Page 155 of Commanding Flame and Shield
You’ve proven your point, Ally. Get the fuck out,Aren growled, pressing against my mind as though he could physically scoop us out of the camp now sitting in cinders. As if I could leave without them. But that chiming music sent a spider of ice down my veins, drawing me in as my body shuddered.
SIXTY-TWO
DANCING WITH DEVILS
ALVARA
The invisible wall of shadows crept closer, a steady wave of anger, sin, and death creeping down my bones. August’s command ceased, leaving only the sound of his panting breaths as he kicked over a singed tent support with his blood-spattered boot.
Do you…do you know what that is?
No. But I—I feel like Ishould.
Same.
Slowly, in a wave from the back of the field, my flames began to wink out under the shadow that wasn’t a shadow.
Alvara, enough.Aren’s voice was iced over, in full Commander mode, ringing over the sound of the music box.What the fuck are you doing? They're not there. Get your asses—
And just like the flames in the field before me, Aren vanished. Darkness, deep beyond the grey of the still rolling storm, pressed down upon us.
I'm sorry, I sent one final thought to my sire.
I took a long, steadying breath, as every ember within me petered out. It seemed to sizzle like a bucket of water had been chucked against it. August’s storm clouds dissolved as quickly as the flames ceased their rampage. But that omnipresent shadow remained. I looked up towards the now black sky. Midnight, without stars. And still, that music box ticked along in that taunting, haunting melody. August palmed heart tracker into his left hand, his right still wrapped around mine. I pushed against the earth, but there was no jumping out now. Either I was just crazy enough for this to work, or this would, in fact, be our grand finale.
Seeming to read my mind despite the silence, August pressed a kiss to my gloved hand.
The chiming melody grew louder as we advanced. Chills still rippled down my arms, my spine. Men of Renown were returning to the outskirts of tents. Either due to the ceasefire of our strength, or the dark shadows somehow calling them home as their master returned. Perhaps both. They believed they were protected now. But the brothers of shadow could not protect all of them. Not against Grayshell’s best. And if I was being sent to recirculate, I would damn well make a dent in their forces first.
The smell of charred carrion, and the reek of released bowels was thick on the air. Nausea roiled in my gut, but still, we advanced. August squeezed my fingers, and then released them to my side, drawing his sword as the returning Renown drew their blades and barreled forward. We drew a thorough, steadying breath in sync, as they began to run for us.
I took one last, long glance at August. His chiseled face, those vivid eyes, the way his loose curls settled over them. Scouring every detail, I committed them to memory. I’d meant what I’d told him—that it was all worth it, that I would do it all again, if it meant finding him—but I prayed that the next life would not take so painfully long to reunite us.
And then I made my decision. Committed to it, allowing it to become something concrete, and unwavering, and it settled in my bones. The wind began to stir, and I lifted my eyes, listened to the beating of feet against the earth, and flickers of flames extinguishing, leaving crackling embers and spirals of smoke around us.
As the first group of assailants came roaring forward, weapons swinging, I twirled, and began. We both dropped three. Three more came for each of us. They fell. More, so many more came barreling down on us, and I heard August bellow his indignation beside me. Nothing floated down the telepathic line between us. There was just the continued smash of steel on steel. He was fine. I palmed one of the throwing knives from the black bandolier and flicked it through the eye of one.
But where he fell, another replaced him, skilled and raging.
I dodged below the steel of his comrade and made to slice my dagger across his knees. He was too quick. In a smooth motion, I advanced, my focus razor sharp as he curved his blow down towards my head. I leaned backwards far enough for his strike to miss its mark, hissing as it scraped through the dragon scale armor across my bicep, hot blood spurting. The clack of my teeth rang through my skull as pain lanced up to my shoulder and through my elbow.Son of a bitch.
Suddenly August was moving with me, in unison, as though we had choreographed our dance of blades and blood. As though he could sense the intuition still speaking in my ears, guiding my movements as challenger after challenger fell. Some as shields, others I shoved as my own weapons. His movements mirrored my own, tossing me limp bodies as assailants stabbed forward. Turning as I did the same to shield him from blades that I justsensedcoming for him.
Breath hot, it scraped down my throat. Dodge, weave, advance. Again and again, I managed to block their blows. My focus always remained set on the quickest one. Preoccupied dodging his rapid-fire advances, I barely registered the enormous man as he swung forward—my muscles acting on memory, rotating as he took me to the ground. It came hard and fast, and no amount of training could prepare ribs for the agonizing collision with the earth, or the crack of his fist as it slammed into my face. He rolled away with our momentum. Breathless, I shifted, but my attempt to crawl was short-lived as his hands yanked me below him.
August. I couldn’t go down. Not here. Not now. Not like this.
Gasping, my fingers fumbled with the knife tucked into the sheath on my hip, and I hissed as he lunged for me, a jut of blood splashing my face when the blade sliced through his jugular. The glint of silver in the moonlight caught my eye as his body fell forward, and I threw him across my chest, arms shaking as the sword fell and sank in with a meatythunk. I kicked him off, into the next piece of swinging steel. Too many. There were too many emerging from the remains of the camp. Still, I hurled my dagger towards the quick one.
He dodged, and I growled. Even as the blade embedded in the throat of one behind him.
August roared in pain, sending every muscle in my body taut. It took every single century of my training to keep moving. One of them feigned left, and I struck to his right. My sword sunk in between his ribs, and hot, rancid blood poured down my hand. I jerked it free and sliced it across the throat of the next. I just needed a second to breathe, needed tobreathe—
The smell of August’s blood assaulted my nose, jarring my fury into an inferno. Mymate’sblood. I kept moving. Kept killing. Even as a slice seared like fire across my arm and scarlet spilled across my suit again. Even as one smashed a burly fist into the side of my face, and my teeth sang with the collision, feet fighting to stay under me.Cocksucker. Panting down air, I smirked as that one bit the dirt.
There, not twenty yards away, was Agamemnon. His dark power billowed around him, and he tilted his head as he surveyed me.
“Mine,” I growled the word to no one in particular. In that one, solitary breath, I drew and hurled one of my favorite throwing knives. Agamemnon barely dodged it, whirling. His snarl when he turned back to me was all animal, onyx eyes lit with rage, and my blood lit on fire.
