Page 21 of Ashes of Honor

“No,” I said firmly. “They have to pace themselves. Anyone running too low on magic right now is a bad thing.”

The table remained quiet. They couldn’t argue with that. Everyone had been on pins and needles, waiting for the other shoe to drop or another attack to happen. It wasn’t as though Ronan posed a direct threat to us anymore, but one could never trust his true intentions.

Abel’s eyes trailed around the table, his mouth parting to share more of his thoughts. “Since no one else is going to ask. Bad thing for what? Aren’t we living life, going back to normal?”

“Oh, Abel.” Reina rested her head against his exposed brown shoulders. The sleeves of his shirt cut off and showed off his lean muscle. “Haven’t you learned a thing since we re-adopted you?”

“We’re biding our time,” Riley answered, having my back and making me grin smugly. After a second, I processed what he said. Everyone nodded in agreement, all but Abel and Emma.

“For what?” Abel’s questions continued.

Tomoe’s eyes widened in annoyance. As if it were obvious, but I was as confused as him. “Amaia’s plan.”

“Plan for …” Emma said, peering through narrowed eyes of admiration at Tomoe.

“My father’s, uh.” Reina shifted uncomfortably in her seat, tugging at the fold of her pleated black trousers.“Request.”

“There is no plan.”

The scrape of chairs and shifting bodies made it painfully clear the entire table had turned my way—even over the hum of the dining room. The glow of the lanterns on their faces perfectly highlighted their complete disbelief. I couldn’t lie to them if I tried my damnedest. Not over something this important.

I always had a plan. Not having a plan even in the best of times was to set yourself up for failure. I’d said it before and I’d say it again—a good soldier possessed a plan A, B, and C. But a soldier thatsurvived—they possessed an artillery of blueprints, knowledge and a solid team at their back. I lived and would die by those words, and they knew it.

Still, if shit hit the fan, I didn’t want to be responsible for them dying. They needed plausible deniability with Ronan. And if he was looking into their futures, I didn’t want one of them to accidentally give anything away.

I stared them down. “Whatever.”

“The plan to find whoever the fuck Ronan wants her to kill,” Alexiares explained to Abel and Emma, not paying me any mind.

Reina damn near leaped out of her seat in excitement. “Ooo! Don’t forget the other one. Ya know, about taking all this back. No more Bietoletti and his mean little friends disrupting council meetings.” She tossed her pale, sunburned arms in the air.

“So many outcomes.” Tomoe’s all-knowing smirk made me want to pounce. “An abundance of possibilities.”

I groaned, taking a calming inhale of herbs hanging from the ceiling and broth scented air. Dragging my hands down my face, I relented, telling them everything I’d been thinking since the day I left Ronan’s war tent. This, they could know, this Ronan would assume was working in his best interest. “All right, here’s what I got.”

We needed to lure this mystery figure out. Bait them in a way that didn’t come across as an obvious trap or a betrayal toRonan. A waltz of war. Graceful and balanced in our every move if we wanted to pull any plan off.

After much thought, I realized contacting the person Ronan wanted dead shouldn’t be a hard endeavor at all. They were already watching us. We just had to give them the opportunity to reach out.

“How do you know … about lingering eyes?” Elie whispered the latter. If she leaned any farther down the table, her neck might snap.

Abel’s eyes became shifty, watching the only entrance to the room, scanning the people seated around us. “And why is no one else freaked out by it?”

This was a private dining area. It was reserved for any high-ranking officials in my troops, members of The Council, and any of our families. The decision to cut off access to the public hadn’t been a slight or a way to distinguish power levels. Instead, it was to be a place of comfort. Where we could relax from our days with our comrades and loved ones and not worry about what was overheard. Business and family mixed more times than not at The Compound. The people around me evidence of it all. If anyone in this room were to betray us, it would be yet another blow to Monterey Compound, and I wasn’t sure we could withstand it.

“Ronan hates them,” I continued on, knowing I held their attention in the palm of my hands. “So much so, that he’d rather work withmethanthem. Which, if I was the dumbass his little misogynistic brain believed me to be, I’d think it was that simple.”

“It’s never that simple,” Alexiares agreed, his grip firm on my thigh. His eyes locked on mine, steady and warm.

“He could get anyone to kill them?—”

“But he didn’t. He asked Amaia,” Reina interrupted Abel and tapped the side of his skull as though she was disappointed hehadn’tseenany further. Her smile slipped into something more sinister. “Daddy ain’t as wise as he pretends to be. So easy to see through him once you figure out who he is.”

“If I kill them, I make them a martyr. Covert thinks I’m a symbol. Peace, love, all that bullshit.”

“St. Cloud thinks that too, by the way.” MyBloodhound’slaugh was silenced by my glare. The mockery in his eyes made me want to promise to punish him later. He used to have the same sentiments. I wanted to have my own laugh. If only the people of St. Cloud saw who he fell to his knees for now.

“Duluth too,” Abel added.

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