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“It’s real, little dove. I’m here.” I reached for the water Kari had left ready. “You okay?”
“Subjective,” she croaked, though one corner of her mouth twitched as she fought onto an elbow. I rushed to help, keeping her against my side as I sat where her warmth still clung to the sheets. To my immense relief, she let me. Leaned into my chest. I steadied the glass as she drank, then watched her lift one tattooed hand, turning it over and flexing her fingers in nearly the same assessment I’d made of my own.
She swallowed hard and went silent.
For a moment, I thought she wouldn’t speak at all. Then she rasped, “That was real too?”
“You’re magnificent,” was all I could think to say. I hadn’t seen what she’d done, but I’d seen the aftermath. First on my body and hers. Then on every companion who came through to visit or deliver messages. Lana no longer bore the scars we’d earned side by side. Freya’s were gone too.
Somehow, I doubted newly unmarked skin was helping Lana keep hold of reality.
Not when every mate grappled with losing their counterpart.
Whatever the unintended cost, the power Magnolia’s ascension had released was unprecedented.
She took another sip, then settled her hand over mine as if she needed the same reassurance I did: I was here. Real.
An ache drove into my chest like a blade. You will lose she who you most loved. The warning from beyond burned beneath my ribs. It hadn’t faded. Her choice hadn’t diminished my love for her any more than returning from that realm of mist and light had.
This woman was everything. And I couldn’t have her. Not truly. Not anymore.
My free hand traveled up her arm and back, my thumb settling over the runes tucked among her tattoos.
Bound.
She was bound to him.
The instant my thumb brushed his markings, Magnolia tore out of my grasp. The glass nearly went with her, saved only by reflex as water sloshed over the rim.
“Ally?” she breathed. “Where is she? Did you find her?” Whatever she saw in my face drained the color from hers. “What are you doing, sitting here?” she demanded.
“Following orders,” I said, making no effort to conceal the bitterness.
“What? What does that mean?!”
“The Great Commander decreed that his personal task force will handle finding Alvara. The rest of us are to follow the path she laid out without deviation.”
“But why? He can’t do that.”
“He can,” I said. “And he did.”
“That makes no sense. They have her, Aren—Adrastos ran her through on a godsdamned blade.” She threw her legs over the edge like she meant to march out and reclaim Ally herself. “We have to go after her.”
“I cannot.”
“What?”
“August used his Command, Mags.”
She stilled. “I don’t understand.”
“Whatever happened while I was… gone, he finally accepted his role. I don’t have to like his strategy, but he was adamant we’d dishonor her sacrifice by disobeying her last marching order—that Ally chose this so Alec could live to be a father… so I could live… to be with you.”
“She… sacrificed herself for us?” Magnolia blinked, shock hardening into irritation. “Why are you so calm?”
“Because this is—and always has been—his destiny, Mags. He has a strategy. A damn good one. It requires me to lay low and the rest of the world to believe I’m dead. I’m pissed as hell, and after the two of us nearly came to blows over it, I’m also proud as hell. He’s putting her plan—the mortals, the war—ahead of what he wants. If that isn’t leadership, I don’t know what is.”
Understanding settled into her eyes. The two of us were damned to do the same thing.
