Page 162 of Ashes of Honor
I turned back just as the ground beneath us erupted.
The blast tore through the world, a wave of searing heat and thunder that ripped me off my feet. I hit the ground hard, my ears ringing, the air knocked from my lungs.
The screen went black.
Our shield shattered.
And with it, everything fell apart.
Soldiers poured through the breach, their shouts mixing with the chaos. Grenades soared, each burst of magic erupting in flashes of blinding light. The civilians we’d been evacuating—the children—they were caught in the storm, their cries lost in the relentless crossfire.
But I couldn’t process it. Couldn’t move.
Amaia was everywhere. Her flames, her scream, her face burned into the inside of my skull.
Reina
The world was noise and silence all at once. The explosion swallowed everything, all concepts of sound, touch,taste. The ringing … the ringing in my ears wouldn’t stop.Stop. Please. Make it stop.My hands flew to my ears, covering them for protection. The deafening roar tuning with a sharpness that might carve through my skull.
I hit the ground hard, the air stolen from me, my vision splintering into shards. Pain erupted in my shoulder, my ribs, my hands scraped raw against the asphalt. My horse was gone. Bolted—or dead. Who the heck knew? I couldn’t think.
What happened?
I couldn’t seem to remember what led up to this moment in time.Oh, my God.
The ground shook beneath me, rippling as though it might split apart. Distant screams muffled under the weight of the ringing. The capitol building was gone. Blown apart. Shattered into dust and fire.
Amaia.
My stomach twisted. The image of her kneeling, fire pouring from her like a living thing, burned behind my eyelids. Her scream. His face.
“Reina? Are you watching, dear?”
My father’s voice echoed in my skull, cutting deeper than the explosion ever could.
“My greatest disappointment. Oh, how I’d ached for a better reunion. I wished better for you. For you both, Hunter. Do you see what happens when you’re too loud?”
I clawed at the ground, dirt and glass biting into my palms, trying to chase the words from my mind. He was dead too.
“Reina!”
The sound of my name came from somewhere far away, muffled and warped like it was underwater. Someone grabbed my arm, yanking me to my feet. Hunter. I raised my chin, his face streaked with soot and blood. Tears brimmed in his eyes, sliding down his face and carving through the ash. His lips moved, frantic, but I couldn’t hear him.
Devastation blurred in the background. Soldiers darted in and out of the smoke, shadows against a backdrop of flame. People screamed. From fear. From pain. From rage. I felt it all. But none shattered me the way the loss of my sister did.
Amaia was gone. And it was his fault.
Ronan. My father.
The ground beneath me felt funny. Squishy. I glanced down.
Tomás lay sprawled out across the asphalt, his bionic leg shattered into debris. He wheezed in pain, mumbling something indecipherable. A hard shove came from behind, and I whirled around. Moe hovered over Tomás, trying to stanch the blood pooling beneath him. She whimpered, looking up at me with empty, sobbing eyes. “Help—help him.”
I stumbled back, bile rising in my throat. My vision swam. I turned, gagging, and bent over. My father.Everythingalways came back to him. His greed. His cruelty. His bigotry.
“Reina, focus!” Hunter’s voice broke through the haze, his grip tightening on my arm as he pulled me away. It was then that I realized Serenity was attached to the other side of him, her eyes locked onto mine, desperate. “We can’t stay here.”
“Hunter,” I choked out. “I?—”
