in a long time, I did not want to die. And that was how I knew my circle of life was complete.

Hadn’t that always been the joke of what we called living?

When one turmoil ends, another begins—and the second you think it couldn’t get any worse, you realize how good you had it. Whatever Millie had seen had changed nothing and everything all at once. But most of all, it’d killed my hope. That last sliver, that final tendril of juvenile thirst for a future.

Dreams weren’t for generals.

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