Page 23 of Taloned Heart

Beauty coughed into her hand. “He sort of did. I mean, he’s not here anymore. No one knows where to find him. But I will say he left us a safe place to hide. So I suppose the true answer is a bit in the middle of your opinions?”

Though she and her dragon were still glaring at each other, at least they could let this go. Lore shrugged first, and Abraxas grunted.

“Fine,” she said. “I suppose we were both right, then.”

The bubble of laughter that erupted from Beauty was music to her ears. She’d thought she might never hear that sound again, and Lore had forgotten how much she loved it.

“I missed you two so much,” Beauty said while shaking her head. “Especially mediating your arguments. The two of you are worse than children, sometimes. Follow me, and try not to argue about who goes through the door first, would you?”

How easily they slipped back into their old ways. Lore had thought maybe someone would be uncomfortable, but they weren’t. Not in the slightest.

Shaking her head, she watched as Abraxas held out his arm for her to go first. Clearly indicating that she needed to follow Beauty and he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

A childish part of her wanted to stand right where she was, fold her arms over her chest, and make him beg her to go first. After all, that’s what they did, apparently. They argued.

Instead, she gave him a bright smile and marched after Beauty, who disappeared into the side of the tree. The same door that had led Lore to the first party where they had met.

She paused only for a moment, luxuriating in the way her heart pinched at the memory. This was where everything had begun, and now she was here again. Starting another impossible journey by walking through a door in a tree.

She took a deep breath and plunged ahead.

CHAPTER9

Abraxas would follow them to the very ends of the earth if that was what they required of him. He adored both of these women in very different ways. But holding Beauty in his arms after he’d left her in tears? Ah, it soothed the ache in his soul that he had been carrying for far too many months. She didn’t deserve to be treated the way he’d treated her at the end.

He was glad she could forgive him. And that’s what it felt like. Her tears soaked through his shirt and her words had been muffled against his shoulder, but he knew forgiveness when he felt it.

That little human was important to him. They all were. Each one of them was the family that he’d never gotten to have as a child. Losing them would be like losing a limb.

As it had been.

He rubbed a hand over his heart, wondering what the dwarf would have said to them. Goliath wouldn’t have let Lore go to the dragon isles on her own in the first place. He’d have beaten Draven and ended up there adventuring with all the others.

That dwarf hadn’t known what fear tasted like. Not even in the end. He’d changed the way their world worked, and he hadn’t been alive to even realize it.

As they all walked through the tree and headed down into what he could only assume was Borovoi’s basement, he swore he felt Goliath’s spirit walking with them.

The dwarf wouldn’t be quiet as he clambered down the stairs. His boots would strike hard and his laughter would have filled the dimly lit place.

“Stop looking so serious, dragon,” he would have said. “The underground makes you uncomfortable? Good. It should. The ceiling could fall down on your head at any moment, and no one would know what happened.”

No one would, and that was why Abraxas hated being underground like this. It always made him feel like he was seconds from being buried alive.

But the women weren’t nervous, so he supposed he had no place to be either. As much as he wanted to turn right back around and tell them he’d wait for them outside, he knew he had to be here. Wasn’t that his purpose, after all? He was their protector and he would remain their protector until the end of all time.

Sighing, he rubbed the back of his neck and stayed as still as possible while Beauty lit a few candles that lined the walls.

“It takes a lot of light to keep the whole place looking somewhat presentable,” she said as she meandered through. “Borovoi forgot to tell us that the whole place was massive. He just offered a safe place to stay, so Da and I quickly said yes. We know what it’s like for our people out there, and we were so afraid of what would happen if we didn’t...”

Her words trailed off, and no one needed them to be said.

Gruffly, Abraxas added, “You’d think for all the work you did with Margaret, she would have at least given you and your father asylum.”

“No one got that.” Beauty’s lips pressed into a thin line. “No one that helped her was given any kindness at all, in fact. Most of us tried to ask for that, considering that we were all fighters. But no. The few who dared to ask her in person never came back. And eventually, we all stopped trying.”

A woman without honor had no place at the head of the table. Abraxas shook his head, then nudged Lore.

She glanced up at him, those lovely starlight eyes all filled with guilt. He’d known this would be hard for her. “Why don’t we save their candles?”

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