Page 40 of Commanding Flame and Shield
“Fucked up. Royally fucked up.”
“Yes. Alec was impulsive and inconsiderate and—” I reached my hand for him, and my mind was overtaken by an image of August pressing his lips to me, hard and urgent. His arms wrapped around me and there wasn’t an inch of his mind left unexplored. I yanked my hands back and crossed my arms over my chest snuggly. He noticed the moment of hesitation and correction, and narrowed his eyes. A past life, perhaps. It didn’t feel like a vision.
We remained quiet, not feeling a need to fill the void for a long while. Cautiously, his breathing a touch slower, I could hear his heart rate gradually steady, and I knew mine did the same.
“I’ve watched you die before.”
Shock shuddered through me, and I shook my head, my shoulders raised.
“Not a question, Ally.” He pinned me with a smoldering glare that tightened my throat, his chest still rising and falling with lingering adrenaline. “We’ve done this…many times, you and I.”
“I, I only remember a few of my lives,” I spluttered, tucking my hair behind an ear.
“But you can't honestly tell me I’m wrong.”
I wet my lips, muscles working to swallow. “I remember nothing before Aren. It’s totally possible, August. You’re familiar to me too,” I admitted, taking a cleansing breath, allowing my eyes to wander out at the glittering constellations for a moment. “We probably have. I don’t know. But I—I have had a few short visions. And, at least the most recent one, would indicate you are correct.”
“You touched me tonight—or I touched you, rather. At least at first. Did you…”
I shook my head slowly. “We’re both protected by long sleeves tonight, thankfully.”
He nodded before running his fingers through his hair again.
“I think I’m ready though, Alvara. I don’t want to hide anything from you.”
“I’ll want you to beverycertain of that first.”
“I know. Just know, if you got more than you’re letting on—” August emptied his lungs in exasperation before finishing, “I trust you, Alvara.”
My poor heart was hammering all over again, and my mouth withered with drought and lack. I needed a glass of water, or something spiritual to quench that urge building in my chest. I lowered myself to sit on the ground, leaning back on spiked pine needles and cool, damp earth. August joined me, huffing a bit as he settled again.
“I don’t think that I’m…like you, exactly. But. I think I get visions too. Or memories. You said you burned for being a witch?”
I nodded solemnly. It was one of my earliest memories—a witness to a telekinetic rescue, then demanding my death for witchcraft. Because even holy deeds done through unsanctioned means was condemnation. Better to let the innocent die. I certainly wasn’t strong enough to have been fully ascended, but I had somehow tapped into my power, and my body burned for it.Burnedfor daring to save someone in a way that defied science as they knew it.
“I was there. I don’t know how to describe it.”
“It’s hard to wrap our minds around past lives and memories. Past scars and traumas, August. But Alec seemed to know that would trigger your power.”
His full lips pressed into a fine line, and he stared up at the sky again. The night was crisp with mountain air, and no clouds blocked our view to the Heavens in the clearing. The only light snuck through the curtains of the cabin in a thin slit, pouring across the tall meadow grass. It weaved in glimmering patterns through the long blades.
“I know Alec’s approach wasn’t…orthodox. But our true strength—both spiritually and physically—it’s all just beyond your discomfort, August. I’d be full of shit if I told you it would be a pleasant transition into mastering what you are now.” My eyes found his in the darkness, whites glistening in the glow of the full moon. “We have to let go of who we believe we are, in order to step into who we’re destined to be. Your powers will only trigger when you feel a legitimate threat. It will be a…” I tried to think of a delicate way to put it, as to avoid bristling his already threadbare nerves, “journey. To say the least.”
He turned his face back to the treetops, and constellations above us. With a deep, cleansing breath, I dropped my mental walls, inviting him into the two visions that appeared between the chaos.
The first—while short—had been a man I knew to be August, flying without wings, fire roaring from his hands in a terrifying dive into battle.
Thoughts of Layla settled like lead in my heart, but August looked at me expectantly, and there was no hiding this from him. The second image was the kiss. Warm, and urgent, souls erupting and merging into one, no secrets between us…and smelling of the mountains in summer.
His eyes widened as he looked at me.
“Layla?”
Head shaking, I gave an apologetic shrug of my shoulders. “It was too fast for me to be sure, but Ibelieveit was past.”
The frustrated v formed between his brows, and he turned to assess the forest, his heart rapid. Wind caressed against my skin, whistling quietly through the trees, and their stretching silhouettes slowly swayed against the shimmering stars.
“Fucking Alec. A volatile mistress, indeed.” He rubbed his jaw as I blinked at him.
