Page 185 of Queen of the Crimson Throne

Nico took a step back and held up his hands in surrender. “Sorry, I didn’t know if the fight deterred you.”

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my swelling emotions. Kara was gone, but I didn’t need to take it out on my friends.

“We got the journal and one better.” I set the journalon the table. “I duplicated the journal and left the original with the Galtain’s.”

“Brilliant,” Luce whispered.

I flipped through the book, picking random pages throughout and ripping them out, making it look like several pages had been ripped out and throwing them into the smoldering hearth.

“And that’s why you are the queen,” Nico mused. I huffed a laugh and shook my head. I threw the remaining pages in the fire before slipping the journal back into my pocket. “Are we going by horse or is Luce transporting us?”

“Do you two want to bathe before we go?” Luce waved a finger towards Luka and me, her nose scrunched as she assessed us.

I looked at Luka. “I don’t see the point when we’re likely going to be covered in blood again.”

“She has a point,” Luka agreed. “If we’re all ready we should go.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. “Luciana should transport us,” Declan said. “That way they won’t be able to see us coming.”

“Can you handle that?” Nico looked at Luce with concern in his eyes.

“Yes, I can do it,” she snapped.

We all looked at her questioningly. She huffed a breath. “I ran my magic out last night; he’s being a mother hen.” She crossed her arms and looked at Nico. “I’m fine now.”

“If you’re sure…” I asked carefully. I wanted to get to Kara as quickly as possible, but not at the expense of Luce.

“Yes, I’m fine. Let’s go.”

The world shifted around us before I could question her anymore.

I pulled my cloak tighter around me as the winter chill formed around us as we appeared at the base of the Abode Mountains at the Northernmost tip of Lethenia.

The mountain’s snowy peaks loomed above us. I had never been this close to the mountains. Or any mountains, despite living only a few hours ride from them. I could see them looming in the distance, but up close—they were breathtaking, even despite the circumstances. I saw no sign of any dwellings or camp of any sort yet, not even smoldering flames from a fire. Scrying wasn’t accurate to a precise location, but instead of giving a general location, I hoped we weren’t too far off.

“I’m guessing they’re located in one of the mountain passes,” Declan mused. “We won’t be able to see them until we get closer.”

We all trudged through the snow, a bubble of silence surrounding us to continue to keep our arrival a secret. I used spurts of my magic to keep my body warm as we continued along the mountains. Goddess, I hated winter. I was used to the mild winters of Alethens, this type of cold should have been illegal.

Finally, we made it into a mountain pass. A large dwelling came into view on the path. The building was long, stretching between the two mountains with trees surrounding it on both sides. Its flat roof was covered in a thick layer of snow. The walls had been patched several times over the years. Pallets had been fixed to the sagging parts of the structure.

This had Vanir written all over it, but from what we had learned from Oriza, this was not the Vanir’s doing.Unless the Vanir were working with this other force and Oriza was unaware.

“How do we get in?” I surveyed the building from where we crouched behind the shrubs at the mouth of the pass.

Two guards stood outside the door, a multitude of weapons strapped across their bodies.

“Do you think we could get in through one of the makeshiftpatches? Maybe we could get one off the building easily,” I mused.

“It’s a good idea, but it might bring attention to us and take too long. And we have no way of knowing what lies inside. We could be walking into a trap,” Declan said.

I let out a sigh. “This whole thing might be a fucking trap. Maybe we go in the front door. The note said I needed to bring the journal to get Kara back. They must be expecting us. So maybe we just go in.”

Declan was quiet as he thought over my idea. “That might be our best bet if we go in willingly and give them the journal—we might walk out unharmed with Kara.”

“Or we might not walk out at all,” Luce added.

“But it’s worth a try.” Luka shifted, his boots crunching on the snow.

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