by Emma Hamm
Yet, Lorelei had somehow whipped the creature into keeping up with the King’s horse who had been the fastest in the herd for years. And it looked like the little horse Lorelei rode was enjoying itself.
How had she done that? What magic spell had she cast that wouldn’t make the King see what she had done?
Foolish woman.
He watched a while longer, but it didn’t take long until it was just the King and two women. Lorelei and a beautiful woman who had clearly come from the richest family in Tenebrous. Not that their wealth could stand up to any other city in Umbra. But the King wheeled his horse away from the path and the two women followed until they reached a clearing.
Abraxas already knew what Zander had planned. He would steal some time with the two women alone, and Lorelei would take this as her chance to kill him.
What she didn’t know was that the Umbral Knights circled that clearing. They stood at the ready to protect their king, for Zander was no fool. He wanted to make sure he was protected, especially considering his dragon would take some time to land.
He couldn’t let her try to kill the King when so many eyes were watching her. Even if she succeeded, she would never get out of the clearing alive.
Abraxas did something he hadn’t done for centuries. He changed mid air back into a mortal, over a part of the forest that they had already ridden through. His mortal form had just barely taken over the dragon by the time he hit the trees, and he landed hard on the ground. He rolled, protecting his head and neck, before he finally stopped in a heap at the base of a tree.
He’d have bruises in the morning, but that was worth it if he saved her.
Abraxas ran down the trail faster than any mortal man could have. Fear and anxiety fueled him, pushing him ever faster and farther than he’d sprinted. And yet, even at that speed, he reached the clearing just in time to see the King and the other woman starting their walk away from Lorelei.
She stood with her horse, clearly preparing herself for what she had to do. Abraxas had assumed she would wait until she had her own alone time with the King.
He was wrong.
Lorelei pulled out her bow and two arrows from the quiver. She notched them both at the same time, one on top of the other. And he didn’t know what she thought to do with that. He’d never seen an elf hit two targets at the same time, but he knew he couldn’t give her the chance to go through with her plan. It was too dangerous.
And it was the wrong time.
Launching out of the forest, he wrapped an arm around her waist and twisted her at the last second. Twin arrows loosed from her bow into the forest, hopefully not striking any of the Umbral Knights. Not that it mattered. They would come back in another suit, anyway.
He used his body to force her out of the clearing and back into the woods. Lorelei twisted and punched at his arms, but she didn’t make a sound.
Smart girl. At least she wouldn’t alert the King that something was wrong.
Abraxas made sure to put as much space as he could between himself and the clearing. But when they reached a small creek that split through the forest, he couldn’t contain her any longer. Lorelei twisted out of his arms, fell onto the ground, and then scrambled back onto her feet with all the grace of her ancestors.
She whirled around, hair flying about her face. “What are you doing, you scaly bastard? That was my chance!”
“Your chance for what? To get yourself killed?” He gestured around them. “There are Umbral Knights everywhere, Lorelei. Do you really think the King would be alone with either of you this soon? He’s a villain, not a fool.”
“I don’t care if they see me shoot him. It has to be done and one dead elf won’t change too much.” She stalked toward him, clearly intending to shove past him and back to the forest. “Get out of my way, Abraxas. I’m going to kill him.”
“No, you aren’t.” He put a hand on her chest and shoved her back. “You are going to stay right here until the hunt is over with, and then we’ll figure out a way to get you alone with the King. But you are not going to risk yourself in the process.”
“Everything I do here is a risk,” she snarled. “I’m the woman trying to kill the King, Abraxas. I will lose my head one way or another, but I will not fail.”
“You aren’t thinking straight.”
“No dragon will tell me what to do.” Her eyes flashed with that same emotion. That hatred that burned too deep for him to understand.
And it killed him. He hated it that she had decided he was a horrible creature because his other form had scales and wings. Nausea rose swiftly. Did she think there were creatures more worthy of freedom than others? Was she just as cruel a monster as Zander?
“You hate me,” he murmured. “Don’t you?”
“I didn’t know what you were before, but I do now.” Her eyes flashed again, this time with obvious emotion. “Get your hand off me.”
He hadn’t moved his hand from her chest? Damn it, he realized that now. He could feel her breath heaving underneath his palm where he touched her ribs.
Abraxas reluctantly removed his hand, but he didn’t want to. Even angry with her, even knowing that she wanted to take his head off his shoulders, he wanted to touch her.
“Why?” he asked. “I’m not letting you go until you explain this to me. Everything was fine yesterday.”
“I didn’t know you were the dragon yesterday.” She took a step back, her feet splashing through the stream until she was ankle deep in the icy water. “I hadn’t even guessed the dragon might be a shapeshifter, but I should have known.”
“And what does it matter if I’m a dragon? I didn’t look at you like you were lesser when you told me you were an elf.” And he had more reason to, although he didn’t add that.
The unsaid words floated between them. Many creatures looked down on the elves. Even before the previous king had forced them all to bend a knee, they had not been the favorite of the magical creatures. Elves were beautiful. Their magic was entertaining to watch. But both of those things made them too popular with humans. If any of the creatures could have walked among the mortals, it was the elves.
