A Bonds of Steel and Blood sequel.
Reinae Agnar thought she had left the darkness of the Underground City behind when she joined the Survey Corps, but some shadows refuse to fade. As she struggles to balance her duties with her burning vendetta and...
Training her squad with Reinae on resting duty was hard. Not only she couldn't train with them, but she couldn't scold Aiden and Carter whenever they got into one of their brawls. Luckily, Jasper knew how to get them in order by making them feel guilty, saying they were causing Reinae unnecessary stress—they always calmed down after hearing that, throwing worried glances at their captain.
"Another lap," Reinae ordered from where she was leaning against a tree, reading a book while her squad ran around the training grounds.
"You're a sadist," Aiden said with disbelief, breathing heavily, leaning on his knees.
"I'm your captain, brother, and while all of you are impossibly strong, you have the lungs of a 70-year-old smoking man—with Jasper being the exception." She gave her best friend a meaningful glance. "So you'll all run until I hear no more wheezing."
"She's a sadist," Carter repeated, looking at Isaac, who was patting his sweaty forehead with his drenched shirt. The ginger-haired man mumbled something incomprehensible in agreement.
"We need some energy for tonight," Aiden complained again.
Reinae lifted her eyes from the book, one of her eyebrows raised in question.
"You do know what's happening tonight, right?" Jasper asked, seeing her confused expression. "The disbanding ceremony? Of the 104th Training Corps?"
"That's tonight?"
All four of her teammates palmed their faces. "The graduates are coming to Trost tonight for the party. And they'll stay here until they choose their divisions," Isaac reminded her.
Reinae blinked at them, still confused. How had three months passed since she visited the Training Corps?
"Well then, run the last lap and go shower." Carter and Aiden groaned, glaring at Reinae, who strode towards the headquarters. "If you glare at me one more time, you'll be running for the whole night," she said over her shoulder, and the two men's faces fell flat as they started into a run, Isaac and Jasper following suit, doing their best not to laugh.
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"I don't understand why we all have to go to this."
"Soldiers from all regiments have to attend, Reinae."
"So we can spend the evening persuading them to join us?"
"You're saying this as if we manipulate our cadets into joining the Survey Corps."
"Well, Erwin, out of three other people in this carriage, you manipulated two into joining you, so your actions speak louder than words."
Erwin shot a glare at Reinae, who sat opposite him in a carriage riding towards the big inn where the kids were to stay until they chose which regiment they'd dedicate their hearts to. Levi sat to Erwin's right, arms crossed over his chest, jaw flexed as he looked through the window. He and Erwin barely exchanged any words in the last few days. Miche, who sat on Reinae's left, was anything but happy with the atmosphere in the carriage, doing his best to pretend he wasn't there.
