A man with shaggy hair leaned back and shouted back, “Understood.”
Reece straightened and found himself the focus of several gazes. He shrugged. “Might as well be prepared.”
Shea couldn’t argue with the logic in that.
“Now what?” Reece asked after a long moment where no one spoke.
“We wait,” Fallon said.
*
Waiting turned out to be quite boring. It was an insufferable length of time that stretched into eternity. Each minute sliding past entirely too fast, and not fast enough at the same time.
It gave Shea time to question herself, to second-guess the decisions she’d made and think perhaps she should have sided with Gawain and sent someone out to check on the rest.
She stood off to the side, leaning forward on the battlement wall, her sword at her hip. Dane stood not too far away from her, Peyton at his side. Reece had tried to give her a boomer as well, but Shea wasn’t very good with them. Her aim was terrible. She’d told him to pass it on to someone who wouldn’t be next to useless.
She glanced up to notice Gawain moving down the line toward her and pretended to be interested in what was happening below. She hoped if she treated him like a beast and didn’t make eye contact, maybe he would pass her by.
The son of a man Fallon greatly respected, she knew Gawain wasn’t her warlord’s biggest fan. She’d never been able to tell if it was due to jealousy or just a difference in personality. Gawain had the luxury of only having to concern himself with his own clan’s well-being. Fallon was tasked with the entirety of his people—consisting of all the clans following him—many of whom didn’t make it easy. It led to friction between the two.
This meant she avoided Gawain as much as possible—especially since he’d made it clear on more than one occasion he found her lacking as a warlord’s telroi. She suspected he’d find anyone Fallon chose to share his life with lackluster, so she didn’t take his opinion personally.
She wasn’t so lucky this time. Gawain stopped, joining her at the railing.
She held in her sigh. There was no reason to offend the man when he hadn’t even said anything yet.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Gawain murmured without looking at her. “If we had the chance to help the people on the other side of the mist and didn’t, that blood will be on your hands.”
Shea bit her lip as she stared at the place where the firebug had come. She couldn’t bring herself to give him any sort of smart remark. His words too closely echoed her own thoughts.
This was why she preferred not to lead. When she made a mistake, it was her ass on the line. Now, however, her every choice affected everyone around her. Life and death decisions lay in her hands, and she didn’t feel up to the task.
His message delivered, Gawain moved on. In a soft voice to his back, Shea said, “Me too.”
Trenton shifted behind her, stepping forward once the other man was far enough away. “What did he say?”
She shook her head. “Nothing of importance.”
Trenton stared after the clan leader, a hard look in his eyes. Fallon’s Anateri treated Gawain with thinly veiled suspicion, as if they expected him to betray Fallon at any moment.
“We should go inside,” Trenton said.
Shea kept her snort to herself. He and Wilhelm had taken turns repeating a similar refrain for the past hour. She hadn’t listened then and she wasn’t going to listen now.
There was a scream from below. Shea peered over the edge, looking for the person who had made the noise. Other screams rose in the next second. Below the battlements, massive beasts scaled the walls by hooking their claws into the small spaces between stones. Once at the top, they plucked men and women off, tossing them to the ground far below.
“We’re under attack!” someone screamed.
Far below, Shea could hear Fallon’s roar, “Stand your ground. Do not falter!”
The reminder seemed to steady those fighting. The Trateri acted as a unit, banding together as they rushed some of the beasts, beating them back over the wall.
Boomers barked as the pathfinders on the upper levels aimed at the enemy below.
For a moment, it looked like they had turned the tide, that the beasts were going to be easily defeated. Then a scream sounded from above and something plummeted past her. A man hit the ground below, his body broken and twisted.
“Nightfliers,” a voice screamed.
