Page 20 of Commanding Blood And Bonds
“Who?” I demanded.
“Adrastos.” Her brow furrowed. “We lost, Ally.” She blinked. “Don’t you remember?”
I shook my head, throat thick. I stumbled over a body.
Saraya.
Dead at my feet.
Fae stepped toward me, eyes glistening. “Ally, sweetie, you failed.”
“No,” I breathed. “The threads—we can fix this.” My heel caught another body, and I fell, colliding with the corpses below.
“A bit late for that,” a melancholy drawl cut through my panic.
Alec knelt beside me, agony shadowing his gaze. “It’s over, Al. We all failed.”
“No,” I rasped, shaking my head. “We had a chance—”
“We trusted the wrong souls, Ally.” He steadied me, then turned to Fae. “We have to go.”
“Go?!” I barked. “Go where?”
“Away.” His voice was empty. “I can’t look at you anymore.”
But his steps faltered. His body swayed.
“Alec,” I hedged. “Where’s August?”
His head dropped. Fae sobbed.
When he turned, blood poured from three brutal claw marks across his torso.
“I’m sorry,” he gasped. “They’re coming.” Agony cracked his face, amber eyes pleading. “Save Fae and the baby, Ally.”
“Elizabeth.”
That haunting, honeyed British bass echoed in my mind, tugging me from Alec’s scream.
“Wake up, El. They’re coming.”
Adrastos’ voice drifted like a memory, distant but insistent. Move, damn you.
My eyes snapped open to the softly illuminated cob ceiling of our Arizona safe house. My lungs sucked down air in a panicked gasp. Hands flying to my face, I rubbed at my aching eyes as August’s familiar warmth wrapped around me.
Memories flickered. Laughter. Lovemaking. Brutal demise.
His lips found my neck.
God, I’d forgotten what it was to be touched in such a way, touched by a man that cherished me above all else.
Mate. Husband.
“Hey,” he breathed. “We’re okay, baby. We’re okay.”
“Yeah,” I murmured. “We have time.” A fleeting truth.
“One more stop before we head north, correct?”
