Page 38

Amaia

“ H e should be back by now,” I paced the contoured walkway atop the wall.

It was impossible to tell in the darkness of the night but if he were close, I would have felt it. I knew I shouldn’t have let him run off on his own. It was what he did, his job at St. Cloud Compound at least, but here, in today’s turmoil, I’d misjudged the weight of this task. No, you can’t think that way. But it was hard not to.

Doubting myself was dumb. I didn’t doubt any of the other calls I made in the field. Everything happens for a reason, and if Alexiares was late, then he had a reason to be. Perhaps him being tardy had saved his life in some other aspect. Who the hell knew? Not me. Worrying would only serve as a distraction.

Hunter came to my side, taking in the sea of fires sprawling the foreseeable distance. Ronan’s soldiers had appeared at dawn two days ago. Apparently Alexiares had been efficient in San Jose and our consequences had come swift.

“Sunrise is an hour out. Fog’s rolling in,” Hunter said with no real emotion. Only fact.

Reina shuffled behind me, her floral scent breaking through the dewy morning stench of grass. “We have time.”

“No, we don’t,” I mumbled. It was already a fifty-fifty chance of a fight out and I had to have trust. “He’s fine. If he isn’t here, then he’ll know to meet us there. He’ll track us. Ye of little faith, Reina.”

Offering her a tap in the shoulder, I carried the false confidence all the way down the ladder, allowing myself only one quiver of the lip now that I was out of sight. This meeting could make or break us, but leaving my people behind with Ronan so close risked everything. I ran the numbers through my head once more. It is a calculated risk. You cannot defend with your numbers alone.

Tomoe was the first to hop down after me. Her hazy eyes studied me. “You were right to put Luna in charge. The people trust her and her transparency will help calm their concerns.”

I’d spent the night weighing the pros and cons with Riley. Ultimately, we’d decided that trusting our people to revert to their training over hysteria was the way to go. We’d run simulations on how to handle an attack since the last one. Sure, Ronan’s emissaries may have tipped him off here and there, but they didn’t know everything . There were ways to inform our people without them knowing. Secrets Ronan couldn’t touch.

This was a matter of survival. One unit, one compound. That would always keep us alive, inspire people to protect each other. I would be back soon. The same way I trusted Alexiares, Riley, and Luna to take care of business, I had to trust the people of Monterey Compound could do the same.

I nodded, the others soon falling in line as we made our way from North Gate, through GLQ and toward the earth slide. It had proven oddly useful. Ten points for Riley’s knack for innovation . Given the time of day, the pathways and side streets should have been quiet but not today, not when everyone knew who sat outside our gates. Sleep wouldn’t find any of them anytime soon.

The sky was still pitch black, pink and orange yet to crest over the horizon. TV shows, movies, they never really showed the perspective on exactly how fucking dark it is in the middle of the night. Thankfully, the clear sky lighting our way would serve as enough of a guide until the clouds not too far off rolled in along with the morning fog.

A hand fell upon my shoulder for support. We’d have to guide each other for a while with only the silhouette of the person before you as reference. I led the way, my knowledge of the lay of our land serving to our advantage. Hunter was behind me, Reina next, then Serenity, Caleb, and Moe at the rear. Exactly as we’d practiced. I didn’t feel an ounce of guilt disguising my lack of trust as defensive tactics against whatever we ended up facing in the dark. We kept a steady pace, needing to clear the areas Ronan’s troops lingered by sunrise or we’d be shit out of luck.

Twenty minutes and one mile. That’s as far as we got before the fog rolled in place of the rising sun in the sky before realizing we were fucked. I sensed them before I heard them. That creaky- clicking, throaty sound of Pansies. Then their mildewy, rotten smell filled my nostrils. I couldn’t see them through the cloudy, thick white fog, but I sure as hell could smell them, and there were a lot.

With Pansies, a lot ranged from a group of five to over a hundred. There was no way to tell with the way we were trapped in the haze of a Monterey morning. Right now, at this very moment, it sounded like maybe ten. That was only for our immediate vicinity. Only time would tell if they had spread out from a herd with the confusion of the fog or if a few of the plenty was all we were dealing with.

“Nobody. Move. A. Muscle,” I said, my voice a harsh whisper.

The inability to identify how many walked among us left us at an extreme disadvantage. With visibility reduced to nothing, I judged that engaging only when necessary was the best bet. Clicking with complex patterns echoed around us. Ronan’s experiments.

These weren’t OGs.

