Raider let out a war cry as he rose and loped away, Joule and Devon tearing after him.
Alexander shook his head in resignation as he ambled in their wake in no hurry to catch up.
Selene waited for Kira, falling in to step beside her. “You always were the leader in whatever you did.”
“I never tried to be.”
Kira would have been perfectly content for someone else to take the role. It was simply that no one ever seemed to have a plan or the ability to step up in her place. There had been plenty who thought they did, but most of those had been more in love with the idea of leading than being able to actually lead.
Their incompetence always forced her hand before long.
“We know,” Selene said with a smile. “It’s why we love you.”
Kira’s snort held disbelief.
“I never said we weren’t complicated, but that doesn’t mean we don’t see you.” Selene paused to aim a look at Kira. “Even when if it sometimes feels that way.”
Selene patted Kira on the shoulder, leaving her alone with her thoughts as she moved to catch up with the rest.
“You believe her?” Kira asked.
“I don’t know.” Jin sounded troubled about that fact. “We may have made certain misjudgments about the forty-three.”
Kira was quiet.
For so long, the forty-three had been a source of frustration. A thorn in her side. Neither her nor them were able to reconcile themselves to the other’s way of thought.
Kira had assumed they viewed her with enmity or a thinly veiled tolerance.
Maybe she’d been wrong about that. It made her wonder what else she could have been wrong about.
Kira hurried toward the rest as Raider and Alexander took cover behind Selene’s shield, careful not to get too close to the mounted cannons.
In the distance, the whine of cannons charging was followed by a thunderous thump she felt as much as heard.
Screams announced the departure of several more initiates as Kira reached the others.
Devon glanced in her direction as Joule listened to Selene’s instructions. Raider and Alexander were too busy arguing with each other to notice her presence.
“I don’t care how they did it in your camp. Kira and I have worked together for years,” Raider was saying. “This tactic will work.”
“You are impetuous,” Alexander spat. “It is better to be cautious in this situation rather than foolhardy.”
“What’s going on?” Kira asked.
“They are having a difference in opinion on how best to test the cannon’s range,” Selene answered. “They both seem to think they would make the better bait.”
“Really?” Kira’s expression made it clear she didn’t understand.
“It appears so.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Raider snapped, losing patience.
He made a blade with his hand, slashing it through the air and then toward the cannons in one of the hand signals the Curs had created to mean an attack was commencing.
Before anyone could stop him, he slipped through the protection Selene’s shield offered.
In different circumstances, Kira might have found Alexander’s look of fury hilarious.
