Restart Again: Volume 2 by Adam Scott (hardest books to read txt) 📕

My vision blurred with tears as Lia slid forward off of the log and landed in the dirt, where she curled forward into a ball and let out another anguished wail. I shifted to the ground gently and sidled up next to her to place a comforting hand on her back. The contact seemed to startle her, and she broke into a full sobbing fit. I rubbed her back in small circles and rested my chin on her shoulder, determined to give her as long as she needed to process her emotions.

“Lia, I’m so sorry,” I said softly into her ear once her cries had weakened into whimpers. “There’s nothing I want more in this world than to make you feel okay, but I can’t help you. There’s nothing I can do that will make your world right.” A tear ran down the side of my nose and dripped onto her neck as I spoke. “But I promise, I absolutely promise you, you’re going to be okay. It might not be tomorrow, or the next day, but this will pass.”

Her body shuddered as she took a deep breath. “I-I don’t know how...how to be me, anymore. Nothing feels—” A sniffle interrupted her thought. “Everything’s wrong, in my head.”

“You’re still you, Lia. Nothing could ever change that. Even though you’ve gone through so many terrible things, you’re still kind, and passionate, and amazing. No matter what happens, you’ll still be you, and I’ll still love you.” There was a moment of extreme tightness in my chest, and then I felt my whole body flush with a tingling warmth. “I love you so much, and I’ll do anything you need to make things right.”

She looked up at me with bloodshot eyes and flushed cheeks as a smile fought its way to her face. A half laugh, half sob burst from her lips, and her head fell back down to her knees as she started crying again. I kissed the side of her head gently and resumed rubbing her back, whispering to her the whole time. “I love you, Lia. You’re going to be okay. I love you. Take as much time as you need. I love you. I love you.”

***

9. THREE WORDS

I spun a strand of Lia’s hair around my finger absentmindedly as I listened to Val’s report. Unsurprisingly, the thug with the shattered arm had become much more amicable after his injury, and answered all of Val’s questions readily. When she returned to the wagon successful in her interrogation, she took up my watch over Lia to allow me the chance to ask my own questions. It had been a brief session.

“Do you serve the Dominion?”

“No. I told the Shield before, I work for Wendt.”

“Do you follow the path of Kalateth?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I work for Wendt. He might know whoever those people are that you’re looking for.”

“For all our sakes, I hope not.”

“Listen, I told her everything already. I swear I’ll leave and never go back, if you just let me—”

I noticed a speck of the man’s blood on my boot and rubbed at it with my other foot. Val finished her initial briefing, then paused to allow me a moment to process the information. “So Attetsia has fallen already.”

She nodded gravely. “So it would seem. Based on his recounting, the coup only lasted a day at most. Hired swords raided the city via the docks while a local faction staged a riot as a diversion. It was a well-coordinated attack.”

“Are you familiar with the mercenary group? The, uh…” I scrunched up my brow and silently cursed myself for not paying close enough attention. “The Albadan Company?”

“The Elta’sahn Company, yes,” Val corrected flatly. While I found her general lack of emotions in our day to day conversations off-putting at times, I currently appreciated the lack of sarcasm. If Lia were awake, I had no doubt that our conversation would have been derailed by her incessant teasing of my lack of regional knowledge. Instead, she slept soundly on the bench beside me with her head rested on my lap.

“They are a mercenary group based out of Lybesa,” Val continued, “and they are by far the largest and most well-known company in the world. I have dealt with isolated arms of their organization in the past, but if this new information is to be believed, I fear that the full force of the Elta’sahn Company is waiting for us in Attetsia.” A single crease wrinkled her forehead as she considered her own assessment.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, curious. “I take it by your expression that this is somehow worse than regular bad news.”

“I do not believe that the situation is as simple as a coup d’état. The Golden Throne could not afford to hire the entire Elta’sahn Company at once, so I find it difficult to believe that a rebel faction could raise the capital needed to enlist such a large force. Current reports suggest the company could number over fifteen thousand men.” She traced a finger around a single scale of her armor vacantly as she spoke. “They must have something beyond gold to gain. Our prisoner said his group was sent out to ensure nobody interrupted the ‘Grand Scheme’, which he failed to elaborate upon further.”

My gut feeling echoed the sense of dread that had been building over the course of our entire trip south: There were darker forces at play in Attetsia than simple politics and coups. “Maybe our informant was lying,” I said hopefully, though I didn’t believe the words.

“No, I do not think so,” she replied, shaking her head. “His description of the Company’s actions match what I have observed of them myself; he has seen them operate in person.”

“Oh.” I studied her face closely as she mulled over the situation in her head. There was an almost imperceptible flare to her nostrils, and her jawline was more pronounced than usual. I realized with some