Page 25 of Commanding Flame and Shield
My Queen.The thought was a shielded whisper.
Only Aren stepped towards Alvara, unstilted, eyes pained as he assessed her. His white linen shirt torn and stained with blood. Aren’s eyes narrowed as he looked at me with distrust in his features. I took a step back from his glower and looked back to Alvara. Her gaze also trained on my face, a mixture of shock and pride in her eyes. Slowly, her irises lost their haunting glow, returning to her unmistakable emerald.
“August, I—”
She collapsed forward, eyes sliding shut. I fell to catch her, but got shoved sideways, out of reach. Sparks of anger ignited on my own fingers, and I looked up to see Aren, who slid under Alvara’s limp form easily, cradling her to his blood-soaked chest.
His wary eyes returned to my face, voice a menacing growl when he spoke, “Who are you, August Porter?”
TEN
ANOINTED
ALVARA
It was a long swim, out of the black. When I awoke, I kept my eyes closed, mind doing an inventory of the damage. Everything ached, and my head felt as though they had split it in two, pain radiating down my spine. We healed fast after ascension, but the agonizing flash of fire under my left ribs reminded me they had lanced me through on a demon blade. Or two. I couldn’t discern whose weapon had gone where. Or why they cared about a damn braid enough to risk a full-scale battle in central park. It all came flashing back in startling, vivid, painful images. Lana being smashed in the back of the head and falling into a heap at Ansel’s feet.
I pushed my energy out, and found them both quickly, sipping on tea in the common room. Relief washed over me, and I took a deep, painful breath. My attention quickly diverted to a familiar energy, pulsing in the air to my side, and the familiar faint scent of something sweet, leather-bound books and spring rain.
Did I...summon lightning?
Aren inhaled sharply. “Jesus Christ, Alvara. Scared me to death.”
I forced my eyes to open, ignoring the way they burned from the sand chucked into them. The swelling was already reduced enough to see him clearly. His bloodshot eyes were ringed with exhaustion, the surrounding skin nearly purple. The gashes on his face and chest had already healed, leaving behind only thin white lines, which would reduce to nearly nothing within a day.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, sitting up and wincing as pain shot through my ribs. I blinked into the brilliance of Grayshell.
He shook his head, a familiar smirk stretching across his face. “And yes. It was fucking badass. But where the hell did that come from?”
“I don’t know, honestly. I was just. So angry. And August was in danger—he shouldn’t have been there. But he was—was fighting alongside us, fighting for me…”
Aren shifted uneasily in his seat, chair creaking beneath him as he leaned forward to brace himself on his knees, and I snapped my eyes back to his face. He ran a nervous hand across his short sandy hair.
“What?” I demanded.
“August, err…”
“Is he?!” The panic burned through me like a thousand demon blades, my heart hammering in my chest, terror devouring my mind. And Aren…his mental shield was a wall, impenetrable in my exhaustion. I would rather be impaled by the giant with the poison sword than lose August.
“He’s fine, Ally. He’s upstairs, under Alec and Ansel’s guard.”
The word clanged through me. “Underguard. Why?!”
“Ally. He’s…He’s different.”
“And?”
“Ally he…he commanded the coven tofly. And we were forced to obey. The entire legion flew, Ally. Like—”
“Angels.”
He nodded.
“Damn,” the word came out in a whisper, and I stared down the familiar ice blue eyes of my sire. “But that means he’s…”
“Either an old Commander, one of Lucifer’s Commanders, or—”
“Archangel blood,” we said simultaneously.
