Page 120 of Commanding Scythe and Sky

“You did it for him,” she said softly.

“Yeah, well, he doesn’t see it that way.”

“Make him see it that way.”

A strangled sound somewhere between a laugh and a screech tore up my throat. “Tried. Failed. More crucial tasks at stake.”

“More crucial than rectifying your mate bond?”

“Please see exhibit A.”

She glanced back at my wall—notes and pictures, maps and ripped-out pages from rather crucial history books, strings connecting one theory to the next. Pinned above it all were two photographs: the Obsidian Crown and Rhiannon’s diadem. In no universe did the Seer of the North send me on a near-death goose chase if it wasn’t going to matter in the imminent future. All this shit was connected. My job was to find the pattern. It had taken me less than three weeks to build the plan that took Reagan down. These motherfuckers? That shifter bitch?

They were next.

But I wasn’t bullheaded enough to underestimate centuries of preparation. I might’ve been warded against Adrastos, but that wasn’t enough of an advantage to go in swinging. “I’m going to find everything. Everything on every one of them. Then I’m pulling in August, and we’re going to dismantle them brick by fucking brick.”

She stole my coffee, ignoring my screeched “Hey!” as she turned to set it on a table.

“I take it back, no more for you.”

“Fuck off, give it back.”

“You’re not gonna kill me for it, so I can definitively say no.”

“Ye of little faith.”

“Now be a good girl and take a breath.”

“And you accuse me of being a flirt.”

“Focus, Freya.”

“You focus. I’m too pent-up to focus.”

“Exactly.” She grasped my shoulders, halting me in place. “When’s the last time you slept? When’s the last time you ate?”

“Carr sporadically shoves some kind of sustenance down my throat.”

“That sounds like a very healthy relationship with your second.”

“Third.”

“What?”

“Technically, Calypso is my second.”

“The woman who still won’t speak to you?”

“Yes.”

“Huh.”

“So, that would make Carr my third.”

“Wasn’t Cyrus your third?”

“Also not speaking to me.”