Queen of Skye and Shadow complete box set : Queen of Skye and Shadow Omnibus books 1-3 by Thea Atkinson

Author:Thea Atkinson
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: dystopian, post apocalyse, dystopian series
Publisher: Thea Atkinson
Published: 2020-05-02T22:00:00+00:00

-6-

We regrouped back at the Musk estate. My estate, now I guessed. It was a massive property, stretching out backwards into the hogbacks and to the side past rolling fields. The main house itself was a two-story building made of old lumber and whitewashed cedar shingles. It had real windows spun from lead and imported in (if you are to believe Musk) from New New York.

We didn't so much as gather at the estate as limped in. I half expected the place to be empty, but it was swarming with children and women. Some of them bustling about with trays of sliced apples and nuts. It looked like Chas had done exactly what I'd asked and brought all of the vulnerable home after the fire.

I felt ashamed. Who was I to be obeyed? Someone responsible for a dozen or more deaths. No doubt many of these women had lost their husbands today and still didn't know it. I wasn't sure whether they were fools to follow me or if I was a fool to think I could lead them.

And I'd done nothing, putting my trust in magic instead of my own hands.

"You've got that look again," Marlin said, pulling wires from his ears.

He looked even more thin than the last time I'd seen him, but at least he'd regained a fresher pallor to his face. After the battle and sending muster into so many people, his skin had taken on a grayish tinge.

"What look?" I said, although I had a good idea I knew exactly what I looked like. Guilty. Ashamed. I had a hard time meeting his eye.

"That looks like you're responsible."

I swept my arm across the space, indicating the dozens of men who were wounded, the soot covered faces. The bloody footprints on the floor.

"You don't think this is all my fault?"

"What I think is your fault is the fact that you're hesitating."

He clamped his hand down over my shoulder. Peered into my eyes.

"It doesn't matter how you feel right now," he said. "These people needed a leader. They chose you. You don't have time to hesitate or doubt. You don't have the luxury of feeling guilty."

I crossed my arms over my chest, reclaiming the moments in the field when I'd purposefully shut down all compassion and consideration for the women. Lance had doubted me then. So had Marlin.

I sighed. "Where's Chas? I want to get a head count of anyone who has been wounded. And I want to know exactly how many people didn't make it back."

"Everyone made it back," Marlin said with a grim line to his mouth. "You made sure of that."

I'd helped load the shrouded forms into one of the wagons before we returned. I counted seven dead men and three women. Thank God the number didn't include children. There was comfort in that, I supposed.

"Sure," I said. "But they didn't all make it back alive."

He put his hand in the middle of my back and gave me a gentle shove toward a woman carrying a tray of apple slices.

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