Page 6 of Ashes of Honor

I shifted in my seat, tilting my head in annoyance. Having this conversation over and over again was tiresome. Everyone had an opinion these days. “It doesn’t matter what happens to me. What matters is that this place keeps standing. I can’t set a precedent of selfishness. Not in this role. I can only imagine what would come of that. I have faith in our people, but not that much.”

“A fight isgoing to come to our gates again,” he reasoned. His accent grew from slight to heavy as his agitation grew. “Which is exactly why you need to check your ego at the door and get your head on straight. So Prescott did it all. Who cares if Luna doessomeof the shit that you can’t. Your only responsibility to these people is to keep this place going. That includes allocating responsibilities to someone else.”

“He’s right you know,” Tomoe strolled in, her long, dark hair following like a ghost as the door thudded closed behind her. I watched her curl into the couch across the room, entering the conversation as if she’d been here the whole time. Her eyes said she’d seen this all unfold before—and she was here to make sure I didn’t screw it up again. “Don’t be an idiot. No one here expects you to know it all, no matter how much you think you do. All that matters is that you care enough to find the right person to get the job done right.”

“Someone close,” Alexiares alluded. “Who you don’t have to question interfering with the real shit we have to take care of behind the scenes.”

“And you both think that person’s Luna?” I asked, glancing between the two of them. A knock sounded at the door and Moe smirked. I wanted to punch it off her face.

“Let me guess, Luna?” I glared at Alexiares, who didn’t appear to be the slightest bit surprised.

“Who the hell else?” Moe stood from the couch, passing by Alexiares to get the door, who only slipped her a soft high five.

Ramona cameto Prescott’s quarters—myquarters—twenty minutes after Luna showed up. Half of the Cavalry thatremained had officially dissented, broken off during their training exercise about twenty-miles out. Planned, of course. I did not want to scold Ramona on her first failure. They should not have been permitted to leave these walls—not with the information they possessed. You were either with us, or you were the enemy.

There was no morein the middle. I’m not sure there ever was. I supposed the time for peace was over, and with it, the time for acceptance. We had everything to lose at this point.

Compound, or death. With Salem Territory, or death.Dealer’s choice.

I’d half expected them to leave at the news of Seth’s death. They were loyal to him. All of them. Seth had betrayed them too when he left, but they respected his decision because most had the same values. Understood the lengths one would go through if it meant getting their family back. I think everyone had that dirty thought at some point in time. Still, they’d fought for us, on our side—until he’d died. Until Reina had decided we’d burn his body instead of burying it. Last straws and all.

Even if we had the resources, I couldn’t send anyone after them. They were trained as efficiently as my soldiers, quite frankly, a bit better. They were multifaceted in a way I couldn’t always guarantee with a foot soldier. The bloodshed that would come from chasing them down, hunting them one by one or in a group wouldn’t be worth it. They knew that, which is why they’d made the choice to flee when they did.

Their brothers and sisters in arms wouldn’t kill them, not without pause first. The problem and the blessing with the cavalry was that they were a small, tight-knit unit. They would die for each other. Killing their comrades would be worse than driving a knife through their own heart.

The decision and timing to bring Luna here was … sound. I’d have a new set of advisors for the areas I didn’t have theexpertise. Subjects in which I didn’t have the time to get up to speed. Despite her oversight, Ramona would remain Stable Master, helping keep up with livestock, breeding, and such. Until and if I found an apt replacement for Seth, she’d also be temporary captain of the cavalry.

While I could no doubt lean on Reina for anything that had to do with our infirmary, working with her mentor Henry made more sense. He’d been here since the beginning and Reina herself still needed to catch up. Henry was already aware of The Infirmary’s needs to keep up with the ever-growing population. A population which inevitably showed up in worse condition every day. That left other more mundane matters to Luna.

Even with her help, there were an impossible amount of decisions left to make. Neither of us had a clue all the shit Prescott had taken care of. All the things that went on behind the scenes to keep this place up and running. And the problems and questions were nonstop. Everyone needed help with something.

There was the bigger picture stuff; the resource management, external relations, and long-term planning to the more granular decisions like what kids learned in school. Pythagorean theorem sounded like a silly thing to dwell on now but what would happen to all the knowledge humanity gained over the thousands and thousands of years of civilization? Suddenly, the small world we were left in felt large.

I had to consider the ‘what if no one else is doing the thing?’ at all times. Now, it might be on me—whether humanity started from scratch or making sure none of the knowledge we’d gained was lost through time and devastation.

Who was I to decide what was worth keeping around and what we didn’t have enough time to cover? At what point do I determine survival tactics outweigh classic literature? If I toss one thing, then I inevitably toss something else out too, and ifnot the citizens of Monterey’s responsibility to maintain, then who?

At the end of an exhausting conversation, Luna and I’d agreed that apartnershipmade more sense. An arrangement until—or as I tried to explain to her—ifI was ready to take over on my own. No one outside our inner circle would know. It went against everything I believed in.

The core value of transparency that we’d built this place on. Only reason I’d be able to sleep at night was because it was safer for everyone not to know. Though that belief had already failed me once. But with Ronan watching, I refused to risk him suspecting anything off even though this had nothing to do with our plan.Our plan.A wry laugh threatened to escape me as I laid in bed staring up at the ceiling. Alexiares stirred at the muffled sound, mumbling in his sleep before turning away from me.

What plan?Right now, all we had was hatred in our heart and vengeance on our mind, but not one of us had asked what was next yet. I had my ideas. I knew they all had theirs. Perhaps, that is why none of us had spoken up.

Riley

“You want each of your movements to be quick,” I said, listening for the slightest shift in the air, the scrape of a boot against the floor—anything to track Abel inside The Ring. “A surprise. Then, retreat.”

His voice came from the left corner, but I knew better than to trust it—Abel was sneaky and used to being underestimated. It was his greatest strength, the time to lean into it, was now. By the time he finished speaking, he’d already moved. “Hit and run.”

“Exactly, brother.” I laughed, unable to see anything through the black cloth tied around my eyes. “Exactly.”

“Make sure you clock him in the jaw,” Elie called to Abel.

Honestly, I was just glad she’d forgiven me enough to keep showing up. Amaia hadn’t been thrilled about the position Elie’d put herself in during the battle—trying to fix the trip wires had nearly taken her, Emma, and Alexiares out when Soulfire erupted. Even so, it had been enough of a wake-up call for Amaia to approve her official training. Every morning, Elie was here with Abel, sparring with the soldiers before debrief.

This training was for me as much as it was them. Although Henry had done his best work, I was still not back at 100 percent. A blade through the gut would do that to a guy. Reina insisted on using her gifts to speed up the process but I needed this. Needed to experience what it was like to be at a disadvantage, considering what lay ahead.

With me not at full speed, working with Abel put me at about the same level. He’d done well to keep up with his training up in Duluth, but now, without the complete use of both arms, he was vulnerable. It was nothing training couldn’t accommodate for.

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