Page 54 of Commanding Flame and Shield
“August. Heal him.” Her eyes were desperate as they raked over my face, my body. “I’veseenit August. It’s the only way.” She pressed her hand across Aren’s chest and jammed her eyes shut. Aren grunted in pain as she pressed into him, light glowing faintly below her fingertips. And then I saw it. As vivid in her mind as the room before us, she could see my hands hover over him, next to hers, and the demon poison rushing from his veins in a violent swirl as it pulled up into the air in small, glistening beads. Saraya would collect it in a vial.
“You’re The Healer, August. Now, heal him!” Somehow, I knew her words were true, and I turned from her gaze.
Saraya’s eyes were wild as she studied Alvara’s face. Her hands remained protective between Aren and me. Their gaze locked for a moment, Saraya just as fierce as Ally.
I felt Alvara’s anger bubbling to the surface in my own chest.
“Stand down, soldier,” Alvara barked at her friend. Saraya didn’t make any change in her protective stance. “Move,” Alvara demanded through gritted teeth.
“Ally—I—he could.”
“I said, move.”
“Ally, I can’t turn a—”
There was no time. Ally’s outrage burst from her chest in a wave of static electricity, knocking every healer and onlooker to the ground. It took one quick glance to realize her energy had not touched anyone that believed her. That trusted her instinct. She stared down at Saraya’s defiant expression as she started to rise, and Ally stood, obstinate and outraged. Wind began to tear through the room in a torrent, assaulting her face with whips of her hair. She cocked her head at her old friend, who shouted something inaudible through the lashing current.
I felt her courage, her anger, her dread, and finally, her absolute certainty raise in my chest. Suddenly her emotions were mine. And it wasn’t her prying into my mind. It was a deep, organic reaction within my bones and soul. I felt the power surge between us as the air picked up speed, a tornado building strength in the room. Only Aren’s bed, and our team stood in the eye of the storm. Saraya fought to get to her feet, pushing a shield against the force of the air. Alvara threw her hand forward, pinning Saraya to the floor telekinetically.
You’ll kill him, don’t you see?!?Alvara’s voice rang in our minds, and I watched as the eyes around me all went hazy. Only Alvara’s, now unblinking and trained on mine, were clear. And I realized she was filling their minds with her visions. All of them. And then my world vanished too, only the floor remaining planted under my feet.
I watched in horror as thread by thread, she unraveled the future so that all the healers could see. One, by one, by one, we watched their failed attempts to draw the infection and save The Commander. Again, and again, and again, we watched him die. Again, and again, we watched his most loyal souls throw themselves to his body to sacrifice their life force. One, by one, by one, we watched Grayshell fall to an onslaught of demon attacks. Watched the four horsemen freed from Hell and take the mortal world into the Apocalypse. We needed Aren to stand a chance. They needed me.
One short, glimmering thread. Foggy at best. That’s all she had. And she shoved the vision into our minds like an uppercut to the gut, knocking the wind from our lungs with the force—me. Me, healing Aren. Me, commanding our armies.
When the vision stopped, I shook my head to clear it.Ally is very rarely wrong.Aren’s words rang in my mind, and I lunged forward to wrap my arms around her waist. I pulled her away from the bed. Her anger was so powerful, I wasn’t sure if she could see that they had surrendered to her will. The wind came to a violent stop as she submitted to my arms wrapped around her.
Lana and Ansel, hands hovering over their blades, placed themselves between their seer and the healers, livid gazes surveying their faces.
The Great Commander.The unified prayer had ceased in Ally’s storm, and been replaced with chilling quiet. The thought echoed down the hallway as all their minds turned tome.
“Ally,” I whispered in her ear as she panted with the effort, “I believe you.” She went still in my arms, chest heaving. I turned to Aren, whose eyes were wide in shock. He slowly nodded at me.
I trust Ally. So, I trust you.He turned his head in my direction. “Do your best, Commander Porter.”
TWENTY-TWO
STITCHES
AUGUST
Those two words reverberated through every bone in my body, and I felt their strength swell in my chest as the power they held was unlocked. I released my hold on Alvara, and she spun to face me, her skin stained with blood, tears and desperation. Her eyes met mine and stilled.
“Together,” she commanded. I nodded. “Saraya, get the holy water, and a vial for the toxin.”
Saraya’s eyes were cautious, but she heeded her second in command, Ansel and Lana shifting like furious sentinels. When the supplies were in hand, Ally turned to me. The poison was already webbing back down through Aren’s veins in an aggressive counterattack. His broad shoulders were covered in its dark spindles. There was no time.
Ally stared at my eyes and something in her soul told me we were one in this battle. One in this life.
“I’ll say go.” She turned her eyes to Aren. “Give him something to bite down on. This is going to fucking hurt.”
He nodded and turned his face as a healer brought him a bit of leather.
Alvara closed her eyes, gripped Aren’s hand in her own, and stretched her other arm out over his body again, only inches from his skin.You hang onto me. Do you hear me?His fingers tightened around her hand in answer. When she opened her lids, her eyes were glowing a frightening green. Like before. In the hospital. Her light began to radiate down towards the wound. The tremble started in her fingers, and inched its way up into her arm, straining from the exertion of what she pulled from him. She slowly rotated her splayed open hand, everything in her trembling as the web of poison was pulled back into the wound, and her eyes went all foggy.
“Now!” She cried. I threw my hand out over his chest and our life forces entangled in a dancing spiral, braiding together before swelling until the light blinded the room. I closed my eyes but didn’t dare yield. I felt the swell of toxic, icy energy move towards my hand. Deeply buried survival instincts screamed to pull away, to get away from the threat, only pushing me to lean in harder. Aren let out a shout of pain, and Saraya cried out that we were killing him.
“Keep going!” Alvara countered, screaming the words. “Jesus. Stay with me Ar.” I opened my eyes to see her staring at Aren’s chest through the glow as his head fell back limply. Dark beads of demonic poison had been pulled up into the tornado of our energy, spinning around our entangled life-force. Saraya carefully scooped them into the vial, holding her hand steady as she cried out, her flesh burned under the ray of light.
