Page 69 of Echoes of War

“Somewhere where we can talk … in private.” She hopped on, extending me a hand.

I pretended to consider my options, knowing deep down, I wanted to be anywherebuthere. Ignoring her hand, I pulled myself up, refusing to hold on to her for support.

It was nearly pitch black, the only source of light the stars in the cold night sky. That didn’t hinder Millie one bit. We arrived at a set of stable buildings my family and I had passed on our way in about a mile from Great Falls’ walls.

Millie hopped off, this time not offering me any assistance. “No one’s been here since we got word of what was comin’. We’re safe to talk,” she said, pushing the creaking red door open.

I followed close behind, “Well, you’ve got me here. I’m all ears.”

She lit a few candles around the room. The stable office was less than impressive. Everything in here was made of wood and covered in cobwebs. I brushed some off as I took a seat.

Millie smiled at me, one that let me know she had more than a singular motivation for bringing me out here. “I like you, you’re adorable.”

I crossed my legs, lowering a brow at the suggestive undertone. “What happened to your wife?” I deadpanned, not beating around the bush.

“Dead,” she replied, her tone unattached from the statement. “Died in that first week, turned into one of those zombie shits.”Millie fiddled with the ring, sliding it off and placing it in the top drawer of the desk she leaned against. “I keep it on to keep those assholes from messing with me. No one tries a grieving widow.”

I smirked, thinking of Amaia and how that wassonot true with my new brother. He didn’t care one bit, I could tell. The fight at the river had solidified it. I could see right then and there how he would die for her. Didn’t know a single man in her life who wouldn’t. But Alexiares would do more than just die for her, he would kill for her too. I missed them, wished they were here. She was a lot better at this strategy mess than I was.

“What are you smilin’ about?” she asked, eyes curiously lit in the dim candlelight.

“My friend,” I said, and it was true. “But how that is a load of horse crap with her man.”

“You mean your general and the Bloodhound?”

Feathering through my hair, I tugged at the ends as I observed her warily. I’d said nothing of Alexiares, and as far as I knew, no one but Finley and those at The Compound knew he had acquainted himself with us, much less knew he traveled with us to Duluth. “So you know more than you let on,” I hissed.

“I knew enough to be comfortable inviting you in, my father cleared up the rest,” she countered.

I leaned back in my seat, letting the room fall mute. I wasn’t really sure why, just knew I’d seen Amaia make people squirm in her silence when she commanded power. Seth had said something one time about how whoever spoke first after a moment of silence lost, so I guess that’s what I would do now. Millie had dragged me here after all, it was time she came out with what she had to say.

She tsked, pressing herself off the desk and pulling a flask from the pocket of her coat. Her back turned to me as she strode across the room, returning with two glass cups in hand. Millie handed me one, and I accepted, watching her with narrowed eyes as she poured me a shot.

We sipped in silence, Millie studied me, a smoldering look on her tan freckled face. I knew exactly what she wanted, could feel it. Scratch that, I could practically taste it, the lust simmering off her was strong.

“I’m inclined to be on your side, Reina,” she said once the silence had gone on for too long. “There’s not many people up here like you and I, and if there are, they’re still stuck in more … traditional ways of living. My father’s a bigot, if you haven’t noticed. Makes people uncomfortable.”

I tapped my fingers against the arm of the chair. “I understand; my father was the same way.”

“It’s funny, you know, how they claim to love us still. Yet somehow, they can’t loveallof us. We’re their perfect little girls, ‘except.’” A humorless laugh left her heart-shaped lips.

I knew exactly what she meant; it was part of the reason I wanted to leave Montana behind. My brother assumed it was the ranch, but it was really the entirety of life out here in general. There was a place out there that was better for me, I’d always known that.

Venturing out into the city, where no one knew me, where I knew no one, that was the dream. Sure, my mother and brothers had accepted me, but my father, some of the comments he’d made at my expense had been cruel. None of them came to my defense. No one wanted to be on the other side of his remarks, but even still, I’d come to their aid, shifting attention from them to myself. They rarely did the same. Only in private had they offered me their support, and what was done in the dark in one Moore room, didn’t dare be brought to light in whichever one my father occupied.

“I wouldn’t trade my life out here for a thing though,” Millie continued. “I love it, the freedom, the fresh air. My horses. It’s why I never left, why I stayed even when the apocalypse came for us all.”

I shrugged, not knowing where she was going with this or what she expected me to say. “I get what you mean.”

“But you didn’t stay, did you? You ran.”

“I had no home to go back to,” I snickered, “burned it down to the ground.”

There was no benefit in telling her why, letting her know it was at my brother’s request, that it hadn’t been something I’d done willingly. I certainly didn’t reveal that in the end, I hadn’t been the one to fire off that flame wielding arrow, hadn’t had the stomach to. My brother had though, the same way he destroyed everything he touched that kept holding him back, including me.

“Of course you did,” Millie laughed, offering me another over-poured shot on bitter liquid. “I wish I could be as brave as you.”

Another person awarding me for unearned bravery. The girl who was deemed brave for simply existing, for playing her part at someone else’s command. I wished they would open their eyes and see it was wrong, I was only surviving, much like the rest of them.

---