Page 152 of Commanding Flame and Shield
The ungodly agony of that kind of loss, my stomach roiled at the thought. Breathing became difficult. And if it wasn’t Alec, it was likely Ansel or Lana who would return to a cold bed, and broken heart.
He’d tried and failed to convince Aphaea to stay with the healers when the time came, to stay out of the fray. She simply said she was born for this and had seen battle more times than he had. They’d kissed, deeply, desperately, and she’d promised she would find him in the next life, as they always did, if it came down to it.
My stomach had been tied in knots since.
Brody, towering as tall as Aren, his gold hair in its usual Greek twists sauntered over to me. He’d opted for his traditional Greek fighting leathers. He patted me on the back, those dark brown eyes surveying me.
“You seem oddly steady for a first battle, Commander.”
“I’m not Commander yet,” I reminded him, but grinned nonetheless, fighting the ache solidifying in my chest. “And I’m afraid this isn’t my first battle, either.”
“Good man. Glad to know you’re steady as your mate.”
“She’s a fearsome thing, isn’t she?”
“The fiercest.” He grinned in a boastful way. An Olympian surveying a gold medal teammate. “I’d be so lucky if my mate has half her valor.”
It wasn’t the sound of the mug shattering, or the way the entire room clattered into silence behind it. It wasn’t the way the air swelled and flexed around her like gravity around the sun. But the way her breath hitched in her chest so violently. The broken croak that escaped her lips, that had me moving for her, and every soul in the hall kneeling before their second. Awaiting orders.
Alvara’s long, delicate, scar flecked hand was pressed against her mouth.
“No,” she said, voice strangled. Tears swelled in her eyes as she lifted them from the place of other. She found me, still on my feet and wading around our kneeling host, and shook her head as the tears tore down her cheeks. Aren and Alec were beside her as quickly as I was.
“Alvara?” Aren set his hand against her arm, locked against her throat. Rage and horror flashed across his features, his dark brow furrowing, and pale eyes flicking to me. Dread turned to grief, and a near hopeless apology.
I wet my lips with my tongue, watching the tremble in her chin as she raised it in defiance.
“They took her,” her voice broke. “They tookthem.”
“Who, Ally?”
Her lips quavered, tears pouring freely down her cheeks as she closed her eyes and whispered, “All of them”. She struggled to breathe, and unable to speak, she opened her mind, and shattered me entirely.
Agamemnon had Freya. Adrastos must have seen—seen that she was my Freya, seen our loyalty to each other. They had stolen away James, Layla, and Sam for good measure.Taken. Captives to the brute and his swaggering brother.
Ransom, in exchange for my servitude. Four in exchange for two.
“August,” Alvara’s voice cracked on my name. But she kept her chin raised high. “I’ll get them back.”
Her idea played out in her mind, and I studied it as intensely as I could. There could be no gap—none—between making the decision and taking the action. No lag where Adrastos could intercept the plan and make his adjustments. She continued offering scenarios, one by one, by one, knowing she could not allow one to settle into her heart. I looked to Aren, desperate rage pounding against my ears. It could work.
Insane, masochistic, hell of a fucking gamble. But it could work. And she had been winding her power so tightly that she needed the release, the outlet, before it burst from her skin.
“The first one was most effective,” I muttered, trying to track her fragmented thoughts as rapidly as she let them play out.
“Bullshit. The first one will get you killed,” Aren countered gruffly. Ally’s resolute eyes found mine.
“But it opens their defenses for the rest of us,” Alec stated matter-of-factly, studying the pattern in her thoughts, eyes tortured with understanding. There were very few threads where she and I made a reappearance. Dread, heavy and molten, settled in my gut.
Chest rising and falling in rapid succession, Aren growled, “We both know there are always other fucking threads, Ally.” His eyes went razor sharp.Everyone start making decisions. He can’t know how we’re coming. Fucking mean it.The coven immediately complied.
“Aren,” her voice cracked with a plea as visions spun out, eyes zeroed in on his face. “August is my mate, Aren. Mine. I will follow you to the ends of the earth, but do not ask me to stand this one down. You guys are my family, but he is myeverything. I should have been there myself. All those sentinels…” She jammed her eyes closed, the threads pouring out like silk into a web. “She’s in this positionbecause of me.”
I didn’t have to clarify whichshe. My Freya.
“She’smymate’sbaby sister,Aren. Captive among demons and creatures more beast than man. What wouldyoudo in my position?”
“Fucking hell!” Aren raked his fingers through his short hair as Alvara’s eyes flicked between Alec and Ansel. The former’s jaw clenched while the latter sucked on a tooth, but both of their eyes fell to the floor when Aren drew in a sharp breath, gaze burning with fury as it rotated between the three. “Over my dead body.” Scrubbing a palm over his face, Aren turned to pace as I shifted on my feet.
