Page 52 of Ashes of Honor

Reina slowed her steps to match his and grabbed his hand with the purest of smiles. “Why would I be mad? I love the inquisitive mind.”

“It’s about Hunter,” I stated the obvious, and Amaia jabbed me hard in the gut with eyes of fire. Grabbing her wrist, I pulled her into my side, wrapping my arm across her shoulder with an evil smirk.

“Oh.” Reina’s soft tone was light as a whisper.

“No offense,” Abel said, slow and hesitant. “But how are we supposed to excuse fifteen new faces, let alone one hundred with Bietoletti and the others lurking around every corner?”

Reina’s jaw clenched in an attempt to hold back the urge to snap at him. His doubt ate away at her positive facade. This wasn’t the time to address this shit. Something pricked at the edge of my senses. Movement? A sound? I couldn’t place it, but Amaia noticed it too. Her shoulders tensed, her sharp gaze scanning the distance.

We didn’t need words to communicate.Stay calm, don’t react.Her unspoken command was clear.

Amaia had been on edge ever since the reports of Ronan’s men had trickled in from our patrols. Claims of refugees being hunted down along with anyone dumb enough to stray outside enclosed settlements. Quick and brutal. Battered bodies left behind—beaten to death, it wasn’t Ronan’s usual style.

Riley had his theories of course. Transient Nation cast-offs causing chaos. Mass panic. The oppressive shadow of impending doom swallowed the fear of many. Timing may have fit, but as far as I was concerned, nothing had been confirmed.

“Amaia said she’d figure it out,” Reina murmured, her voice barely a whisper, her posture sagging with defeat. “We can trust him, Abel. He’s not like Seth.”

I glanced at Abel and dared him to argue. He didn’t. Instead, he opted to give Reina an awkward pat on the shoulder, his smile uneasy. “Okay then,” he muttered, unconvinced.

A flicker of a shadow snapped my attention to the window of a two-story house. I didn’t need to think. I turned at the same time Amaia did, shifting Reina and Abel behind us.

“Someone’s here,” Reina whispered, her voice shaking.

“On the ground!” Amaia barked.

We hit the dirt half a second before the bullets started spraying. Debris kicked up around us. The sting of adrenaline hit me hard. An orgasmic power that sharpened my focus, slowed things down. I crawled, dragging myself toward cover. Amaia and I worked in tandem. A wall of fire went up to shield the others. It was good enough for now, but fire wouldn’t stop bullets.

Amaia muttered a curse and rolled onto her back. I felt the rush of air before I saw her plan—a dome of compressed air forming above us, deflecting the next round of shots. Smart. My fucking warrior princess.

We pushed forward, army-crawling until we were behind the nearest house. My back hit the wall, and I exhaled in excitement. The thrill of my next kill had me calculating our next move. Whoever was out there had made a mistake firing on my family. For that, they would pay.

They always did.

“How many?” I called out over the gunfire to Reina.

She pressed her body back against the wall, arms spread out wide as though she’d wished she was stuck to it. “Unsure,” she said, eyes closed as she focused on her magic, face red. “A lot.”

“Down!” Abel screamed and pulled Reina flat against the earth. A spray of bullets came from another house, closing us in along with the sounds of whoops and shouts from each direction.

We were surrounded. Amaia punched through the glass of the downstairs window behind her. Blood dripped down her shredded fingers, but she hardly blinked as she ushered the others inside.

“In here,” Amaia ordered, grabbing Reina and hoisting her inside. I inched closer to her and offered additional support to get Abel through. She stopped for a moment, assessing me, the willingness I’d have to follow her command when in danger.

I’m not going anywhere without you. She stared back at me in protest and rolled her eyes before holstering her gun and making her way inside. I made it approximately one step inside before realizing it was far too quiet for them to be clearing the house. Dust speckled in the sunlight inside the dark kitchenette as my eyes adjusted.

“Well, it was either this house or the one across the way. We laid a bet.” Some random guy sat in the chair at a round glass table, flask in hand, owning the damn place without a second thought. He tipped it back and chugged as if it were the only thing keeping him alive. “Like a mouse in a maze.”

He licked his lips as he glanced between each of us. His black hair was uneven, longer on the top and stuck out on the sides. Between his stench, the dark bags under his eyes, and the aura of exhaustion around him, it was clear he hadn’t slept in days.

A gun was placed at Amaia’s back. Two men clutched their arms around Reina and Abel’s necks as tears streamed down Reina’s cheeks. The sack of shit at the table, their leaders presumably, settled his dark, darting gaze on me. Sizing me up, he turned with a scoff, a faint smirk tugged at his pale face that held no indication of amusement. Nah. There was a confidence there, the kind that said he thought himself to have already won.

I heard the crack of her skull, her yelp of surprise, then watched as Amaia fell to the ground. Her body crumpled lifeless before me and terror struck my heart. Its hammering beatrang in my ears, my vision closing into a tunneled red fury. Reina panicked, her anger swarmed through the room to our disservice. Abel clamped down on the man’s arm, the retaliation of the effort came fast with the hard shove into the wall. It stunned him and I leaped to catch his head from splintering into the table. I was tossed back into the window, shards of glass jamming into my back and severing nerves. Pain seared through me. I was fucking stuck. Reina yelled, throwing her head into the now blood gushing nose of her handler. I gathered what strength I had left and lifted myself free.

The sound of the warm, sticky, blood leaking down my back dribbled against the quieting chaos of the room. I reached for my flames but they were quickly doused with ease by the man at the table. With Amaia, Abel, and Reina down, the fight became four on one. Something hard slammed against my skull, and consciousness slipped through my fingers.

Alexiares

Pressure built behind my eye with such intensity it might’ve cracked my skull the fuck open. I kept my body still, eyes closed as I lay in wait. The dull, hum of an engine and the subtle sway of the ground beneath me told me I was in a moving vehicle. I was about done with the whole innovativeTinkerergene shit. Life was better a year ago, when I barely saw a car let alone found myself hogtied in the back of one. This was becoming a pattern I wasn’t thrilled to repeat.

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