(Kennedy's POV)

The air was heavy with the stench of blood and smoke, clinging to my senses like a heavyweight. My arm throbbed from the gash that stretched across it; the crude bandage wrapped on it did little to stop the steady trickle of blood. It was only a minor wound, nothing that could not heal with time; however, the pain kept nipping at my mind, a never-ending reminder of my failure in letting the ambush catch me by surprise.

What we had thought of as a handful of rogues, the worst they could be, escalated into an excellently executed plot. It was not a series of senseless attacks; they...