Page 68 of Taloned Heart

And maybe he was. But he was high with the best person he’d ever met. So he handed her the rest of his elfweed, laid back in the moss, and grinned up at her with every ounce of love in his heart.

There was no place he’d rather be than right here. With her.

CHAPTER26

Lore stared down at the map on the table in front of her. The map that the Matriarch and her boys had been filling out since the time Lore had left. Margaret had been very, very busy.

Pointing to a particular spot high in the mountains, she asked, “So you think that’s where they’re keeping the humans?”

“I think that’soneof the places they’re keeping the humans.” The Matriarch sighed and leaned back in her chair.

This room was the only place where the woman seemed like a real person. Everywhere else she was this tall, imposing, wise queen who commanded attention. But here in her chambers, she could show Lore just how tired and worried she was.

It made Lore nervous.

Rubbing her chest where there was an ache that wouldn’t go away, Lore pointed to another location, near where she had first met Zephyr. “And here?”

“And everywhere, Lore. There are camps full of humans who are starving and weak and want to go home. She’s sending them all over our kingdom and keeping them away from everyone they know or love. She’s isolated them, but I don’t think she knows what she’s going to do with them yet.”

“Then that is in our favor.”

“Precisely. Which is why I think you need to go talk with her.”

“Absolutely not.” Lore took her own seat again, bracing her elbows on the table. “The last thing Margaret or we need is for her to realize that I am here and messing with her plans.”

“She already knows you’re back. Who else would be foolish enough to steal Zephyr out from under her nose?”

“Beauty,” Lore replied. “Who is now missing from Tenebrous. I’m certain Margaret was keeping watch on her and her father. Considering how helpful they were to the rebellion, they will probably be the last to be sequestered off.”

“Margaret needs a conscience.”

“Margaret needs to be removed from the throne.” Lore sighed and shook her head. “Something neither of us is going to do easily.”

“You could.” The Matriarch watched her with milky eyes that saw too much. “You could change all of this with a wave of your hand. Why are you not just doing that? Isn’t that what the prophecy said you would do?”

Lore pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m tired of prophecies. I’m tired of people telling me what I am meant to do rather than asking what I want to do. This kingdom will not fall because of the story a group of elves believed. I’m going to make the right choice for everyone.”

“And what is the right choice, young one?”

A wry grin stretched across her face. “And here I was, hoping you would tell me that.”

The Matriarch rolled her eyes at the insolence. “You are very young for an elf, but old enough to know that there is no right choice. Whatever you do, or choose, or even simply validate, that will make some people angry. And perhaps could lead to their deaths.”

Lore shook her head. “I’m tired of death. I have no need for it here, and I will not choose a path where more people die. There has to be another way.”

“And you will not find another way unless you speak with Margaret.” The Matriarch knew she was right, and Lore knew the same thing as well.

Nothing would change as they stood here grasping at what might be the reasoning behind Margaret’s decisions. None of them could assume they knew what was going through the shadow elf’s head.

They needed to know what Margaret’s plan was. They had to understand the choices, and if Lore was wrong for even wanting to spare the humans.

She knew she wasn’t, deep in her gut. Lore knew there was a right thing to do here, and that was save the people who needed saving. But would she always be stuck in this cycle of saving those who needed it?

Shaking her head, Lore dropped her forehead onto the table with a loud thunk. “I don’t know if I can talk with her, because I’m so angry I think I might rip her castle down the first moment she opens her mouth.”

“Use that anger, then.”

“But what if I see her and then she convinces me all of this is right and I have no choice but to come back here with my tail between my legs?” There were certain things about the world that she... liked now. Margaret wasn’t entirely wrong about her choices. The magic that flowed through the kingdom felt right.

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