Page 69 of Taloned Heart

But what didn’t feel right was the lack of humans when she knew they were necessary in this kingdom. And Lore didn’t know how to work through these complicated emotions or the complicated path that this realm now had to take.

A chair scraped out from underneath the table and the Matriarch rounded it to pat her hand against Lore’s shoulder. “You know the path you must walk.”

“If you say one more thing about a prophecy, I will turn you into a toad.” Her words were muffled against the wood, though, and that ruined the threat.

“You wouldn’t.” The Matriarch gave her one more pat and then added, “Now get out of my office, please. I have work to do that does not include you.”

“Of course you do.” Lore sat up and wearily blinked at the other woman. “You have a kingdom to command, sons to raise, another son to worry about because he’s not here, and now you have a goddess on your doorstep sweating all over your table.”

“If you left a forehead mark on my table, I will sink a grimdag in between your ribs.” The Matriarch leveled her with a glare, her eyes following Lore’s attempt to wipe it away with her sleeve. “Now go. Get yourself ready and I will gift you and your dragon two horses. The other two we will keep here, and healing. Your human pet has wounds that even my healers are struggling to piece back together.”

“Just the poison?”

“And the curses.” The Matriarch shrugged. “Margaret had plans for him, clearly. We are unraveling what she has knotted throughout.”

Wonderful. Of course Margaret had cursed the boy as well as beaten him within an inch of his life, poisoned him, and then captured him in a prison with no outside access whatsoever.

Sighing, Lore pressed her hands to the table and stood. “I will prepare myself and Abraxas, then. Thank you for continuing to heal my friends without question. I cannot express my gratitude for that.”

The expression on the Matriarch’s face softened. “You have no need to thank me, Lorelei. You saved this kingdom, and then you brought my son to the other half of his soul. You have given him leave to court her as she ages and grows. You have given him space and trust. I can only do the same for you.”

“If I’d known all I had to do was be nice to Draven to earn your trust, I might have been nicer to him earlier.”

Lore made her way to the door and then paused when the Matriarch chuckled.

“I wouldn’t have cared if you were nice to him,” the Matriarch said. “But the honor and strength it took to not use him or his infatuation? That I respect.”

With a firm nod, Lore cleared her throat and escaped out into the hallway. She didn’t know what to do with the Matriarch’s respect. That was... No. She was a girl from Tenebrous, who had grown up on the streets and had no right to have a woman like that saying she respected Lore.

She refused to think about it because if she did, then she would lose her mind. This was all too surreal. And she wasn’t prepared to handle all these emotions.

So instead of going to gather her things, Lore found her feet taking her to the one spot where she knew she would be reminded of why she was doing all this. Not for the fame or the respect or the love of a people. She hadn’t started all this to become a goddess.

She stepped into Zephyr and Beauty’s room to find him seated alone in a chair before their fireplace. The crackling magic inside was not an actual fire, the smoke was too dangerous this deep, but it gave off heat and looked correct.

He turned at the sound of her approach and a wide grin spread across his face.

“Lore!” He was still pale and thin, but he was alive and that counted for something.

She sat down in the seat across from him and tried her best to smile as well. “How are you feeling?”

“Terrible,” he replied with a snort. But then he shook his head. “No different, really. Much better than when you found me, but since getting here, it’s a lot slower.”

“The Matriarch said they’re untangling curses.” She ran her hand through her hair and slumped in the chair, staring into the fire. “Not a chance that you remember the words she used to curse you?”

“I wasn’t awake when they happened. Or if I was, I wasn’t in any state to remember a language I don’t speak.”

“Right.” Her heart twisted in her chest. “Of course you wouldn’t.”

A quiet silence bubbled between them, broken only by the sound of the crackling fire. But then he shifted, turning toward her in his chair to stare. “You know this isn’t your fault, right?”

Lore licked her lips and couldn’t look back at him. “I know that if I hadn’t left, you wouldn’t be in this state.”

“And that doesn’t mean that it was your fault. If you hadn’t left, Abraxas might be dead. Those dragon babies wouldn’t even know you existed, and this kingdom might still be in the same state it’s currently in. Blaming yourself for all this is foolish, Lore.”

Was it? They both knew that perhaps it wasn’t fair to her, but it wasn’t foolish.

Finally, she let her head flop to the side and met his stare. They both looked at each other, and she wondered if he felt as ragged as she did. Like all her edges were a little torn.

---