Page 73 of Commanding Scythe and Sky

The young Commander leaned back and closed his eyes. His muscles remained too tight for true relaxation, but at least he was trying.

Slowly, watching his chest rise and fall beneath that familiar Grayshell crest, I gathered my courage. I balanced my tea on one knee and finally convinced my mouth to work.

“August?”

His eyelids lifted heavily. “Yeah?”

“I’m sorry.”

A small V formed between his brows, and August sat up immediately.

“Mags, we’ve been over this. None of this is on you. Trust me.”

“Alvara—”

“Spoke out of anger and fear. She saw a future she couldn’t save, no matter how hard she tried to spin it. There was no changing the inevitable. No altering this timeline. Believe me. We tried.”

“But if I’d stayed with Aren⁠—”

“If I’d skipped seeing my parents and gotten Ally to Aren sooner. If Ally had touched your jacket, or a hoodie, or the damned Bellpost key, she might’ve seen everything before the other shoe dropped. If Freya hadn’t slipped up and Reagan hadn’t tortured her own son to draw her out. If Alec had kept his fat mouth shut long enough for Aren to tell you himself…”

He shook his head.

“We can play that game all day, can’t we?”

“Sure. But can you honestly tell me I’m wrong?”

August irritably combed his fingers through his thick hair before taking a long drink of tea.

“Two threads, Mags. That was all we had. And yes, Ally believed in you. She thought you would choose him.”

“She didn’t know Adrastos was the one we were up against?”

Alec, Fae, and Freya had reassured me a dozen times that Bellamy had glamoured himself so thoroughly within the timeline—and that Ally so rarely saw people who weren’t yet entangled with her soul group—that not even the great Seer of the North had known.

But it was the pain in August’s eyes as he shook his head that finally sealed that old fear inside its coffin.

The seer had not deliberately withheld something so pivotal.

“We would’ve been there in a heartbeat if she’d had any indication,” he vowed, as though he’d read my mind. “You have to believe that.”

“Yeah.” I wet my lips. “Yeah, I do. You’re right. I just⁠—”

“It’s better to hear it from the source.”

I nodded, gratitude flowing through me for the understanding written across every inch of his kind face.

He truly was too good for this world.

Just like Aren.

Aren…

Somewhere in the distance, laughter echoed off the walls.

August cleared his throat and dragged another hand through his unruly hair.

“You want some help with that?”