Page 6 of Echoes of War

“That’s helpful.” Sloan mocked, “We can’t exactly place an ad in the local newspaper.”

“I may know someone.”

Every head in the room swiveled in Alexiares’ direction.Of course he does.

“There’s an underground network,” he said, unfazed. “Something comparable to what the black market might offer.”

“What? So we place an order? We’re not searching for objects, we’re looking forpeople. People we aren’t even entirely sure still exist or will come out of hiding like this one,” Sloan’s words were acidic.

Amaia flashed a glare in warning, daring her to continue. Credit given when credit is due. She’d taken up for Reina and I, despite our differences as of late. It was noted and somewhat appreciated.

I could see how she and Sloan had been best friends. They fed off each other’s energy. Their equal levels of intensity induced a never-ending spiral of chaos. Pushing each other to work harder, to make better decisions. Sloan was cutthroat, but the sad thing was, she was often right. As was Amaia, to my displeasure.

Realization set in. “More than objects are sold in the black market. They’re selling us?” I mumbled.

“Not selling.” Alexiares shook his head, his bright brown eyes glowing in the dim light. “They’re running the damn thing.Brujas.”

Amaia

There wasn’t much to say after Alexiares’ little revelation. The only way for us to move forward was to wait until a connection was established and he got an idea on how many practitioners he could gather.Ifhe could, otherwise the plan would fail. Grossly enough, I had faith in him.

A person as notorious as him didn’t get by far without the resources to help them. There was also the fact that he would do whatever it took to keep the only friend he’d ever had, Tiago’s brother safe. To him, there was no option but to succeed.

“Tomoe, keep working on the fine details. I expect to have something tangible soon. Amaia, figure out the rest.” Sloan commanded, her voice dead as she turned to walk out the room. She waved her arm at me on her way out, brushing me off nonchalantly.

Her Tinkerers took one glance around at who they’d remain alone with if they stayed. Their gazes hovered between Alexiares and I, before scrambling after her. Not that they’d be much safer with her. I hated to admit it, but I wasn’t sure who my friend had become.

I clenched my fists. Somehow, I’d become someone who answered to her, yet her troops now answered to me.Wewere the reason her people had stopped dying by the masses.Wewere the ones strengthening their forces and their defenses, sharing what knowledge we had to make their people safer. None of that changed how she looked down on us. Made sure we knew she thought us responsible for bringing this to her side of the world, for her people falling. Fair enough, we kinda were.

Alexiares briefly closed his hand over mine in support. A weird sense of calm washed over me in response. I was here to do a job, not to make friends. Few things mattered aside from keeping people safe, preventing the devil incarnate from taking over this land. Failing meant I would be single-handedly responsible for letting what remained left of society fall to the hands of evil. There was no freedom, no peace, in a government that operated off the absence of choice.

The rest was bullshit. I didn’t need respect, people to like me, or hell, even acknowledge the help I’d been providing, to get the job done. Reina and Tomoe stared at me stone-faced, their shoulders slouched in defeat as they awaited their orders.

“If you need anyone to bounce ideas from, come find me,” I said; Tomoe continued staring at me blankly. “Reina, focus on gathering materials she needs to perform the spell.”

“Ritual,” Tomoe ground out.

“Ritual,” I corrected, “Alexiares, I’m assuming there’s someone in the area you’ve established a connection with?”

He nodded at me, his brown eyes locking on mine then slid to my lips. The same level of amusement fixed on his face that hadalways laid there when I fell into general mode. Except, before it had been mocking. Tinged with disrespect. Now it made my damn heart flutter. I pushed the feeling away, this wasn’t the time. Right now, I had to focus on the mission—keeping people safe. Free.

Against my own desires, the responsibility I had over thirty-thousand men, women, and children of Monterey Compound had shot up to include the entirety of Duluth overnight. Sloan had executed the former general when he’d declined to follow several of my recommendations. His refusal to work with me led to fifty of their men falling to a massive herd of upgraded Pansies.He’s outlived his usefulness, my friend had said, emotion absent in her almond-shaped eyes.

Her heart had turned cold throughout the years, though I suspected most of it had come from the last few months. Deciding who lived and who died could fuck a person up, I got it too well. We were all susceptible to doing terrible things for the people we love.

In all fairness, his inability to accept a woman as a military advisor had been only a small blip on his long list of fuckups as a general.

“I need to send out some logistics with the next wave of emissaries to depart. The rest of my day will be spent trying to fix what I can of their mess of a military. You know where to find me,” I said, waiting for them to object, a tendency they developed toward nearly everything I said these days.

The only response I received was uncomfortable silence.

“Anything else?” Reina asked, refusing to meet my eye.

“Yeah, one more thing,” I paused, hesitant to pose the question at the tip of my tongue. “Has anyone sensed Seth try to connect?”

A collective chorus of, “No,” went around the room. Alexiares’ response wasn’t necessary as Seth had never entered his mind before, but with us, it was so natural; it was possible he could be there withoutus knowing.

Reina and Tomoe were learning what had sucked the desire to live out of me in the months that followed in Jax’s passing. The day that you lose someone, the day that person is no longer capable of holding space in your life, that’s not the worst day. No, the worst is when you’re left with nothing but time to think, to let your mind wander and convolute a series ofwhat ifs. The worst are all the days they stay gone. Where the possibility of forming new memories somehow becomes impossible.

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