Page 157 of Ashes of Honor

Dreams were for revolutionaries to form and generals to bring about. The good ones, the greats—they were both.

I did not desire greatness for myself, only others. With that came the necessity of being too comfortable with sacrifice. I was going to blow this motherfucker to the ground.

Reaching into my pocket, my fingers grazed the smooth, cool surface of the most precious thing I owned. With shaky fingers, I slid the ring gifted from the other half of my soul, and placed it where it belonged. That slight narrowing in honey brown eyes and contortion of confusion on Alexiares’s face echoed in my mind. I shoved it aside. No distractions. No second-guessing.

This was my choice, my mess to clean up.You will end this today. The magic churned beneath my skin. It was hungry—starving, volatile.

There was no creak of the massive doors as I slipped inside the capitol. Suddenly, I felt small as fuck.What are you doing?Clutching onto my blades, I stepped down the cavernous halls. They stretched in eerie stillness, light filtered through the large windows.

I moved through the mansion with unexpected ease. It was all wrong. There should be guards, or at least staff—people moving about. They were under attack andthiswas their base—their capitol.

The faintest scuff of footsteps echoed in the stillness around the corner. My pulse spiked as I scanned the shadows, fingers twitching at my sides. I was really about to test my luck here. Pushing into an uncleared room, I stepped behind the door.Thank fucking God.It was empty. And beautiful. Focus …focus. It was an effort. Danger or not, I loved touring stuff like this.

My awe burned away as the doorknob turned behind me.

The door swung open.

Without thinking through the repercussions, I grabbed them by the arm and dragged them inside, accidentally slamming thedoor in the process. Before they could so much as yelp, I pressed them against the wall, my forearm pinning them in place.

A girl.

“Talk,” I demanded. “Now.”

Wide eyes stared back at me. She was somewhere between Elie and Abel’s age, her face ghostly and gaunt. She didn’t shake or cry. Instead, she tilted her chin up, that recognizable defiance sparking in her expression.

“I’m here to help,” her voice was light as the wind—small, but certain.

Oh my God. Were kids everywhere just intent on putting themselves in the middle of a war?“I don’t need any help.” I scoffed, leaning in closer. She may be but a teenager, but I knew from the one under my care they were not to be underestimated. “I have somewhere to be. Who the hell are you and what makes you think you’re capable of providing any help?”

Her lips twitched in a dare. “My name is Miranda,” she said. “And I can get you to Ronan. I know this place like the back of my hand. My mother is …wason the cleaning staff, I grew up here. You won’t find him in any of these rooms.”

“What do you have to gain?” I said, easing my hold on her, if only by a fraction.

“I knew Seth?—”

“Not a good start,” I interrupted, my arm promptly going back to her neck.

“He was the only person in the capital to treat me like a person. You’re General Bennett, right?”

I scanned her over, she was maybe a hundred pounds soaking wet—still great condition for someone who obviously lived in The Outskirts. Which meant there was a high chance she was desperate to get out of that place, and desperate people were capable of great things. I pushed harder, cutting off her air supply.

“I never … said … he was kind,” she gasped, her lips pursing to the side in an attempt to bring oxygen to her lungs. “He was just … true.”

Given the fact that I’d already wasted precious minutes searching through this maze of a place without coming across a single soul, Miranda was the only lead I had at the moment. “Ugh,” I groaned, releasing her for good and pacing across the room.

Drawing one of the twin blades, I swung it, pointing it at her. “You have two minutes. Talk fast.”

“He loved his sister, Tomoe too. Seth didn’t say much most days, but when he did, it would always be about something the two of them liked. I want to help them. He cared about them and now he’s not here to protect them. Let me help.”

“You want to help because someone was nice to you in passing and talked to you about the people they betrayed?”

Miranda shrugged, “The last time someone was nice to me just for the heck of it, I was a little girl. I want what Seth wanted—what my family wanted—our worlds to blend. There seems to be … freedom in that, I think.”

Freedom. It had been a long time since the word had been uttered in any real sense. In one that had zero relation to war. Yellow seeped into the whites of her eyes but the stare in them was sincere. Prescott’s words echoed in my mind.The best thing a person can have in life is the honor of returning a favor. When money no longer has a use, when loyalty can’t be bought, your word and life debts are the only currency left.

“What power do you have?”

“Air. Not much?—”

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