Page 143 of Commanding Scythe and Sky

Without her, the rebels lose. There is one thread left in which they overthrow this occupation. She must live for your friends to win.

Don’t pretend you give a single flying fuck. I shook my head. Aloud, I breathed, “I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do.”

Marlana’s eyes snapped to her brother’s, and he pushed off the archway.

“It wasn’t a request, pet.”

“There’s nothing for me to do,” I repeated, lifting my chin and staring him down. “I heal bodies, not souls. A mind, once broken, isn’t so easily reassembled as bone and flesh.”

“Let me rephrase this.” Then, into my mind: Green is the only other healer capable of keeping her on this side of the veil. Think long and hard⁠—

Take me instead, I blurted internally. Bond to me instead. Take me instead. Leave Mags out of it.

He arched a brow. And lose my one point of leverage left?

You’re a fucking monster.

And yet you’re both so shocked when I act like one. Aloud, he added, “You and I both know things can get much, much worse for you, Dr. Briar. Heal her. Get her to eat. We need her in play, and it seems Mrs. Porter has decided death is preferable.”

With bile in my throat, I stared him down. There was nothing left of the man I knew.

Nothing.

I’d been a fool to think his determination to help Fiona meant there had been some truth in the role he’d played to win us over. A fool to think there was anything about this man worth saving.

The only good thing to come from the last twenty-four hours was that I finally knew how to take him out of play. Then I could pray the rest of them managed to finish this.

I just needed to earn an invitation back into his room.

“What’s her name?” I ground out, and Marlana laughed.

“Oh, this one might just slit your throat, little brother.”

“If she possessed half the gumption to do so, she would’ve already,” he said with an unbothered smirk.

“Elizabeth.”

Unbridled terror slammed into my mind. Terror that wasn’t mine. Terror wreathed in billowing shadows, pine and embers. Then it vanished almost before I could register it.

“What did she just say?” Marlana asked, straightening from where she leaned against the wall, her pale skin going impossibly paler.

I looked between them, my eyes landing on Adrastos, whose brow was furrowed, his face also remarkably pallid. He looked liable to pass the hell out.

Kneeling at Ally’s feet, I met her confused emerald eyes.

“My name,” Alvara rasped, “is Elizabeth.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

FUCK SNAKES

MAGNOLIA

Move, heiress. Now.

I wasn’t sure whether Death or the shadows had pried me from sleep. By the time I crossed the ward out of the storm, my body had collapsed into the sand. Only the gods knew how long I’d been out.

Move with haste, child.