“Our gates are closed,” she continued, removing the ammo and weapons off the extra two fallen bodies. A loose curl snagged on the rifle she hitched over her shoulder and she pulled it free with the tilt of her neck. “Closed, as in, I already have to excuse a hundred new faces somehow?—”
“What’s another ten?” Reina challenged.
Amaia’s jaw ticked, “Another ten I don’t have time to prove the merit and goodwill of. Get your stuff, Reina, we’re leaving.”
Reina reached back for her gun and I popped it in her hand. She slipped it into her waistband with a dramatic huff. Her feet dragged as she followed Amaia who was already back at the driver door of ‘our’ van.
“At least they get to keep their lives,” Abel said. It was an attempt to show her the light of the situation but it had the exact opposite effect.
Reina swiveled in place, causing Abel to flinch back in surprise. “Will they though? We can take them back, help them.”
“In a few days the gates will be closed for good. Resident of Elko or Sacramento. A random person from within the territory. Doesn’t matter, they won’t make it in. We have higher priorities than figuring out who these people are and whether they’re lying to our fucking faces.”
“What reason would they have to lie to us?” Reina popped the question back to me. “We didn’t even give them the chance to explain themselves.”
Amaia sighed, unmoving from her stance at the van. Her fingers danced on her thighs as she nibbled on her bottom lip. “I cannot account for more mouths to feed than we already have. Things are just now getting back under control, and for the moment, the new additions to Monterey Compound have been peaceful. I’m unsure how many stragglers are out there and I’ll have to turn away some soon enough to make the space your brother will be filling. I’m sorry, Reina, but no. They can keep all that’s here or we can kill them now to save them the pain of whatever life is left out there. But we have to go. Get your stuff and get in the car.”
“Kill? Have you lost your marbles?” Reina screeched at the same time Abel hollered.
“What the hell. I’m not killing anyone without cause.”
“Without cause?” Amaia said, striding back over to the van. “Those two,” she pointed, “The mean motherfuckers in the back, stripped off their vests, which is the same shitourguards have on. They tried to tuck it behind them like we’re fucking blind. Theinnocentlooking one with the half-baked teenager in front of her like a shield? See the marking on the back of their necks. Covert.”
I yanked the teenage boy away from his mother and pressed him flat against the truck bed. A lion was branded on his skin,beneath a small “O.”Outskirts?Was this a clue at the infamous zone Jessa and our tortured little soldier feared? Amaia wasn’t done. She’d already assessed the occupants of this van with zero interest in excuses or explanations. They could be victims. Like us. Or, it could all be a ruse.
Given what we knew about Hunter’s connection, Ronan’s knowledge of our movements, and the bounty on our heads, anyone we encountered was guilty by default. Survival demanded it. Sparing the wrong person now could cost us later.
I couldn’t ignore the irony—our alliance with the rebellion existed only because Amaia had once spared one of theirs.
Abel found his strength and placed himself between Amaia and the van. “Look at me, Amaia!” She took him in with only a flicker of acknowledgment. “We still help people, no matter the potential cost. You understand? That is who we are on a fundamental level. I didn’t sign up to lose that.”
“No,” Amaia said. “You signed up for your freedom from familial ties and to follow orders that fall into the law of our home: Compound first.”
Her throat bobbed as she studied the other faces among those she’d already labeled. “If I’m too hopeful, too optimistic, we die. If I’m too negative, too skeptical, we die. If I don’t overestimate our opponent—We. Are. Dead. If you can’t tell, Ronan is both capable and willing to do whatever till whatever end. So we have to be too. You all wanted me to make decisions, take charge, look! I’m fucking doing it! And now that I am, it’s a problem. Everyone wants a leader, someone to make decisions and work through the bullshit, but when I do, no one likes the answer.”
Her frustration crackled in the air between us, her expression drawn tight. I’d seen it one too many times when it came to Amaia. She wasn’t just mad—she was tired. Tired of having to bethe one to weigh every risk, to make choices she could never take back.
Pretty, brown eyes filled with strength commanded my attention. I granted her the look we’d shared now more than a handful of times; the one that said I was ready to do whatever the hell she wanted. Her request was my command. Reina pushed her power into the world, demanding the situation unfold the way she desired. She could not change Amaia’s mind, not with words, not with pushing for control by manipulation of emotions—but shecouldtug on that sisterly connection she shared with Amaia. She could let her know exactly how walking away or killing them would make her feel.
Amaia let out a short, humorless laugh, shaking her head before tipping her face toward the blindingly bright, cloudless sky. “Goddamn it,” she muttered, dragging a hand down her face. “Fine. Whatever. They come in after dark.Youand Abel go out to get them. Handle the intake and have their files on my desk at first light—fully detailed. I want to know the damn name of the doctor that signed their birth certificates. The Covert two stay behind. Kill the two dipshits in the back or Alexiares will.”
“Your way’s guaranteed to be more humane than mine.” I warned Reina, who muttered something under her breath that sounded similar to a reluctant victory.
“I got it,” Abel said, firing two quick shots without hesitation and ignoring the yelp of the others. “Covert out, or I … well, out now beforehedecides what to do with you. Everyone else decides whose driving. We’ll see you tonight. Monterey Compound, South Gate.”
I stepped away, leaving Reina and Abel to take care of the rest. My gaze lingered as the Covert woman and her son rushed out of the van and made a beeline for the main road. Wherever the hell we were, they had a long way back type of shelter or food.
Wiping the blood from my hands onto my cargo pants, I gripped the door and inhaled deep. The metallic tang still clung to the air. My boots crunched against the ground as I leaned against the frame and peered in.
Amaia sat there, her shoulders squared, head titled enough to catch the light streaming through the windshield and warming her sienna skin. Even now, smeared with grit and guts, she was something no short of divine—untouchable and all-consuming. Persephone, draped in shadows she hadn’t asked for but wore better than anyone else.
I climbed in and shut the door behind me. She caught me still staring, her dark eyes narrowed and made my pulse spike. “What?” Amaia asked.
Sinking into my seat, the smirk I could no longer fight took over. “Just admiring how dangerously beautiful you are inGeneral mode.”
“If I recall correctly, you used to hate that.”
“Yeah,” I said, letting the silence between us stretch. I watched as Reina and Abel made their way back in the side-mirrors. The car shook as they climbed in and closed the door, slapping the divider in indication they were ready to go. “I was a dumbass. I thought we already established that.”
