Page 134 of Of Sins and Sacrifice

“We’ll see how far you can go.”

He smiles brightly at me. “You’re so kind, Miss Minnie. Thank you!”

“Don’t mention it,” I mumble.

“He’s right, Minnie. You’re so kind,” Mine drawls in an odd voice. He looks at me from the corner of his eyes, his hands wound tightly around the steering wheel. What is wrong with him now?

I decide to ignore him and find out more about Tommy.

“Why did you join the military? You’re so young.” I bite my tongue when I realize I spoke in present tense instead of past. He doesn’t realize it, though.

“All the eligible men in my town had to.”

It’s Mine who speaks next. “Men were only allowed to refuse if they had a robust reason. Depending on the state, some faced prison time while others were required to pay fines.”

“I had no money for fines,” Tommy adds. “And I was deemed too healthy to be exempt.”

“What about you, then?” I ask Mine. “Wouldn’t these”—I point to his scars—“help you escape mandatory conscription.”

He shrugs. “Perhaps. But I never tried to evade it.”

“Why? And don’t give me that flimsy excuse that it’s because of me.” I roll my eyes.

He smirks. “This war? Of course it was for you.” He winks at me.

“Come on.” I punch him lightly in the shoulder.

Tommy also joins me in asking the question. “Tell us, Major.”

Mine doesn’t appear too comfortable with this line of questioning, and my smile slowly dies on my face. Is it a sore subject for him? From what I’ve gathered from my time on Anthropa, the military is a dignified profession. It is as respectable as it is in Aperion, though much more dangerous. Of course, not in terms ofactualdanger, but because humans are such fragile beings that they can instantly die.

It takes a lot more to kill an Aperite. And since our military’s sole purpose has been to hunt demons across the universe after the war with Tartareia ended, fewer and fewer Aperites have died in battle.

Mine clears his throat.

“My best friend was in the military. He was a few years older than me and I always looked up to him. So I started training to join him.”

“Your best friend?”

He’s never mentioned a friend before. If anything, Tommy has been saying just how much of a recluse he is. I’ve never seen him on overly friendly terms with anyone at the base.

“Where is he?” I ask.

Mine grits his teeth and I instantly regret asking the question.

“He died of the same sickness I had,” he answers after a moment.

I blink. When he mentioned that sickness, I assumed it was some type of childhood illness—humans seem to be particularly susceptible to those. I did not realize it would have been so late in life.

“Oh, no!” Tommy exclaims. “Was it influenza? My mam’s sisters died of it, too.”

“Something like that,” Mine adds in a low voice.

I look at him intently as if waiting for him to add more. But he doesn’t. He’s staring up ahead, almost as if he’s lost in his mind, or I should say, his grief.

But what I’m most surprised at is my reaction to it. I want to apologize for bringing up bad memories. If my best friend died—though I suppose I don’t have one unless you count… Mine—I would be sad too. Devastated, really.

My brows bunch together as a cold shiver racks my body.

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