Page 44 of Ashes of Honor

“You okay, kid?” Alexiares asked him, offering him a hand up. ?Abel took it, grasping back onto his weapon with one hand.

“As good as one gets when your mind takes over to do its own thing. Yeah.” He turned to Reina with an intense questioning gaze. “You have a brother?”

“How hard did ya hit your head Abey-Abe?” She gave up her position and turned, checking him over. The palm of her hand reached up to rest against his cheek. She squinted when no diagnosis came immediately to her. “Seth? Remember him? Crazy cowboy that tried to kidnap me and Moe to take us to live with my even crazier father less than two months ago? Deader than dead in the soil?”

“Reina!” I gasped. We shifted instinctively, reforming our circle, each of us now facing inward. The world around us quieted, but an uneasy stillness filled the air.Yeah, we’re all going to need a shit ton of therapy soon. Elie, Reina, Riley, Abel. Who the hell knew what was going on in Tomoe’s head.

“I fell but not that hard. Two of you are nearly identical. About the same height as Alexi, sameI’ll kill youstare, but his hair is as dark as yours. Looks like he’s never seen daylight. Like you,” he grinned and slapped her shoulder at the taunt.

She replaced her gentle touch against his cheek with a hard pinch. Her face faded from a concerned scowl to the amused scrunching of her nose right before it fell to one of shock. “What?” Her cheerful voice wavered with a shaky laugh. “That’s … but that’s Hunter. Why are you getting visions about my past? Dreaming of me day and night, ya Abe?”

He shook his head. His face was grave, not playing around anymore. “No. I, um, I don’t think this has happened yet. You had your hair like this—like now. And, yeah, this is about right. You were talking on the coast line, right there.”

Our eyes followed his pointed finger, and we crept closer to the cliffside. We peered over then up at each other. A cold, sharp sensation rippled down my spine. The prickle along my spine tightened, sharper than frostbitten breath in the dark. I reached for my gun. It flew from my hand before I could react, my throwing knives around my holster pulling free in the same motion, sending me stumbling back a step. The others yelped around me, and I knew then that we fucked up.

Amaia

“Hey there, Sister. Did you miss me as much as I missed you?”

The voice was familiar yet I knew I’d never heard it in my life. It felt like I should know it. Should recognize it. I was good with that kind of thing. If I heard it once, I knew it for life.

I glanced toward the others. Alexiares stared back at me.Ready to jump?And he claimed me to be the crazy one. My shoulders rose in a halfhearted shrug, mouth curving downward as I considered it. I was the only one with air magic. Reina and Alexiares could channel some of the water from below but fromthis height, it would be equivalent jumping feet first into freshly laid concrete. Leaving me and the magic I had no interest in mastering as our only easy escape.

Reina’s eyes were wide, as though she had seen a ghost.

She collapsed.

Our weapons fell to the ground beside us then disappeared into what I could only refer to as the void. Hands were on Reina, dragging her away from the cliffside she had barely missed going over.

Time moved slowly as I turned around. I didn’t know where to look first; at Caleb, the man I had banished from Monterey Compound eleven months ago, or at Hunter Moore cupping the shock ridden face of his little sister.

A woman stood with her hands directed at our reappearing weapons, surrendering them on the ground. Her hair hung in curls down her back. Bigger than mine and a shade lighter but the complexion of our skin was the same. She was laser focused on Hunter though it was obvious her attention spanned to the rest of us.

No one saw them coming. Caleb wielded fire, not air—but the air had gone unnaturally still, as if something were holding it in place. We’d taught him control, but this wasn’t his doing. Which meant either the mystery girl or Hunter was behind it.

Telekinesis. Couldn’t say I’d seen that one yet. But ya know what? Why the fuck not in this world. It had likely played a part in keeping their approach concealed, manipulating the surrounding space, altering perception.

“Ca-Caleb?” I stuttered for the first time in my life.

Reina’s scream pierced the air. Her eyes blinked in quick succession, tears flowing from them. Hunter crouched over her. I wasn’t sure if it was a flare in her magic or the emotions of reuniting with his sibling, but he cried with her.

Abel and Alexiares shifted closer to me. Neither of them appeared to trust their eyes. Hunter was dead. Had been for about a few years. At least that was the story Reina and Seth had told. The one I knew Reina believed.

Her brothers meant the world to her. She had done everything she could to protect Seth from the horrible fate she’d thought Hunter to have suffered. And Seth …fuck, Seth had never believed Hunter to be gone. It was why he’d fought desperately hard to get back to his father … he’d had hope. Hope he wasn’t wrong for having.

“Shh, it’s okay. It’s okay,” Hunter cooed, and he scooped her into his lap, gently brushing her hair out of her face. “Hey, Sis.”

“Hunter? Is this really happening?” She pushed herself free of his grasp and turned toward us. The people she trusted. “Did I hit my head like Abel?”

Alexiares instinctively shifted in front of me. “What the fuck is going on?”

“Relax,” the woman said, her voice dry and monotonous.

“Someone explain and do it quickly or I’m going to lose my shit first and ask questions second.” I growled, the whiplash of the situation fading. “Now, what the hell is going on?”

“I told you she could be …violent.” Caleb’s face still made me want to punch him.

“Me?” I chirped a laugh and edged away from the drop side of the cliff. “Caleb, you haven’t begun to see how violent I can get.”

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