Page 171 of Commanding Flame and Shield
BLADE
ALVARA
Iron hands were strangling me. My legs trembled as the metallic warmth of fresh blood seeped down my pant leg, muscle howling with the agony of the slice from his blade. My breath was coming in shallow, desperate gasps, and my vision blurred right as August yelled my name. The surge of energy poured in through my fingertips, tearing up my arm like fire and ice. Air forced through my lungs, and I cried out right as the giant did, bringing my hands together on both sides of his mammoth head.
The electric shock ricocheted through every fiber of my being, channeling down my bones like a great lighting rod, and surged into the enormous body attacking me.
August.
The arc between us strengthened and a tormented sob escaped my lips as the energy radiated through me. I dropped my hold and we both collapsed onto the earth, heaving in breaths. My arm reached out towards him, and another electric surge channeled through me—the giant writhed in agony, his body convulsing around the alien energy coursing through his bones.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and the energy behind me swelled to such overwhelming strength that my heart hitched.
The familiar whoosh of a blade through the ether. I twirled and plucked the dagger from the air before my eyes found August, on his knees not fifty yards from me, panting with exhaustion, his glinting green eyes locked on me. He nodded. Alec and Aren were running towards us, another fifty yards behind August who was getting to his feet. And…Freya was in between the men and August, her little fingers outstretched towards me, and eyes wide.
She yelled my name, and I whirled just in time to slice the blade across the giant’s too-close chest as he collided with me like a train. We rolled, mud coating my skin as I tried to scramble onto my feet. But he was too fast, diving for me, leaving barely enough time to think, let alone move. With a grunt of pain, I managed to tuck my knees between our bodies, and threw him off me. He rolled towards the cliff face as I righted myself.
Hurling the blade into the ground between us, I siphoned away more of August’s power.
SEVENTY-FIVE
CHASM
AUGUST
Alvara’s bloody hand was nearly limp as she reached for me, and a crackling stream of ice tore through the air between us, an electric current spiraling in a blue braid of energy. Flames burst from her hands, three elements moving in a torrent through her body as she dove forward to grasp the hilt of the dagger in the Earth.
I was running towards her, full tilt, when the earth buckled, and a great slab broke off in front of her, splitting a long arc around the outskirts of the battlefield.
In the minds of our comrades, I saw the great flames licking at the sides of the canyon. Hell coming to claim its souls, the fire licked up the walls of the earth, long whips snapped forward, wrapping around the ankles of demons and Renown alike.Holy shit.
The souls staggered away from its edge in terror as the enemy fell into the expanding crack. Rain still poured down her face in rivulets. The scarred monster she’d battled clung to the edge of the gorge, bellowing for aid that wouldn't come.
As fires wrapped long tendrils around his legs and torso, he screamed in pain, before he succumbed to the flames, and vanished into the abyss.
Shouts permeated the air, and I could only hear souls.
“Is it over?”
“Are there any left?”
The onslaught of names reverberated in my ears, and I heaved a breath as Alvara collapsed, folding in on herself, the glow of the power vanishing from her body. She turned her bloody face back to me, her eyes desperate, hoarse voice barely escaping across cracked lips.
“August—”
A deafening crack and rumble of Earth. Horror struck her eyes in the split second she knew what was coming, as the scrap of ground below her gave out into the fissure.
SEVENTY-SIX
RECKONING
ALVARA
A tsunami of exhaustion slammed through me, the air in my lungs coming in desperate, short gasps as I fell onto my hands, taking all my composure to stay vertical at all. They were close, so close.
I just wanted to see him. Just one more time before retribution claimed its prize. August. Because, dammit, I loved him. More than the fate of my soul, or the world below my knees. I lovedhim.
Our eyes met, and somehow, it seemed he knew. Knew all he meant to me, and how badly I wanted to pour my heart out to him. When I opened my lips, the faintest bit of air escaped through them, my voice cracked.
