Page 386 of Commanding Blood And Bonds

“Ally was certain?” Fae’s voice wobbled. Her eyes locked onto Alec’s profile, all terror and longing. She trembled with the urge to run to him but didn’t. Didn’t let go of Magnolia’s hand.

Two threads.

That’s all we had left. Somewhere between Magnolia breaking Aren’s heart and Reagan having Cyrus tortured, the optimal future vanished.

Just two fucking threads remained.

I couldn’t tell her that—not my pregnant aunt. So, I just nodded.

“I’m betting on Ally,” Aren said, voice steady.

“Y’all realize this plan is insane, right?” Cyrus drawled, gaze fixed on Moros like he was weighing the odds of dragging the bastard into the dirt now. The temptation had certainly crossed my mind. “Your seer made us bait.”

“You get used to that, too,” Aren and I said in unison. Cyrus’s citrine gaze flicked to us, unconvinced.

“She’s rarely wrong,” Aren added, and there was something heavy beneath the words. Something final.

It was brilliant—Ally’s plan. Broken into phases. Scalable. Strategic. All we had to do was stick to it, even if it sucked like a bag of donkey dicks to walk away from our family while they faced down a fucking legion.

“We follow the plan.”

The shadows stirred—serpents winding through our feet—and Magnolia and Cyrus both turned sharply, scanning.

“We’ve got company,” Cyrus muttered.

“Move,” Aren ordered.

And just like that, we hauled ass—dragging Fae and Aren through the heart of the city.

August

“Run.”

One gritted word—and everything changed.

Magnolia, Fae, and Aren vanished the instant Adrastos spun, disarming Ally like it was a goddamn drill. In the same breath, he looped his chained wrists around her neck and yanked her against his chest.

With a roar, Alec’s shield surged forward—blocking the Reaper’s strike and the spears of dark magic the twins hurled our way. But not even Alec could stop a horseman alone. I threw my own shield forward to reinforce his.

Ally had gone full Angel of Death, battling her ancient brother with the kind of fury that made even seasoned soldiers hesitate. Every part of me screamed to protect her.

But I followed the goddamn plan. Trusted her to signal if she needed me.

I dropped to one knee as the whites of the silver-haired witch’s eyes turned black.

Marlana. That was the name Ally had pulled from Adrastos’s mind.

And now the slippery bitch was pressing her hand into the dirt, that oily smile spreading as the ground beneath us turned to ash.

Oh, we were so, so fucked.

That’s the spirit, Alec muttered through the tether as we both drew our bows.

“After them!” Moros barked, pointing into the city—no doubt toward Freya, who’d just whisked away half the damn prophecy like a fucking legend. Thank God at least one part of this plan had worked. I prayed her reinforcements would show up before this turned into a massacre.

With her shadowwalker, she’d gotten them out of the Reaper’s radius. That was all I could ask.

Because our shields were cracking, smoke sputtering through the fissures as the serpent shifter grinned.