“I’m glad she has you to be all sweet and caring, Cas, but right now she needs a pissed off lady warrior to give her a lecture.”
Ava took a deep breath. “Alright. Let me have it, lady warrior.”
Quinn gave her a subtle smirk. “You’re allowed to be upset, but wallowing in self-pity won’t accomplish what we came here to do.”
“I wasn’t wa?—”
“You were wallowing. I could see it on your face. You’re right. The queen is a coward. You shouldn’t be ashamed of losing your temper and yelling at her. Because she obviously deserved it. That plan didn’t work so now it’s on to something else. It is not the time to give up. You can’t go back and change how that meeting went, so come up with a new idea.”
Quinn stopped and looked around the room hesitantly, brushing her black braid over her shoulder. “I’m only going to tell you about this once. The guys already know. And no, I don’t ever want to talk about it again, okay?”
“Okay,” Ava whispered.
“I had a twin sister. We were polar opposites—I was harsh and stern; she was kind and caring. We were both young and had just joined the army. Casimir wasn’t the general yet, he was one of us. There was a battle we fought, and my sister got distracted by her emotions. One of her close friends had been cut down and she couldn’t fight through it. Couldn’t go on. She was so distraught and distracted, it got her killed.”
“I’m so sorry, Quinn,” Ava said.
“I don’t want your pity. I’m just telling you there is a time and a place for tears. You’ve obviously already cried over this meeting. Now stop and pull yourself together. Because if you letthis drag you down, then we will surely fail. You can’t lead with your emotions. You must push past that.”
Ava nodded. Quinn was right.
“You remind me of her,” Quinn’s voice was now a whisper. “The first day I met you, it hit me. She was just like you. She had a terrible habit of overthinking everything and talking herself into a panic, always questioning herself.”
Ava let out a small laugh.
“But she was also kind. And funny. Like you are…It’s why I’m so hard on you. I—” Quinn blinked rapidly. “I don’t want to see you meet the same fate. The world lost a gentle soul that day and I’ll be damned if I let it happen again.”
27
Alightning bolt blazed across the sky, briefly illuminating the terrain before them, followed by a thunderous boom. “Of course we’re moving the army in a fucking storm,” Raine muttered from atop his horse.
“Did you say something?” Maeryn shouted above the thunder and pouring rain.
“Nothing!”
They’d spent days in meetings, arguing over where to move their forces after sending the animals to spy on the daemon’s movements during their brief stay west of the volcanic province. And now they were moving out again.
The daemons had moved their war camp and now marched north, seemingly to join their forces in Frosthaven. What they were up to, Raine still didn’t know. But the fae continued west, closer to his kingdom.
After much debate, their current plan was to settle their forces where Oakshire used to be before Andras decimated it. They’d have the Emerald Mountains to the north, the Greywood Forest to the south, and additional protection from theriver. All they could do was hope Ava and Casimir were successful and Caelestia would be joining.
Sooner rather than later.
But if this weather didn’t cease, their journey would take longer, and now it was time to make camp for the evening. They couldn’t push them any further today.
“We’re stopping,”he told Sabriel, unable to see her in the rain.
Thank the Mother. My fur is soaked and I’m so hungry I was preparing to eat your horse.
“Very funny. You’d have to become my steed then.”
I’ll rip off your arm before I let you ride on my back.
“Aro lets Casimir and Ava ride on him.”
That’s because he’ll do whatever Ava wants. I, on the other hand, would not stoop to such an embarrassing display.
“Because it would mess up your precious fur?”
