Page 55 of Commanding Flame and Shield
“Fuck! Come on!” Alvara held an image of the skin being stitched in her mind, and Alec dove forward, using his gift for speed to lace the wound up with expert hands. She released her energy, and her body swayed precariously. I made to react but couldn’t get my legs to move. Alec wrapped his arms around her as she collapsed into him. Somewhere, my subconscious was aware that Ansel had abandoned his post and was watching me intently from a foot away.
And then the world went black.
TWENTY-THREE
TWO COMMANDERS
ALVARA
“The Great Commander was split in two. The soul was shredded. It’s not possible.” Lana’s voice broke through my dreamless sleep. Eyelids heavy, I held my breath to listen.
“Legend has it, he only returns when there’s not another choice. When wewillfall without him.” Alec’s smooth voice was unmistakable as he explained the lore. “I know Aren’s the King, but he openly says the world is so fallen, he doesn’t feel like he can heal it.”
“Every leader feels unqualified,” Ansel countered, the strain obvious in his low, graveled voice. “Aren has been a legendary Commander. His bravery is unmatched. He will not fall. And his reign won’t either.”
“Who says August will reign? The Great Commander comes for a task. A mission. You saw what he did. How can you question your own eyes, brother?” Alec put no effort into hiding the awe in his voice.
“You mean whattheydid? I don’t know if you noticed or not, but our second called the shots in that miracle.”Click, pop. Click, pop.The familiar tinny tick that followed his words told me he was fiddling with his old cigarette case, opening it only to snick it shut again. The faint hint of tobacco on the air had long ago become a comfort, usually accompanied by either determined pacing or lethal stillness. Judging by the lack of footsteps, I assumed it was the latter. Before the smile could creep up my cheeks, my realization was cut off.
“She wasn’t the second,” Saraya’s soft voice cut between the debate. “Ally overpowered my will.I’m next in line. She was Commander, while Aren was too weak to be.”
“Semantics, Saraya,” Ansel snapped. I remembered Aren explaining to me that Commander of the in-between was a brief strength, and only granted from the point at which the Commander was injured, to the point their heart, or the battle stopped. Had I stepped into the in-between? “The point stands. Alvara was in command when August was called to heal him. He answered a command. Like any of us would.”
“A healing of that magnitude would kill a normal soul,” Saraya corrected softly.
“Two souls? There were two souls. Ally held the brunt of the force to start, and only called on him when she was losing strength,” Ansel insisted.
“Regardless. Did youseeit?Feelit? The ground…”
“Shook,” Fae finished her mate’s sentence. “I felt it, too. Everything shook. Hurricane Ally was in full force.”
“Hurricane?” I coughed, opening my eyes. Saraya rushed forward, damp cloth in her hand, to wipe the sweat from my brow, a glass of water in the other. She held it up for me to drink.
Alec chuckled and let out a relieved sigh. “Good morning,Sleeping Beauty. That was, uh—quite the tantrum back there.”
I winced and wrinkled my nose and then turned to Saraya. “Sar, I'm—”
She shook her head, determination in her eyes. “No need, Ally. It’s in the past. You did what was right. You are our seer; I should have known. Shouldn’t have questioned—”
I sat up and threw my arms around her, laying my head against her chest. She stroked my hair, soft and steady, and I allowed the sound of her heartbeat to calm my own. I steadied myself with a line of deep breaths, and finally pulled back to assess the room.
August was laying in the bed next to mine, and Aren was still sleeping in his. They had stripped his bloody clothes and sheets, only the broad patch of gauze over his chest, and flat pallor of his skin revealing what he’d been through. I stared and stared at that face I knew better than my own—at the light, angled brows, soft curve of Aren’s defined cheekbones, the narrow angle of his stubbled jaw. How he was still nearly perfectly preserved—save for the lone thin scar below his eye—after so many breaks, bruises, and injuries, I hadn’t a clue. Perhaps he had escaped most of the fights mostly unscathed before his ascension, because I could never find a trace of them in all our years together, through all our countless missions, brawls, sparring matches...
My throat went thick, eyes burning. I had missed it.Howhad I missed it? Between my panic for Bash, and that attack, I had missed a shadow walker and it had almost…
Enough. Ansel’s mental voice cut through the spiral.He’s going to be okay, Ally.
My eyes stung as hot tears rolled down my cheeks, and I collapsed back on my pillows.
“Holy shit, that was…” I shook my head.
“Intense,” Alec finished, and pressed his lips together. When he opened them again, his voice was barely a whisper. “The Great Commander?”
My head bobbed slowly, still in awe myself. How the vision had never come before that, was impossible to grasp. It struck like a train, when Saraya wouldn’t let him heal Aren. Dozens of visions of the soul called August performing miracles on humans and souls alike. Leading us to battle. But it wasn’t just August. I couldn’t make sense of the muddled visions, or the twist of energy around him in them.
“The vision triggered when I kept him from healing, didn’t it?” Saraya’s hand was still on my shoulder, but she had leaned back to look at me.
“Yes. Somehow his past lives came to me. He is The Healer. It’s why he was craving more than battle. Why he kept saying there wasmore to life than bloodshed.”
