Page 123 of Echoes of War

Nothing could break me.

Like so many women in history, I could not be broken, my fight could not be stolen. The only thing that would stop me is the ultimate price; my life. The loss of a powerful woman’s life doesn’t blow the flame of rebellion out. It turns it into a raging wildfire, one I now knew the people here would keep burning forever.

When I looked at my family around me, I only saw the motivation to keep going. I was never great at expressing myself. The love I had for all of them fueled me, almost as much as anger. Anger was one thing I was fucking great at. Somehow, someway, I’d become a leader of this great new part of our world. I only wished I could be better at it.

Misery emanated from Reina. She walked in tandem with me, covered head to toe in her old hunting gear. Camo cargo pants, camo long-sleeved shirt, brown combat boots. It was so … not her. Moe had braided Reina’s short hair back into two tight braids, accentuating her already taut features. I grabbed her arm, bringing us all to a brief halt.

“You know what lay beyond these walls, who we might face, both of you do,” I said, holding Moe’s stare, who matched Reina’s appearance. “No one will hold it against you if you find duties within the walls. You don’t have to stay at my side.”

Reina’s face softened, and I moved to brush one of the stray strands behind her ear. She smiled at me, a tense one but a smile nonetheless. “We’re at your side till the day you die, girl, nothing will ever change that.”

Moe’s morbid laugh acknowledged that day may be today, but she nodded in agreement, eyes glazing, lost in her own world. I wasn’t privy to all that had happened out on the road. The evidence laid before me let me take a solid guess that it had changedReina to her core. There wasn’t a chance in hell I’d be able to repay her.

“We have much to discuss,” I said, looking around at them all. We’d had not more than a few minutes since we’d gotten back to chat and check in with each other. “I want to hear all about it, how I can help us move forward. Let’s try to survive the day. After that, we have nothing but time to figure out the rest.”

Abel shook my shoulders from behind, pulling both Reina and I under his wing with a cheshire cat’s grin. “Let’s go, team, we’ve got some evil ass to kick.”

The sun trailed over the horizon, my heart pummeled against my chest. I hoped this would work, hadn’t allowed myself to stop and think what would come next if it didn’t. Not that there’d been the time. Going dark had kept anyone who had the higher point from spying on us. Covert thought they had a leg up on us, making moves in the night. One can’t prepare for what they can’t see, lurking in the woods, behind our walls, out in the field. Two could play in the game of stealth.

Riley had done well. He told me he questioned the validity of setting up the additional perimeter of the forest maze before my orders had come through, but it had actually worked in our favor. Less set up and all for what would now ensue.

“Can we run through the plan one more time, please?” Reina whisper-yelled from behind a tree-stump to my right.

I brought my finger to my lips, reminding her of the volume of a normal whisper. “We defend from out here with the rest of the troops. When Alexiares gives the signal, our soldiers hidden within the walls will emerge.”

Soldiers were everywhere, spanning over miles from The Compound. We’d been busy last night, though Covert wouldn’t know it until they arrived. We were everywhere, hidden in plain sight fromthe trees, to the overgrown fields, in trenches disguised as slumps in the earth. The list could go on. While most of the troops we’d deployed wouldn’t make it back in time, we had enough to defend our home.

“Remember the Alamo,” Riley muttered, proud of his understanding of my wish to make adjustments to the wall.

Reina’s face flushed in response. “Um, didn’t the Alamo fall?”

“Yes,” Moe said, a wicked smile pulling at her lips. “Not for a few days, though.”

I smacked the back of Moe’s head. Now wasn’t the time to tease Reina’s fears. “Some of them made it out, though. Ever heard of David Crockett and James Bowie? You’ll be famous either way, sister. Just like you always wanted.”

Reina sighed in relief. “Oh thank Jesus, Joseph, and Mary. I remember that hat! At least I’ll look good when they describe me,” she said, gesturing down to how she’d cropped her shirt into her bra, revealing a glimpse of her stomach. “Which ones made it out?”

“Women and children,” Alexiares added deviously.

My sister nodded, feeling better about the situation. “Well, most of them are locked up tight down in the bunker, so that’s good.”

“Yeah,” Moe deadpanned, “but we’re out here.”

Trickles of fear crawled over my body. I shuddered, trying to pretend I didn’t see the spiders Riley channeled netting thick, sticky webs across the trees down on the path.

“We’ll have a heads up. They have to break through the first layer of Finley’s shields before they get anywhere close to where we’re at. Inside the walls are safe. The immediate outer layer has a shield too, and so does the bunker. When they break through our first shield and the fighting commences, it’ll signal the watch tower to be on the lookout for trouble. They’ll be watching the battlefield. Alexiares is their commanding officer. He knows the playbook,” I said, though it made my stomach churn.

The rest of my family would be fighting by my side for as long as we could, but Alexiares would be far away. Or at least it felt as though he would be. Elie and Emma had refused to go into the bunker, like flat-out put up an actual fight of both magic and force. So I’d agreed; they would have to stay within the walls, only allowing them to help our soldiers set up our Plan B should our walls be breached.

If that happened, they’d go into a designated hiding spot within The Gardens. Alexiares would be there to make sure of that. It wasn’t sidelining him by any means. With Riley out here, intent on never being more than an arm span away from me, I needed someone else near the gates who I trusted with every fiber in my body. He hadn’t been happy about it. Frankly, I thought he and Riley would fight it out. One look at my face and the stress they were causing me had them settle things more amicably.

Riley had been here from day one. He planned most of our outer defenses and knew them like the back of his hand. It would be easier for Alexiares to memorize a smaller playbook, an offensive one with the option for defense instead of the other way around.

A loud boom sounded off in the distance, drawing our attention toward the direction it came from. West Gate. They were targeting the area where they assumed we’d be most vulnerable, where our people resided.Fucking Seth.

Another one echoed, causing us to whip around entirely, East Gate, where we’d have the least amount of defense. Then North Gate, then South. We were surrounded.

“You have to go,” I mumbled, not having the guts to say it louder, to say goodbye.

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