Page 107 of Commanding Flame and Shield
My stomach heaved violently, but there was nothing left to empty.
“August?” Alvara said again, voice desperate. My shields were up. She hadn’t seen. Hadn’t read. I whirled to her, desperate to see her in one piece. Her hair was plastered to her face from the rain.Myrain. The tendrils were nearly black in their dampened state. The clouds faded into mist, lightning crackling as the energy dissipated.
She hadn’t wanted to be alone, and again, I’d foolishly curled up next to her. Listened to the steady cadence of her breath as I drifted to sleep. Felt her warmth through the sheets between us. A dangerous game, perhaps. But one I wanted to play. At least...one I’d wanted to play until this moment. Staring at her perfect, moon pale skin reflecting the city lights, as she peered through the darkness.
How?
Alvara was the most powerful being I’d encountered. The most powerful calling to a sire who had outlived history itself. A soul that could raid or cripple minds without raising a hand. That struck fear even in Agamemnon. How would she have fallen captive? It didn’t matter. The vision was crystal clear. Real and tangible. More vivid than the warnings I’d received before they came for Layla. My body trembled as I looked at her, eyes burning.
She had thrown herself in front of a lethal blow of dark power for me only one night earlier. They had seen. Known what she was to me—what I was to her—in a way we didn’t yet have the courage to embrace. We had shown our cards in that pitiful basement. I would damn the world if it meant Alvara would live. If it meant I could stop her from suffering, the world could burn.
“I know what they’re going to use.”
The day before the vision had been full of training. I had actually kept up with the coven, my weeks with Alvara paying off. We drank copious amounts of coffee and planned and schemed each detail of our remaining sting in New York. Discussed the threads of the larger threat posed by the Men of Renown. We had gone to bed in high spirits. Spirits now laying in shreds after the most horrific thing my mind had ever seen.
Marcus was pacing from one side of the loft to the other. Jason, sitting on the coffee table, was staring into the electric fireplace. His hand hadn’t left its place, braced against his mouth. Damien had gone to the patio to summon Aren, as Alvara was, for once, rendered immobile. Perhaps at her fate. Perhaps scrambling to make sense of the threads as she tore them to shreds to find what led to the horror in my vision. Alec and Fae were stone-cold carvings in their chair, eyes unseeingly locked on the city beyond us. For once, no shred of humanity remained in their unblinking, unflinching bodies. Perhaps they were watching as Alvara’s mind stripped apart the tapestry of what was to come and wove it back together in different ways. Looking for something, for anything, to give us an advantage.
With a crack and a flash of light, Aren, Ansel, and Lana were on the patio. The downcast light illuminated their forms on the balcony. Aren threw open the glass door, and it only didn’t shatter because Marcus threw a shield out to seize it.
“What the fucking hell happened?!” He boomed, rounding the corner to take us all in. I swore his pale eyes glowed with his rage, and it emanated from him in tangible waves. Ansel, eyes full of terrifying lethality, was on his heels. Marking the exits, studying the loft, the shadows within it. His mate was right behind him, eyes darting from detail to detail in the same manner.
“You all seem to be in one piece.” His anger faltered, a muscle in his jaw feathering.
“For now,” Alvara said, her voice soft, eyes still seeing another world. Aren’s intensity fell on me. I bowed my head, and that terrible nightmare ran back through my mind. I could have sworn the Commander's heart faltered. Literally faltered. He recoiled from my mind, shaking his head. But silver lined those light blue eyes.
“Ally?” It was a demand. “Give me the threads. What is there?”
“Too damn many,” she murmured.
“We’re sure this wasn’t...wasn’t a nightmare?” Lana’s bravado was mercifully missing for once. She studied me, her eyes wary of what she might find. I shook my head. Alvara mimicked the motion, eyes still distant. Unthreading and threading. Weaving and unweaving.
“It’s there, Aren. It’s there, at the end of many. I can’t see...can’t see all the trigger points. But the mess of threads—several lead to the vision August had.”
The Commander’s brooding eyes fell on me, jaw set as they narrowed. “Why Ally? Of everyone in your life, Mr. Porter.She’swho they’ve decided holds the most leverage?” He motioned to Ally, her expression still blank with visions. “This goes beyond a soul bind.”
“Ally wouldn’t hesitate to come for you, Commander.”
Aren hiked a brow, shifting on his feet as he scrubbed a hand over his jaw, clearly unconvinced. “And you’re telling me that’s all this is? Loyalty to yoursire?”
Clearing my throat, I shifted forward uncomfortably. Suddenly painfully aware that every set of eyes except for hers had fallen on me. It wasn’t the place or time for heartfelt confessions, so I lowered my voice, correcting, “Loyalty toher, sir.”
Ansel’s brows quirked infinitesimally, his shoulders relaxing as he and Alec exchanged a glance. “Ahh,” he breathed. “Acceptance?”
“Not quite. But we’re getting there,” Alec said, lips tugging up at the corner.
“What if…” Fae’s voice was hoarse, just shy of a whisper trailing in on a phantom breeze as she interjected, drawing their scrutiny her direction. God, I’d have to thank her for that later. “What if we separate you two? If there appears to be a divide in the coven?”
Alvara’s green eyes pulled to the present for a heartbeat, gaze darting to Aphaea, and then vanishing into the beyond again. She shook her head softly.
“We are weaker apart. And they would never believe that he would abandon me, divide or not. They saw. They saw him channel his power through me to attack Agamemnon when I was weak. That kind of bond...is rare. So rare. It doesn’t just vanish over an argument.”
“No. It doesn’t,” Aren rumbled, sitting by Alvara’s side in one smooth motion. “What else is there? How do we shift it?”
“Too many threads. I don’t know. But it’s not the only outcome. It’s not...finalized.”
“That’s good, right? How long do we have to figure this out?” Fae encouraged.
“The rain has begun, but the snow has not yet melted.” Alvara locked her gaze with her friend. Alec and Aren both swore, low and equally filthy. Weeks. We had weeks, at best, until the skies would hurl sleet down and the snow vanished.
