Page 52 of Taloned Heart

“Wait...” Beauty rushed forward, standing in front of Lore while practically vibrating with emotion. “You’re going to look for him? Now?”

Lore met her friend’s gaze with a dead-eyed stare. “I’m going to rescue him, Beauty. We were always going to get him back. Now, later, it doesn’t matter how long it takes us. But first, I want to make sure we’re not walking into a trap. Margaret is smarter than anyone gives her credit for. I want to make sure no one will get in our way.”

“Do you think you can?” Abraxas asked, settling down next to her for his long watch as she meandered away from her body.

Lore’s haunted expression smoothed into something like glass. “I don’t think there’s much I cannot do anymore, Abraxas. I’ll let him know we’re coming.”

CHAPTER20

Lore slipped into the magic like it was a second skin. She floated away from her body and up through the very earth itself. Her mind flickered to another time when she had dragged herself out of the dirt, clawing her way beyond death and into the safety of the realm beyond. It was rather beautiful to remember such a memory and to know that this time, without a doubt, she would make it back.

Walking through the world like this would never be comfortable, though. This manner of travel was eerily close to death. Her body was no longer attached to her soul. She could see through the veil of the world and all those who had died on this battlefield still lingered.

Her heart stuttered. What if Goliath was still here?

What if her dearest friend, her soulmate in another way, had remained just so that he could talk with her one last time?

But she had a job to do. She couldn’t give in to the temptation of lingering here when there was another person who needed her. A person who was very much alive.

Still. The tug that pulled deep in her belly was hard to ignore. She wanted to see him one last time, and she hadn’t thought being here would be quite so difficult.

It was. It was so hard to know that there were still souls here and that all of them were largely her fault. They shouldn’t have died for this. She could have killed the King when she had the chance at the start of all this. If she hadn’t missed, if he hadn’t healed from her cut the first time, then they would all be alive.

Lore floated over the water that separated them from Solis Occasum. The waves were angry today. They rolled up toward her as though they were trying to catch her so she couldn’t reach her destination. Maybe they were.

As she peered deeper through the water, trying her best to see if there was a curse that prevented travel, she saw no lingering threads of magic. Instead, she saw the beasts deep underneath the waves. A leviathan lingered in the depths, its eyes turned toward her as it watched her move. Twin younglings played in the waves, their tentacles slamming against the bottom of the sea as they wrestled and caused the waves to overflow above their heads.

The storm they conjured might linger for days. And that would suit her well.

Lore reached out a hand toward them, her voice whispering through the waves as she urged their mother to move. To bring her children away from this place so that they were not in danger.

And though the creature initially scoffed, she flinched when Lore shared her memories of a much larger leviathan and its death in the waves. Lore didn’t want to kill another one of these majestic creatures. They deserved to be alive just as everything else did, but she would not let it stand in her way.

The mother reached out for her children with her long tentacles and tucked them against her side. With her eyes piercing through the waves, the mother glared before it moved on.

Good. The storm they had created would linger, but the creatures would not threaten Abraxas as they swam toward their quest.

Sighing, Lore turned her attention back toward the ruins that were once a symbol of hope for the entire kingdom. Solis Occasum had been made mostly of mirrors back in the days of old. Great circular windows would reflect the sun at all those who traveled anywhere near.

She remembered the stories that her mother used to tell. The capital of Umbra had once been in this place. The sun itself had blessed the building and lived inside it.

Now, it was little more than a wreckage of a hope that was long past destroyed.

The towers had crumbled years ago. Only the short stubs of what they once were remained to even suggest there used to be towers there at all. The main building was largely intact, although it was missing a roof. As Lore grew closer, she could see there were plenty of guards around it.

So Margaret knew that Lore had returned.

But their eyes were all turned toward the horizon. They did not look anywhere other than what was directly in front of them, their eyes trained to seek any movement that might approach the castle.

She floated closer and realized they were all elves. Every single one of them.

Lore hadn’t even known there were so many elves still alive. And this must only be a fraction of them if Margaret had stationed them this far away. Where had she found these people? Were they always so close and Lore had just never seen them?

Concerning thoughts danced through her head. What if Margaret had lied to her the entire time? What if Margaret had been hiding them, knowing that they would be available for when she needed them most?

All the possibilities swirled throughout her mind. The elves were the best army she could have, without a doubt. They were fighters who had trained for years.

But they had been beaten before, a voice whispered in her mind. They had fallen to the humans, of all people, and that meant they could be beaten. No matter how many times she’d been told that the elves were the most powerful creatures in all the realm, they were not. They had fallen, just like the rest of them.

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