Page 78 of Echoes of War

“Amaia!” Alexiares shouted, not too far in the distance.

Like a lovesick fool, the pain in his voice caught my attention. He sounded injured. The distraction cost me. Finley maneuvered around, graceful as a cat, slinking up behind me, knife to my throat.

Alexiares pushed through some brush coming into view. His eyes met mine, wide with fear. They scanned the scene, taking in the puddles of blood then landed on Finley, the cause of it all. Vines slithered up Finley’s ankles, crawling up her body and wrapping around her neck.

“Let her go, Finley,” he growled. “Your men are dead. There is no one else here to help you.” Alexiares’ eyes narrowed on her, marking her as a target. It was precisely that exact moment when I understood why they called himbloodhound.

Blood covered his face, his teeth, his hands, the entirety of the clothes he wore, but there wasn’t a single scratch on him. It wasn’t his blood. Right now, the man in front of me was biting down the urge, poised to snap this woman’s neck. Every ounce of him seethed with the threat of violence. He cracked his neck, hand on his gun. Alexiares watched Finley, staring her down like prey.

“Pity, I rather enjoyed the company they kept me in bed.” She teased, “I bet you enjoyed pulling Joey to pieces after the rather compromising position you found us in. Then there was the way he proudly pistol whipped your bitch in that field. That is what you did, didn’t you? Ripped him apart, limb from body, finger from hand? It is your signature after all. Creepy but no one ever laid it down the way you did, so I dismissed it. I miss that.”

I tossed my head back into her face, shattering her nose, returning the favor. Finley laughed through the pain, pressing the knife further into my jugular. A trickle of blood ran down my neck.

“Aw, you didn’t like that one did you,” Finley mocked. “I sense that the two of you have taken your relationship to the next level. Don’t worry, he knows I don’t mind sharing.”

Alexiares cocked his gun, aiming it right for the center of her head. “Touch her again, and I’ll take my time slicing you up then feed you to your fucking corpse.”

“Whatever happened to hey? How are you?More, Finny?” Finley chided, unimpressed.

“Get fucked,” I said, there was a special place in any version of hell for her.

“Gladly. All you two needed to do was ask.” I could hear the smirk on her face and I wanted to smack it right off. She paused, releasing a sigh before she continued, her grip loosening a bit. “First, I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say.”

I swiveled my head, aiming for her hand. I chomped down, drawing blood as she pulled back, giving me a chance to push myself away. Knocking the knife out of Finley’s hand, I spit out a chunk of her skin, blood trailing down my lips.

“If you wanted to talk, then maybe don’t start by attacking me. Might be more inclined to listen,” I said, voice throaty from the fight. Groaning from the pain, I set my nose back in place wanting the aching to stop so I could focus.

Alexiares’ gun stayed trained on Finley, his vines tightening. “Or set your sick fucks on me,” he added.

Finley cackled, “You think I would miss the opportunity to hit a bitch? Especially her? Never that.”

“You’re losing my interest, Finley,” Alexiares sighed impatiently, “that’s never a safe place to be.”

She bared her teeth at him, snapping her jaw. This was a fucking joke to her. I almost pitied her ignorance to the world around her. Almost, but not quite.

Alexiares fired a shot over her head, “Next one goes through the pearly whites, choose your next course of action carefully.”

“Urgh, no one likes the hero, Alexi.” Finley groaned, “Put it to rest, this one can clearly save herself.”

I looked at him, he studied my face before I gave him a nod and he lowered his gun.

“Ohhh. You always did do best working underneath a woman.” She winked at him. “I blocked the road off because I knew you’d never cross back through St. Cloud. You’d need to stop for the night, the best place for you to do that is with Lola and the other witch bitches.”

“Get to the point,” I commanded, already tiring of listening to the shrill of her voice. There was no need to ask how she knew that, Alexiares had already warned she had people watching the city.

She huffed in frustration. “Fuckers up there in Covert stole my invention, and I don’t like thieves.”

“Torturing people, cool. Stealing, bad. What invention?” Alexiares prodded, trying to push the point from her instead of letting her drag it out the way he knew she so enjoyed. “You tend to have a new one every other day.”

“More importantly why should we give a shit?” I questioned, leaning up against the bark of one of the trees.

“Because it affects you and that other girl too. The one with the visions. Affects all of us.”

Alexiares’ eyes darted to meet mine. I squinted, begging him to keep his mouth shut. We needed to let her speak. As much as I hated playing nice, she had information that concerned the people I love, which left us at her fucking mercy.

I closed in on her, smirking at the small flinch she tried to hide. “What is it that you think you know,Finny?”

Apparently, Finley and her network of spies had been busy since we attempted to burn their place to the ground. She’d discovered Covert Province had stolen an unfinished invention from her and maximized its potential. Where she had spent the last fewyears struggling to get it working as a one woman show, Covert had used their best to get it working.

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