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MARA

J avier was alive. My mother was alive. They were both alive .

And not just alive, but the leaders of an army. I just couldn’t wrap my brain around it. She was right here, right in front of me. Talking as though she had always been around, always been present.

But she wasn’t.

She left me. She left me, and she never came back.

“You want us to believe that you’ve been amassing a force in the Blue Ridge Mountains?” Marissa’s voice sang her skepticism.

My mother’s expression was unreadable. “You can believe whatever you like. That choice is yours. But whether you believe it or not doesn’t change the facts. And the facts are that I have an army ready for war, and you need us.”

Sasha drummed her fingers on the table, sitting to my left. “Was President Laurence a part of this?”

Nora shifted her gaze to Sasha. “No.” Then it narrowed on Wes. “A little young to be president, don’t you think? What happened to your father?”

Sheets of ice came off Wes in massive waves, seconds away from triggering the next ice age. “He died. Care to join him? ”

Nora smiled. “Not really. I mention it only to highlight that you have a problem.”

“I fail to see how my age is a problem—”

“Not your age, Mr. President, but your position in this war. You’re outgunned, outmanned, and when you took over your father’s house, you failed to eliminate all threats.”

Wait a minute. What was she talking about? I looked at Wes, noticing him paling.

“Enough, Nora.” It was Sasha this time, and her words lashed out like a disapproving mother. “Tell us what you want and be done with it.”

Nora casually pulled out a chair and sat, leaning back with smooth confidence. “We all share a common enemy, and we all want to see him out of power. I’m willing to assist you in eliminating Raúl under one condition.”

We all stared at her, but she merely looked at us…waiting.

Wes’s hand curled into a fist. “Which is …?”

She smiled. “When the war is over, the UFA is reinstated into a republic. You can keep your factions, but the people vote for their representatives in free elections, with term limits for the councilmen of the republic.”

Marissa and Sasha exchanged glances. I blinked, a little surprised. That didn’t seem so bad.

Nora continued. “Serena died with the hope that we would succeed in our mission, and I have dedicated myself to it ever since. You need soldiers, and I’ve got ‘em. You need a plan to take Raúl down, and I’ve got the answer to your prayers.

All it takes is you renouncing your titles and accepting democracy.

Those are my terms. Take it or leave it. ”

Well, hot damn. I may be unsure on how I felt about my mom, but if what she claimed she wanted for the UFA was true, I could get behind that. I could get behind eliminating all the monarchies and bringing the regions back together under one banner again as a united nation .

“What about President Laurence?” Giza asked, speaking for the first time.

Nora smiled at him. “Laurence will follow suit. If the leaders of the North, South, and West are all for it, then he’ll cave too. Just look at how easily he pulled out of the war at the first sign of a real fight from Telvia.” She lifted her chin, eyes bright. “He’ll agree, I’m sure of it.”

“No.”

I leaned forward to look past Wes at Sasha. “What?”

Sasha never faced me. She only kept her eyes on Nora. “I will not renounce my claim to the West. When Telvia falls, the factions will be in chaos. That is not the time to turn the region on its head—”

“The West doesn’t belong to you, Sasha, and you know it,” Nora sneered. “I’m not young and naive anymore, and I know you well enough to understand when you’re spewing lies to keep yourself in power—”

“That’s enough, Nora.” Sasha slammed her hand on the table. “Your accusations are unfounded, and I don’t deserve them from you. I have done nothing but work to save the people of Telvia and protect your daughter that you abandoned in the city—”

“How dare you say that to me!” Nora shouted back over the table. “She was stolen !”

My heart started racing, and the walls felt like they were closing in on me. The screaming… They just kept yelling. All the noise… I shoved my hands in my hair over my ears. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t breathe.

I was crumbling.

I was falling.

I was breaking.

I stumbled away from the table, knocking back my chair and sending it to the floor. The sound made me jump, my skin crawling from it all. It was too much…all just too much. I needed out. I needed out now !

** *

WES

I faced her, sensing something was wrong. Watched as she took shaky steps away from the table, knocking over her chair, and then startling at the clangor it made on the floor.

“Mara?” I spoke to her gently. She was overwhelmed. I could see it. I could see it in the way she gripped her hair. Saw it in the way her body moved and her chest heaved in ragged breaths. Panic was taking control. It was in her widened eyes, telling me she was caving under the weight of it all.

I reached out for her, but the moment my hand touched her, she jumped as though I had shocked her. My heart stuttered. Fear for her laced my core. She was collapsing. I could see it. She was cracking and breaking and coming apart.

“Mara,” I tried again. But she shook her head vigorously.

“I just…” she began. “I just can’t.” And then she was rushing out of the room.

“Mara!” I started to go after her. Someone grabbed my wrist. Mom . “What?” I snapped.

“Miss de la Puente needs a moment, I fear. And you have a job to do. You have a responsibility to your region—”

I shrugged off her hand. “ Fuck my region—”

“Is not what a decent president would say about the people he made himself the leader of,” she chastised. My mother’s hazel eyes were fierce, cracking discipline like a whip. Mother looked at Edith. “Miss Le, accompany Miss de la Puente until further notice.” Edith nodded and chased after Mara.

I rested my palms on the table, leaning forward to stabilize the rush of volcanic anger within me.

This was going nowhere, and I was fucking done with the family drama.

“We don’t need your numbers, Nora.” My words sliced through like a hot knife curdling cream.

“And I sure as hell don’t like having people I don’t trust in my house.

So if you have nothing better to offer us than numbers, I want you all gone—”

“Raúl plans to burn your home to the ground within two months, little king.”

Who the fuck was she calling little ?

“The threats you’re receiving aren’t Northern, their Telvian, and if you’re not careful, you will lose your faction and everyone in it.”

I glared at her. “How could you possibly know that?”

She stood up from her chair, holding her head up high.

“Because I have eyes and ears everywhere, Mr. President. And I know what you’re facing.

” Her brown eyes bore into mine, and they told me she was telling the truth.

“Your army is tired. Your estate is a microcosm of the bigger issue. There’s too much terrain to protect and too few soldiers.

Raúl is being fed your secrets because you failed to eliminate your First in Command when you had the chance. ”

“What?” Mom said.

Nora’s gaze shifted to her like a predatory cat. “You heard me right. Fisher has betrayed you and is now serving Raúl as an advisor. He’s been feeding information about the location of your troops, store houses, and anything else that takes away your possible advantages.”

Fisher. Fucking Fisher, the stupid simp. I would have been impressed if I wasn’t three seconds away from exploding with rage.

“How could you know that?” It was Sasha this time.

Nora’s cocky smile was back. “Like I said…eyes and ears.” She looked at Javier with a proud smile.

“Lieutenant de la Puente is a master at hiding in plain sight, and his knowledge of Telvia and its inner workings has enhanced our ability to move within Telvia without detection, as well as access information that is otherwise completely unobtainable.” Nora looked at me once more.

“We are an asset to you in this war, Mr. President. And I think you’re going to very much want my help in taking out NIT-V2. ”

I looked up at her again, reading her eyes once more, listening to the secrets they wanted to tell me. And they said she knew something I didn’t. “What do you know?”

She grinned. “I know the new location of the NIT Labs. We take out the labs, we take out Raúl’s army. And that’s how we win this war.”

I hardened into stone.