Page 77 of Commanding Flame and Shield
Everything in my body recoiled from the anxiety of that statement. I didn’t feel any of that. Felt entirely human, soaking in my pool of panic. But I forced myself to turn to Alvara, looking for reassurance. Her expression was dark, still trained on the fire. Treacherous shadows played in her eyes.
Slowly, as if the flames had her entranced, she turned to us, crease still etched between her brows. “Something feels…wrong. Something feels…” she shook her head as if she could send the thoughts away like a dog ridding itself of water before she finally finished her thought. “Off…”
Six serious pairs of eyes turned to her. She shook her head, and her eyes grew distant and uncertain. I realized she was casting her mind, searching for answers to the uneasiness in her heart. Her eyes flickered closed, a grimace twisting her features as the vision took her. The shadow in her crept into my bones, and as each beating heart in the room sped up, I knew they felt it too.
“Ally?” Aren’s voice was cutoff as she threw her hand up to stop him, eyes looking through us into the other world she accessed.
“Something…has changed…” her voice was distant. Breathy. “Battle. It doesn’t…make…sense.” Suddenly her vision splintered into the present, and her eyes snapped to mine. “August? Why would you…”
A vision was forced into my mind. Given the collective intake of breath, I assumed the others were taken with it too.A blood-soaked battlefield covered in slain Renown, the broken bodies of shadow demons, and souls alike. Smoldering woods. And me. Walking hesitantly forward, alone. Alvara cried out somewhere behind me. Her voice guttural and grief-stricken. I walked towards an enormous man of Renown.Alvara noticed that his face would have been as attractive as our kind if it wasn’t twisted with cruelty. And I held my hands out to be bound.
“He…he gave himself up?” Alec’s eyes burned with anger, brows furrowed with betrayal as he looked to me for explanation. I only shrugged my bewilderment, and he stared back at Alvara.
“Why…why would you…?” Alvara’s voice trailed off as she searched for answers. There was a swirl of visions, and she seemed to rewind them, and move them forward like a tape through a VCR. Weighing them. Some were of the battle; some were of a clash with the towering man. Flames shaped like great wings. Four crushing white walls. Powers being slacked away. A bass voice—the kind that would rumble in your ribcage—sayingone and the same…
Her breath hitched so violently, the air rushed from my own lungs. She doubled over in her chair, clutching her ribs.The man placed manacles around my wrists, let out a dead cackle, and abruptly shot his giant hand forward, clutching my neck. Slowly, he lifted my feet off the ground.
“He’s called Adrastos. I think. That’s all I’ve made sense of. The shielding…I can’t…” Alvara drifted away for a long string of heartbeats, her voice floating away with her. Alec, brow furrowed to match the deep scowl on Ansel’s face, stared into the fire and sipped his tea. They gave her a decent stretch of time before anyone broke the severe, pregnant silence.
“Why? Why would he go to them? Turn himself over?” Aphaea’s voice came out in a whisper.
Alvara’s eyes turned to mine, the grief there was evident. But confusion also swam in her glossy irises. “I—I don’t know. I can’t see it. Whatever they draw him out with…they haven’t decided what to use yet. But every thread I see…whatever they find, it works. August, they know who you are.”
“I forbid it,” Aren boomed. His voice was the only steady one among us. “If August is what we believe him to be, there’s nothing that would justify the sacrifice.”
“No,” Alvara agreed. “There’s not.”
My head swam. Blood pounding. Dread rose in my gut like bile.
“With all due respect,” my voice came out like gravel—stressed and forced. “I’m not exactly some Keanu Reeves character. I’m not worth more than any of you. Less, really—”
“Name one prophesied leader—fictional, or otherwise—that believed they were the chosen one, dumbass.” Alec grinned, and his mate mimicked the motion. “Good reference by the way. I like him.”
“Epic is more like it,” Aren smirked. “It’s been a while since we had aMatrixmarathon.”
“So, say I am. Say I am The Great Commander. Wouldn’t I be obligated to sacrifice myself for anyone in the hierarchy? Wouldn’t I have to—”
“No!” The coven shouted in unison, and I snapped my mouth closed.
“The Commander is said to lead us into and through the greatest battle in our history. August, we need you here for that.” Alvara’s eyes were smoldering, and for a moment, it was as though the flames she wielded danced in the gold ring within them. Consuming me. Engulfing my very soul, as she stared me down. Despite myself, I wanted the flames to devour every inch of me, blazing through every mortal weakness, and freeing the man she saw in me. She seemed to understand the gravity of her strength, because the embers in her faded, and I faded right along with them.
I bowed my head in submission to my sire. “Your move, My Queen.”
Alec and Aren’s snickers cut off abruptly, as Alvara jutted out of her chair with inhuman speed. Her movement caused the roaring fire in the hearth to flicker, and the book that had rested in her lap clapped to the floor with a loud thud. She narrowed her eyes at me, the embers reigniting within her. When she spoke, her voice was breathy with something resembling panic.
“Why did you call me that?”
“It’s the only way I can think of you.”
“Since when?”
“I don’t know. Since we battled The Renown.”
“Ally?” Aren’s voice was a rumbling warning, and he cocked his head to the side, cautiously curious. “Did you just trigger?”
“Yes. But I. I don’t understand itagain.” She slammed her palm into her forehead, jamming her eyes closed. She uttered a colorful string of profanities under her breath, and I couldn’t help the amusement that inevitably played on my face. “You. You called me yourQueen. Why does that sound...right? I can’t see. I can’t see the trigger. It’s...cloudy. But it’s there, dammit. Why did that hit my heart like...ugh!” She groaned and yanked the tie from her bun, freeing her long locks in a wave. “Nobody has ever called me that here.”
“Certainly not,” Alec snorted.
