Page 76 of Commanding Scythe and Sky

“It’s not a problem.”

“Bullshit.” I probed the injury with my magic and felt something foreign buried beneath the skin. “You healed this wrong, you bullheaded pain in the ass.”

“Listen, it’s a little difficult to dig shit out of your own back.”

“Right. Which is why there’s a base for you to come back to.”

I funneled magic through my fingertips and dragged one nail across the scar, reopening the wound.

August hissed.

“Christ, Mags. A little warning before we go into surgery, would you?”

“Report in next time,” I snapped.

I tapped my fingers through the air above the open gash, then winced when my magic revealed what he’d sealed inside himself.

“Jesus.”

“I know he’s basically a nephilim deity, but that seems like a stretch, don’t you think?”

Warmth spread through me as a now-familiar voice filled the room.

But it was the way August immediately straightened that made me smile.

“What are you doing here?” August asked, grinning.

His words dissolved into a hiss when I extracted what appeared to be a curved shard of bone.

“Fucking hell, Mags. A little heads-up next time.”

“Big baby—” The taunt died when I held the fragment up between my fingers.

“Ow, fuck. Why—is that a claw?”

“Tormentor,” August grunted as I pressed my hand against the wound, now satisfied it was clean. “With quills,” he explained.”

My palm glowed white as his flesh knitted neatly together.

“That’s going to scar,” I growled.

Then I turned and nodded toward James, who stood outside the wards.

The moment my hands left his skin, August made a beeline for his younger brother. They crashed into each other in the violent bro-hug men always seemed compelled to exchange.

I smiled softly.

At least, I did until James pulled away and his eyes—so much like his brother’s—settled on me.

“Alec sent me.”

Something in the depths of his stony gaze sent my stomach plummeting.

“He’s stalling them as long as he can, but the delegation voted to put you under lockdown, Dr. Green. They intend to confine you to the base until Adrastos is dead.”

My stomach turned to stone. My lips parted with a retort, but James shook his head.

“That’s not all. Adrastos passed a message to Fae—allegedly from Alvara—that Lana and the Grayshell party will be attacked in three days. If not sooner.”