Page 5 of Taloned Heart

Lore interrupted their conversation, her voice low and full of dark omens. “Unless they were forced.”

The thought had crossed his mind. Margaret truly hated humans. She’d stop at nothing to get them away from what she thought might be a sanctuary for humankind.

They turned down a street, following Allura as he leaned low to whisper in Lore’s ear, “You think she targeted the docks?”

“I do.”

“It would be a good plan to attack where the most people were living in harmony.”

Lore shook her head. “It’s the first place people would go if they wanted to leave. She’d want to make sure they couldn’t escape.”

He had hoped it wasn’t that, but the certainty in Lore’s voice gave him no other way to think. Of course Margaret would want that.

He said nothing else until they reached Allura’s home. The small shack had seen better days. Salt and wind had battered upon the outside edges, tearing the wood and rotting parts of it until it looked almost abandoned. The thatch roof was rotted, but he assumed she needed to replace that yearly.

Grumbling under her breath, Allura slammed the door open that was no longer locked.

“Bastards,” the siren hissed as she stomped through the piles of her clothing on the floor. “They just couldn’t wait a few more days to rob me, could they?”

Abraxas filled his lungs with the scents of the room. Old scents. Very old. “No one has been in here for months, Allura.”

She froze in the middle of the small room. “What... How do you know that?”

He tapped his nose. “I can smell them.”

As the siren swore about thieves who couldn’t wait even a few days to steal from her, he eyed the small room. He’d thought it might have a secret area below the cabin, but this was it. Just a single room with a miniature stove in the corner, now covered in dust and grime. A cot on one side of the wall, jammed up against a small table and a single chair. A wardrobe on one side had been placed haphazardly, although maybe the thieves had yanked it out. The floor was covered in layers of clothing and picture frames. But other than that, there wasn’t much in the siren’s house.

He had no intention of staying the night here. There was no room to move with the three of them crammed inside these small walls. If anyone tried to attack them, and he had to assume that it was already known that they’d arrived in the kingdom, then they could not protect themselves.

Allura gestured. “Sit down friends, I’ll see if they left anything to eat. Probably not, the backstabbing bottom feeders.”

As the siren grumbled and rifled through her things, Abraxas took the chair in front of the bed and turned it around. Lore sat in front of him, and together, they leaned in close.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“I couldn’t feel any of them, Abraxas. They’re all gone.”

“We thought she might do something like this. If she’s trapped Zephyr, then it’s likely she’s gone after all the mortals. Just keeping the next in the bloodline in a dungeon won’t make the humans follow her. Not in the slightest.”

“Then we need to figure out who else she’s trapped.” The heartbeat in Lore’s neck fluttered. “I haven’t checked in on Beauty. Or her father. There are others we need to have with us before we do... anything.”

“We should know more about what’s going on in the kingdom, yes.” He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “But we cannot stay here.”

“There is nothing for us on the docks. And I think we both agree, there is nothing left without gathering up those who are still here.” She watched his features, her eyes flicking back and forth between his. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

He knew she was worried about who might listen through the walls. Margaret’s shadows were all around them, and though she could cast a spell to keep them all silent enough that even Margaret’s magic would not hear them, he also knew the waves of that magic would also give her away. Lore needed to tread carefully. Just as carefully as he did.

“Home,” he whispered, knowing that if he said it, whoever might be listening would assume they were going to the castle. “We go home.”

Lore nodded, and he had to mentally prepare himself for Tenebrous. It would take days to get there, and days for him to trudge through the swamp and the muck that surrounded her home.

They’d survive it. They would find Beauty and perhaps then they would discover what was really happening in this place. But until then, they had to keep their ears open and their wits about them.

“Fuck,” Allura hissed. “We’re going to the pub, I suppose. Not a single bite of food left in this place that isn’t moldy or turned to dust.”

Lore eyed him, the question in her eyes about how smart it would be for them to go anywhere right now.

He didn’t care. They needed food for their journey, and he needed to get those shadows out of her eyes. He stood and pulled their cloaks out of their bag, carefully wrapping one around her shoulders and drawing it over her blonde hair.

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