OGs were predictable—mindless, slow, and easy to dispatch if you stayed alert. But these? These were something else entirely. Faster. Smarter. They communicated, their patterns of movement coordinated in ways that defied what we thought we understood. And if we got caught by one, it wouldn’t be alone for long.

I tempered my breathing, hoping, praying, the others were doing the same. No matter how many you killed, the complete terror of confronting them never went away.

Time dragged as we held our position, even though I knew it had been just a few minutes. My legs burned, muscles trembling under the pressure of remaining utterly still. The damp chill of the air clung to my skin, mixing with the sweat that had soaked through my shirt. Then the wind shifted. A faint rustle reached my ears, just enough to send my heart stopped.

“Fuck,” I hissed, my hand already closing around the hilt of the blade at my waist. “Make it quiet and make it quick,” I commanded the others and chaos erupted.

I couldn’t see shit between the dense fog and the early morning sun. The concern wasn’t necessarily the Pansies but making sure we avoided each other. Sound became our lifeline, guiding us in the blind field of death. Something moved to my left. I swung on instinct, my blade finding purchase in the throat of a Pansie. The flesh gave way with a wet, sickening sound. I yanked the blade free, driving it upward into its skull before it could lunge again.

Jaws clamped open then shut behind me. Fingers sharp as talons raked at the uncovered skin of my forearm. One at my six, another at one o’clock. I ducked and sheathed the blade back in the holster, falling to a side lunge position. With the same movement, I grabbed one of the twin blades and twirled it forward, the hilt firm in my grip. Rising to my feet, I pivoted sharply, spinning in a full circle. The blade’s edge met resistance—twice—slicing clean through two Pansies’ necks with force. The strain rippled through my core, each muscle screaming from the effort.

The sharp whistle of an arrow grazed past my ear. “Reina,” I snapped.

“To be fair, I threw that,” her voice called out, closer than I’d expected.

“There’s this thing called a knife,” Tomoe shouted from somewhere ahead. “Use it.”

“I lost it,” Reina admitted, her floral scent cutting through the surrounding stench of death as she moved to my side.

I sighed, yanking the knife from my hip and pressing it into her hand. “Don’t lose this one.”

“Thank ya kindly,” she chirped, and then she was gone again, slipping back into the fray.

The fog loosened, no longer swallowing the sound and movement of our fight. We needed to end this quickly. I swung my blade low, severing a Pansie’s leg at the knee before I leaped on top and drove the knife into its skull. Hunter’s deep grunt echoed as he grappled with one, punching with pointed brass knuckles into its head with brutal efficiency.

To my right, Serenity’s voice cut through the chaos. “Caleb, duck!” A boomerang flew in the direction of her shout and cut through a Pansies gaping mouth as it lunged for Caleb. He rolled to his feet, his saber sword flashing in the muted light. It cleaved through a neck while then slid out in perfect timing to embed in a skull with a sickening crack. Serenity stood, watching Caleb with relief to have not had to witness his death.

“Serenity, move!” Hunter bellowed. His hatchet became a blur, sweeping in an arc that split two Pansies in half.

Serenity sidestepped and raised a hand instead of reaching for her dagger. A Pansie lunged, slamming to a sudden stop midair, its limbs spasming as if caught in an invisible vice. She flicked her fingers, and the creature whipped sideways, crashing into another with a bone-crunching thud. Only then did she draw her dagger, finishing off a smaller one that had slipped past Hunter’s range.

I had just enough time to see a shadow surge at my side. Twisting, I raised my blade, catching the Pansie mid-leap. The momentum drove me backward, and my back hit the ground hard. White stars soured my vision but the loss of breath hurt me more. It fell atop me and I pointed the blade up in a defensive motion. Then the weight vanished.

The Pansie shot upward, flung into the air as if a giant hand had yanked it back. It crashed down hard, skull cracking against the hard ground. I sucked in air, my chest heaving, as Serenity lowered her hand. Her silence said it all— You owe me one .

The field was a frenzy of snarls and glinting steel, but slowly, the sounds thinned. By the time the last Pansie fell, we were panting, bloodied, but alive.

“Everyone okay?” I asked, forcing my voice to stay steady despite the lingering adrenaline.

“Hands out, let me assess,” Reina said, already moving to check on Tomoe.

Hunter moved with his sister, checking her over before moving on to Serenity. “I’ll help.”

I straightened, my eyes scanning the group. We were all still standing. For now, that was enough.

“Let’s get moving,” I said, not granting the group more than a few moments to catch their breath. “Fog will clear out soon and the sun’s nearly up.”

Serenity offered me a sarcastic salute, her face covered in guts and gore. “After you, General.”