Page 3 of Taloned Heart

Blowing out a long breath, she nodded. “I understand.”

“Do you?”

A feathery laugh erupted from her chest while she shook her head against him. “No, I don’t. I’ll probably be up all night and then I’ll be as bad as the wights when we first picked up Zephyr.”

His gaze softened as he leaned away from her, holding onto her arms so she still at least felt like he was there. “Lady of Starlight, are you being emotional about when we first found Zephyr?”

“Of course I am. He was just a child. Don’t you remember the look on his face when we all walked into that crypt? He’d grown up underground, and we brought him out into this world. Showed him what else there could be and... And now they put him back in a crypt.”

Tears pricked behind her eyes at the thought, as they always did when she remembered the horrible conditions he was in.

“Lore.” Abraxas swiped his fingers underneath her eyes. “We will find him.”

She just hoped they would get there in time.

CHAPTER2

Abraxas shouldn’t be disappointed that their ship docked without incident. No one stood at the edges of the planks, ready to get their wares off the ship. But Allura claimed that was fairly normal, considering no one had known they were coming.

But the siren’s eyes had darkened as she stared around the quiet docks, even in the middle of the day. They were, clearly, much more empty than they had been when they’d left.

That unsettled feeling in Abraxas’s stomach never left. He’d picked it up from Lore. He was quite certain of that. She had fed anxiety into his body as he took it away from her, like he could make it better just by... what? Absorbing it himself?

Foolish. He shouldn’t have tried to feed off her anxiety, as though that would make it better. He knew by now that her feelings spread like a plague. If she didn’t want to feel them, she wouldn’t. But giving them to him would only succeed in just that. He’d suddenly be anxious as well, and he couldn’t afford to be so when he had a job to do.

Protect her. Protect the people that he cared about and make sure that this mission didn’t fail. He needed to be certain that Lore never stepped too far out of his sight.

Perhaps he was being a little overprotective. But these few months on the ship had opened his eyes to something he desperately wanted. No, needed.

Her.

He could never survive the feelings of losing her again, and now they were marching toward a future—again—where that could happen.

Tilting his head back to the sky, he took a deep breath and told himself to calm down. Dracomaquia was the one place where he could feel uncertainty. He didn’t know his homeland as well as this place. He’d lived in Umbra for hundreds of years, and he had followed in the footsteps of kings. This was his home just as much as it was hers.

Together, they would stop whatever was thrown at them. They would change the very fabric of the world, just as her prophecy had claimed they would.

Still, the quiet docks made him uncomfortable.

Lore shouldered her bag beside him, her eyes skating over the empty docks. Only a few people trailed toward a much smaller ship, one of the few that was still in the harbor.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“I think it’s very quiet,” she replied, and her eyes followed the same track his had taken. “I don’t like it. There were hundreds of people the last time we stood on these docks.”

“We?” He arched a brow. “You were here without me last time.”

“Oh.” She shook her head, the fog clearing in her gaze as she turned to him. “I forget that I was looking for you. I think I’ve... tried to forget that.”

With a soft snort, he reeled her into his arms one last time. Tucking her underneath his chin, he took a deep breath and felt her take it with him. In and out. Slowly, quietly tucking away both of their fears. “I was here with the King. He frequently enjoyed pleasure rides on ships when he was younger, like his father before him. And we both know that man was long lived.”

“Indeed.” She pressed a kiss to his bare skin where his shirt parted just underneath his collarbone.

Heat flared through him, but now was not the time for that. He knew there were very few things they could do now that they had arrived. After all, they had a kingdom to save.

Their own pleasure ride through the seas between the continents had been wonderful. They were memories he now needed to keep close to his chest as they meandered through the docks.

“Ready?” Allura’s melodic voice interrupted them. “We have a long way to go.”

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