Page 374 of Commanding Blood And Bonds

“Now that you’re safe? I do what I do best—I go to war. And you help people. As many as you can.”

I nodded, heart aching as he gave my fingers a reassuring squeeze.

“No matter how this first wave ends, I need you to do something for me.”

“Anything,” I whispered.

“Worst case—something happens to me⁠—”

“Don’t,” I sobbed, my voice cracking.

“I need you to look after my people until I circle back. Get them to your sisters, make them come here. Help them. They’ll need a talented healer for a while.” He exhaled. “Best case, I still have to forge through the Middle and return Grayshell to full power. Ally says we can’t win if I fail. Even then…they’ll need you, little dove.”

I nodded again, already thinking of the lives I’d tried to protect, even if it meant shattering us.

He freed a hand to hook his finger under my chin. “Promise me.”

“I promise,” I breathed.

“Thank you.” He leaned forward and pressed a slow, chaste kiss to my forehead before rising.

“Where are you going?” I blurted, panic rising fast.

“To see what Ally’s gleaned from Adrastos.”

That dazzling, arrogant smile flashed through my mind, and my ribs clenched.

That’s not Bellamy.

I feared that would be my mantra—until the betrayal fully set in.

“Be my good girl,” Aren murmured as he walked away, “and get some rest. We’re going to need you before you’re ready.”

SIXTY-NINE

FAMILY QUARREL

ALVARA

I’d seen this interaction play out two hundred ways—each as miserable as the last.

Stabilizing the two of them had been the easy part compared to convincing August and Ansel to let me go in alone. Their seething presence just outside the door had the hair on my neck rising. But he wouldn’t talk to them. Not the way he’d talk to me. To Elizabeth.

This life or not, the clever bastard we’d nursed back from the brink had once been my twin brother. Best friend. Confidant. The first boy to teach me swordplay, knowing full well he’d be punished if we were caught.

But that was centuries ago—for me, many lifetimes sat between that raven-haired boy and the man my magic showed me waking now.

Dread spooled itself tight in my gut as I pushed through the door, exhaling slowly when I laid eyes on Adrastos, chained to a bed with enchanted metal. He raised his gaze, and a lazy, half-mooned smirk spread across his face.

“Well played, Princess,” he rasped. “Well played.”

“Still not a game.”

“Still not over.”

“What are you doing, Adrastos? Or are you Bellamy now? Lonan? Paris?” I stepped closer, voice low. “How many aliases can one man have before he forgets where he started?”

His smirk tilted sideways across his face. I could see what Magnolia saw—the clean planes of his jaw, the dark eyes, bronzed skin. He’d benefitted from his time here in California with the witches. Right up until now.