Page 36 of Senseless
“Yeah, well.” I headed toward my bedroom to get dressed for riding. “Let’s hope he’s still around when his old lady comes back.”
“Wait, wait.”My dad’s eyes pinched shut as he raised a palm. “Say that again.”
Gunner swallowed. “I can no longer see through Horus. He’s left with Mari to find Shadow.”
“And you don’t know where they’ve gone or when they’ll come back?Ifthey’ll come back?”
“There’s noif,” I snapped. “Theywillcome back.”They have to, or else there’s no fucking reason for me to fight for this place at all.
General Bray slumped back in his chair, a posture I rarely saw him in, while he rubbed his temple. “I thought I ran through all possible worst-case scenarios, butthisfucking tops all of them.”
“We’ll make do.” My eyes slid over to Hades, who returned my gaze impassively. “We’ll figure something out.”
“Son…” my dad sighed, tipping his head back. “We’ve lost not only our trump card, but our best medic. My daughter-in-law and your wife! How can you be so calm?”
“I’m not calm, I’m…I’m numb.” The realization from this morning settled even heavier on me, like boulders pressing in on all sides. “She’s gone because of me. This is my fault.” My fingers itched for a cigarette but I closed my fist at my side. “So I’m gonna fix it. We’ll figure out a way to win, and make this a place Mari wants to come back to.”
My father nodded slowly. “I hope to all the gods you hold on to that, son. Because I’ll be honest—things look pretty bleak here.”
“Jandro’s working on stealthing up our vehicles,” Gunner chimed in. “I suggest your army mechanics do the same. We’re going to need off-road strike teams.”
“Thatmighthelp.” Dad pushed a manila folder across the conference table to us. “Considering we got this news this morning.”
I flipped the cover open and Gunner leaned in to read with me. The typed words in the memo made logical sense as I read them, forming coherent sentences in my mind, but I couldn’t muster up any emotional reaction. I was already too numb.
“They’re demanding our surrender?” Gunner voiced angrily, looking up at my dad.
General Bray nodded, his face blank. “Blakeworth, Jerriton, and New Ireland have formed an official alliance. All three of them have pledged to march on Four Corners if we don’t surrender by sundown tomorrow.”
Gunner shoved the folder away, leaning across the table. “You’re not actually considering this?”
“Son.” My dad folded his hands on the table and looked at Gunner with a grave expression. “That is a combined army of roughly six thousand troops, to ouronethousand. A good chunk of which are still recovering from injuries in the skirmish last week.”
Gunner sat back, his face despondent.
“If we had eyes in the sky, knew when they were coming and in what formations,” Dad continued, “I might say we still had a fighting chance. But like this,” he gestured to the message, “even if they don’t invade and slaughter us, they could just surround the whole territory and starve us out.”
“The alliance doesn’t matter,” I bit out.
Both of them looked at me. “Reap?” Gunner’s voice was tinged with hope.
“General Tash’s army is the biggest, best trained, and well-financed,” I said. “The other two barely matter.”
“Blakeworth is well-financed too—“
“No, they just appear that way because everything goes to their city and elite class.”
“You weren’t there, Reap.” Gunner shook his head. “They came well-stocked with explosives to that skirmish. People got buried, caved in, blown apart. They pullednofucking punches. Whatever we thought of them before doesn’t apply. They’re serious about taking us out.”
“What about Jerriton?” I knew I was grasping at straws, but I had to grasp at fucking something. “Tash has taken over your uncle’s army, right? Were those troops loyal to him, your family?”
“I dunno,” Gun sighed. “My uncle treated regular citizens like shit, but he kept the army well-supplied I think. Now that it’s Tash’s, I imagine he’s doing the same.”
“So what, we just let the three of them come in and divvy this place up to their liking?”
“Rory, just think ahead for a moment,” Dad said. “We don’t want to risk a bunch of lives for no reason. If we start making a plan now, to strike back at a later date when we’ve gathered more support—“
“And our wife comes back home to what, exactly?” I demanded. “Tash’s soldiers informing her that Four Corners is theirs now? That we just gave it all up while they do fuck-knows-what with her?”
