Page 258 of Commanding Scythe and Sky

“August.” The name left me in a rush. “Oh, thank God.”

“Freya?” he groaned, his voice weighted in a way I wasn’t ready to understand. A weight that became a death sentence when he opened his mouth, eyes glassy. “I can’t feel my legs.”

My stomach dropped. Too much. It was too damn much.

“Do we know a healer who can do a spine?” Kade asked, far too calmly for my liking.

I locked on those heavy aqua eyes. “Alone? I can think of only one.”

FIFTY

OUCH

AUGUST

Fuck.

FIFTY-ONE

PRINCIPESSA

MAGNOLIA

“She okay?” I breathed, eyes trained on the stacks of perfectly preserved books when Aren found me in the library.

Of all the rooms ensconced in Rhiannon’s protection, this one was the most exquisite. It was as though no time had passed—the tables and shelves clear of dust, the plants and flowers still perfectly in bloom, turned toward the windows as if seeking the sun Earthside.

“No,” he answered honestly. “I cling to her for his sake—for Freya’s sake—but there’s a reason mates so often die in pairs. To be cleaved…”

His words wandered off, and my mind followed, my hands sticky with that sheen of his blood I could never seem to wash clean. As though my soul had preserved that moment—the severing of the most sacred—the way Rhiannon had preserved her books.

Like I could ever forget.

Even now, staring at the miracle before me, I clenched my jaw and dragged a deep breath through my nose to hold back the tears. The echo of that agony rang like a bell—an axe cleaving through my center, my head splitting, shadows fleeing as I shattered entirely.

Lana was living in that hell.

She hadn’t been given the opportunity to dance with the devil and come out on the other side intact.

Ansel made his choice.

Took the blade meant for his daughter’s mate, knowing that fate would call one of them home.

And left her here. Left her to fight through unspeakable torment.

I wouldn’t wish it on my enemy, much less a soul like Lana.

So I would take her anger. I’d earned it the day my panic overruled destiny—the day I broke the threads. I’d take it because she was here and breathing, and Aren needed her nearly as much as Freya did. They’d sacrificed too much. If anger was what Lana needed to keep her grip on reality, that was fine by me.

I’d been that person—the one looking for a fight. So bitter and furious at the world that I picked arguments with the people closest to me. With the man I thought had saved me.

Fuck, if I’d only known.

Nodding softly, I turned back to the stacks. “We could spend months here and not get through them all.”

“True. What’s your gut say?”

I bit back my smirk, any flicker of joy feeling like a betrayal of Lana’s grief. “That we’re still missing something.”