Page 115 of Ashes of Honor
“They’re fine,” he said, his voice ragged but firm. “Out gathering supplies. Painkillers, herbs—whatever’s left out there. They’ll be back soon.”
For half a second, it seemed like the worst had passed.
The soldier across the room convulsed, foam frothing at his lips, his back arching unnaturally.
“Seizing!” a clearly battered combat medic yelled.
Hunter was already moving, but before he reached the first, another soldier stumbled off the table now turned cot. Then another. They fell like dominos.
“If I have to say what the fuck one more time today …” I growled. My grip tightened on my blade, ready for whatever fresh hell was about to hit us.
My heart pounded in my skull as my eyes locked with Amaia’s. The dread in hers mirrored what was clawing at my chest. She glanced at Reina’s leg, then up to her face, pale and barely conscious, before flicking her gaze back to me.
“Shit,” she hissed.
“If you two could clue me in to what the hell is happening right now, that would be great.”
“Pansies,” I answered Tomoe.
That single word was enough. Moe’s hand instinctively went to Wrath. Time slowed. Across the room, Hunter froze mid-step, his eyes widening in realization.
People around us were already panicking, and they didn’t even understand just how fucked we were. The ripple of fear spread faster than the seizures.
Amaia didn’t hesitate. “If they’re stable and not bit, get them behind closed doors. Barricade yourselves in and don’t you dare open them without my command.”
The screams from inside that room would haunt any survivors forever. One by one, soldiers fell as they turned—cut down by General Clayton Harper, Hunter, Tomoe, Amaia, and me. Without pause. No hesitation.
Each kill was clean, but that didn’t make it any easier. These were our people once—soldiers, comrades, humans. Now they were nothing more than husks driven by the infection, their eyes vacant, their bodies moving on instinct. Finley had warned us all, yet we had remained woefully unprepared.
The silence was suffocating when the last one dropped. Blood soaked the floor, pooling around our boots as the weight of what we’d done pressed down like lead.
Amaia’s voice cut through the oppressive quiet. “Have the medics check for anyone else bitten, keep an eye on them all, even the ones that show no sign of turning. As for these two”—She pointed toward a pair of turned soldiers previously strapped down for amputation, one from Monterey and the other from Duluth, their bodies twitching faintly as the infection worked through them—”We need … data, even if they can’t give it willingly.”
General Bennett didn’t flinch, didn’t falter. That was her strength.
With all that I’d seen since arriving at their gates, our people wouldn’t question the call—they knew it wasn’t malice. It was war. Brutal, unrelenting, where hesitation got you killed and mercy was a luxury none of us could afford. They didn’t need reminding of that. Didn’t need a speech about the weight of their choices. They already knew the score.
I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and I turned toward Reina. She was awake now, her storm blue eyes wide with fear.
“Am I gonna die?” Reina asked, the fear widening her eyes, lips trembling.
I held her stare and reached for her hand. Her fear was palpable. Reina and I had come to understand one another. I’d never let her know, but she was kind of my favorite. An annoying little sister of sorts. I couldn’t lie to her, not with the gifts she possessed. I wouldn’t even if I could. “I hope not.”
Reina searched my face for something she knew was there—from what she understood of my past. All she wanted at this moment was a promise I couldn’t make out loud: if she turned, I’d be the one to end it. Not her brother. Not Tomoe. Not ever Amaia. I nodded slowly in agreement.
Amaia
“First person to move toward you is fucking dead,” Alexiares growled at my back.
The cold steel in his voice sent a chill down my spine. He meant every word, and I was thankful for the sentiment. Alexiares grounded me in a way that nothing else could. My thumb rubbed over the bare skin of my ring finger. I’d never expected to wear another ring again, but now the absence of his cut deeper than I cared to admit. At least he was here.
I had him—and I had Elliot. That was about the only guarantee as we approached the doors that hung off the hinges of Royal Oaks City Hall.
Moe and Hunter had stayed behind with Reina. Watching over her and tending to the other injured … waiting. We knew the grim odds. Understood they were fifty-fifty. If you were bitten today, it was a coin toss on whether you’d be one of those things by tomorrow. After the first hour, we didn’t witness any others turn. But the waiting, unknowing of what could come later—that was its own kind of hell.
“If they make a move, let them,” I said quietly. “It’s our law. Either I put them down, or they take me down. Each settlement has the right to challenge me individually for their loss. Fair is fair.”
“Fuck fair.” The anger cracked in Alexiares’s voice.
