Page 133 of Ashes of Honor
Tomoe wasn’t far. She issued warnings, keeping the riders around her alive by inches. My heart fumbled when I landedmy sights on Abel. He struggled. His Plasma blade clumsy in his hand. No amount of training would make up for the loss of balance caused by an injury we were not ever sure would heal.
In his stubbornness came weakness—not by injury, but ego. Now I was forced to watch as he suffered the consequences of denying Reina’s help.
The ice beneath him cracked, a hole forming and slipping two soldiers beneath the ice.
“No.”
Abel slid, his foot plunging through the fragile surface. He caught himself on the edge, abandoning his weapon, arm trembling as the freezing water surged around him. With great effort, he pulled himself back up.Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Shit.” Alexiares appeared at my side as the fractures spread, the weight of too many bodies forcing the river’s hand. The bulk of their army was now spread along the Mississippi for as far as the eye could see, but the ice was failing faster than I’d planned. It wouldn’t hold.
“Reina!” I shouted, the desperation tearing at my throat. She needed to get to Abel. Yet she could not hear me.
I grabbed the nearest officer, pulling him close. “Get a runner down there. Pull the cavalry back!Now!”
He nodded, wide-eyed, and sprinted off, but I knew it was too late. I had a choice to make.
An explosion tore through the river’s edge. The ice fractured violently, the sound like thunder splintering the sky. Soldiers screamed as they plunged into the freezing water, the surface collapsing beneath them. Archers fired blindly, and one arrow found its mark.
Reina fell. Her horse went down with her.
“No!” I strangled in my throat. Alexiares grip was the only thing keeping me standing.
Tomoe turned, her face pale, but her warning came too late. Abel, bleeding heavily, staggered as the ice gave way beneath him. He vanished beneath the water, the current swallowing him whole.
My mind split—one part calculating, the other shattering. I was a leader. I knew what had to be done. I knew what I had to sacrifice. The war didn’t care that Abel was my family. That Reina was my sister. That losing them would rip me apart.
I needed them alive. I needed them breathing.
Hesitation meant losing everything.
“Break the ice.”
“What?” Alexiares whipped his head around, eyes wide as he took in the scene where our friends had previously been, their absence now noted.
“Break it! Now!” I roared, panic lacing my voice.
“Ma’am?” General Trevan protested, his voice tight with concern as he stepped closer. “You want us to break the ice? Our soldiers?—”
“Shouldn’t be on it. They were warned. Now,break the damn ice,” I snapped, the words cutting through his hesitation.
Trevan didn’t argue. He signaled his unit, holding Alexiares’s stare as they flung out their hands. Fire erupted along the river’s surface. The heat melted through the ice, the cracks spreading faster, consuming everything in their path.
“Freeze it!” I commanded as soon as the explosions stopped. This had to work …neededto work. But if my timing was off for even half a second …
Magic surged. Ice crawled over the water, jagged and unyielding, trapping soldiers where they fell. Screams rose again, this time choked and desperate as men drowned or froze in place.
“Fetch anyone still breathing.” I barked at the remaining soldiers. “Ours—not theirs. Be quick about it.”
Holy shit, it worked.Kansas forces had been decimated. The only survivors were trapped in the trenches, their screams a cruel harmony to the roar of the river swallowing its own.
I tried to feel relief. Tried to tell myself this was necessary. That their deaths weren’t in vain. But guilt bled through the cracks like water through fractured stone, soaking me to the core. I hadn’t done it to limit our losses—I’d issued my orders to limitmine. I turned away as the cries of the dying faded into the bitter wind. No pity, no hesitation. Not until I reached them. My family.
I sprinted toward the river, my legs moving on instinct. Riley caught up, steam curling from his mouth in the cold, ax dragging a crooked line in the mud.
“War is brutal,” I replied, voice flat. I ignored the urge to turn around.
A deafening scream cut through my spiraling thoughts. My eyes locked on a cluster of Pansies tearing through the crowd. Kansas soldiers now turned into weapons of experiment. They moved with terrifying precision, eyes glowing with intelligence, their voices sharp as they barked commands to each other. Communicating. Coordinating.
