Page 100 of Ashes of Honor
Not so much of a suggestion as an end to the conversation. No one argued, though not a single soul appeared happy about it, including our closer allies.Lucky me. At least they’d realized they needed me to even make it that far.
The expressions on Harper and those aligned with Aberdeen hinted a wet day dream on my future assassination. They were vocal, loud, but not stupid. They’d bide their time, use me for all they could, and once I served their purpose … it was clear they had no regards for what happened to me after this was all said and done.
Thank you to the powers that may be. At least no one had questioned the distraction portion of my plan. My family knew the basics, but not the part they’d hate the most.
“You can’t do that.”
Fucking mother of Jesus himself. These people …I didn’t have the energy to replace yet another leader, or in this case, General of San Jose. But if it came to that? Fine. I’d do it. We nolonger had the privilege of fighting a war with honor and tact to beat someone like Ronan Moore and his sycophants.
“Try and stop me,” I said with a daring tilt of my head.
The scrawny man scoffed, tossing a hand in the air as if my words were nothing but noise. “Yeah, right.”
I offered him no more than a simple shrug before crossing the room, weaving through the mess of chairs. The room buzzed with tension as I grabbed him by the arm and yanked him to his feet.
“If only this lesson had been taught already.” Moe slid into the room, half-laughing. Alexiares leaned back against the wall, one hand holding the door open for her and Reina to slide in, the other in his pocket, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips.
Their general couldn’t have been more than a few years my senior. He stammered, trying to find a way out, but there was none. “I want you to kneel,” I said, my voice low, commanding.
“Excuse me?” he managed, continuing on with his bravado even though I could feel him shaking beneath my grip.
Before I could go further, Reina’s sharp tone sliced through the room. A wave of calm slammed into me. She could sense the others’ reactions. I needed to keep my calm—for now. “Amaia. Enough.”
I dropped the collar of his shirt with an animalistic growl, still holding his stare with the promise of more to come. “I won’t bash your fucking face in for insubordination if you kneel. We’ve been through this once—ask my soldiers how many times I’ve repeated my orders to them.”
There were a handful of my top soldiers present, here to set an example for the others, Miller of course, front and center. The room sat in stunned silence as they shifted to attention without need for the command. “None, ma’am,” they said in unison.
“Well, would you look at that?” I smoothed out my clothes, regaining my composure with the help of Reina’s magic,warming me in an empathetic hug. “You cannot repeat yourself in the heat of battle without risking the life of the person fighting next to you. I won’t have that on my head. Now bow.”
His expression wavered, caught between hesitation and seething anger. A blip of joy grew into something ravenous as I watched him teeter on the edge of action.
“Allow me to restate myself one final time. This only works if there is one,” I stated, weighing the pros and cons of kicking him down to his knees, ultimately deciding the impact of him doing it on his own would be all the more satisfying. “ONE. Not several. Not ten. Certainly not over forty. But one general. One rallying point. One leader. That person is me. So kneel, bow, whatever you want to call it, but bend. Your fucking. Knee.”
Alexiares wandered to the other side of him. The threat was subtle, but clear. A glimmer of pride shining in his eyes. “Now.”
“Can you please just do it already so we can get this whole war thing over with?” Finley drawled from her side of the stark, sterile room. “I miss my boyfriend. I’m ready to go home.”
Alexiares damn near snorted and met my humored stare. “Which one?”
“All of them.” Finley snapped, her tone no longer teasing, but reminiscent of the woman who tortured me for days in St. Cloud.
Working with her went against everything I believed in. She was vile and had zero redeeming qualities outside of her intelligence. If I could suck it out of her brain and implant it into Reina’s, the world would be better for it. Oddly enough, that invention hadn’t been one of her successful endeavors, according to Alexiares.
His knees hit the ground with a pleasant, orgasmic thud. I crossed my arms across my chest, my foot extending to push him down to his ass. “Lieutenant’s name?”
He glanced up at me from the floor, eyes narrowed, the snarl on his ugly face menacing. “Rossi.”
I caught sight of Caleb at the door. He hovered, waiting, watching, doing his best to notice anyone else in the room who was a bit too shifty for our taste. “Caleb.” I tossed my head.
He made his way out, the thud of the door sounding more like thunder than the soft close it was. I sighed. “General Rossi has a nice ring to it, I think.” I took my foot off his chest, releasing him from his spot of shame. “Get up,Lieutenant. I won’t have this discussion with you again.”
Reina
“Still holding your breath when you aim?”
I glanced up at my brother with a smile, keeping my eyes on him as I fired away. “Still making dumb comments when I’m busy outperforming you?”
He whistled, leaning casually against the post, his hands shoved in his pockets. “Cocky as ever.”