She tossed her hair away from her face and glared at him. “I don’t care what you are, Abraxas. I care that you are the dragon who killed my mother. You are the dragon who has forced all of my people and Tenebrous to be slaves to a king that will never see any of us as people. You are the reason why we’re all fighting so hard, Abraxas. Without you, the King would be dead already.”
It was true. All of it was true, but one thing struck him harder than the rest.
“Your mother?” he repeated. “I killed your mother?”
“She was part of the original rebellion, when the kingship turned over to the young son.” Every word was spat at him like a poisonous dart. “She stood with the elves and she fought against this king until they were captured. The King wanted to make an example of them, so he turned them all over to you.”
He didn’t remember that time. It was so long ago. Her mother might have been one of the many who had been killed by the dragon in the beginning, but he wanted to remember the woman’s face. He desperately wished that the faces of the dead hadn’t blurred as hundreds had fallen.
“Did she die by fire?” he asked, suddenly needing to know the answer to his own fear. “Or teeth?”
“What does it matter?”
“It matters.” Oh, it only mattered to his soul, but it mattered. More than he wanted to admit.
Lorelei glared at him ever harder, but she squared her shoulders and faced the horrors of her past. “I stood in the crowd and watched them tie my mother to a pyre. You came down from the sky like some kind of demon out of mortal nightmares. You looked my mother in the eye and she didn’t flinch when you breathed fire over her. There was nothing left for me to claim. No bones. No jewelry. Not even a scrap of clothing. You made sure there was nothing left of her but ash and dust.”
The words rolled over him and came with a sense of relief. The
cool feeling of peace eased through his soul, and the anxiety drained as though her words were the crack in the urn of his body.
“Good,” he replied with a heavy sigh. “Good. Then she died an honorable death.”
There was no greater insult than for a dragon to eat someone. It meant they were only worthy as food, and he had done that for the King a few times. Each of those deaths haunted him far more than the others.
If he had killed her mother with flames, then her soul rested well. She’d earned that death and she would have remembered the old ways. He hoped.
Her face turned bone white. “Good? You think it’s a good thing that you killed my mother?”
He shook his head, trying to find the words that would explain. “No! No, Lorelei, listen to me. Dragons have a different way of dealing with traitors. If I had eaten your mother, then that would mean her soul had wandered. To be cleansed in fire is to wash away all of her sins. She went into her afterlife as a hero.”
“A hero? Who cares if she died a hero? She’s still dead!” Lorelei lifted her hands, palms out and shaking. “I don’t want to hear any more of this, Abraxas. I can’t. Your excuses are empty and they mean nothing.”
She walked away from him. Trudging through the forest and away from his sight. He couldn’t let her go. She couldn’t kill the King like this, she’d make a mistake.
Abraxas took off after her. “Lorelei, you can’t!”
“I’m not doing anything stupid, Abraxas!” she shouted over her shoulder. “The timing is wrong now, anyway. Leave me alone!”
He couldn’t keep up with an elf in the woods. He tried, though.
Abraxas ran through the trees until he lost sight of the lithe body that glimmered with moonlight underneath her skin.
Chapter 22
Lore
Lore couldn’t think through the anger that coursed through her veins. He dared to say it was a good death? That her mother had been given an honorable end when she hadn’t needed to die at all?
She understood the problem with dragons now. They only saw the world in black and white. His actions couldn’t have possibly been wrong, because he was the all mighty dragon who everyone should bow down to and appreciate that he’d even given them a second of his time.
She slapped a branch out of her way and continued marching through the forest. She didn’t even know where she was going. The castle remained behind her, and she would have to return at some point. The King would think she’d run off, and then the Umbral Knights would be after her, regardless of her reasoning.
If only she had loosed that arrow into his back while he walked away from her and this would all be over. She might be dead. The Knights wouldn’t have let her get away that easily. But it would be over with.
And she was ready for this to all be over.
At some point, she realized the trees had turned her around. Trees had at least some differences about them. But these trees were exactly the same as moments ago, right down to their gnarled roots.
She slowed, then stopped. Lore turned around in a circle as she gathered all the information about the trees surrounding her. They were the same ones as ten minutes ago. She was certain of it.
Which meant someone had cast a spell on her so she couldn’t keep moving.
The King? Perhaps. She wouldn’t be surprised to find out he’d placed an enchantment on the castle so none of the brides could leave. But this magic had a familiar flavor to it that she couldn’t shake off. The magic clung to her like shadows, and the forest bent too easily for this to be anything other than a creature she’d already met.
“Borovoi!” she called out. “I would know your magic anywhere, leshy. Come out and talk to me rather than trapping me.”
“Then stop trying to run,” Borovoi replied. His words echoed through the trees themselves. “I’ve been keeping you from leaving your duties behind, but you’re rather exhausting to watch, little girl.”
“I think I’ve survived long enough to not be called that any longer,” she snarled.
The trees gathered together to her right. She spun in time to see them form a single, twisted trunk. They coiled around each other like a snake before they split open down the center, just as the tree had done to spit her into the King’s party.
From the shadows of the gash, two figures stepped out. One pale man with tangled long locks and a woman dressed entirely in leather.
Lore could handle the leshy. Borovoi might be a meddling old man, but he was logical. He understood that the King was very dangerous and would be very difficult to kill, no matter how hard she tried. Lore had experience, too, but that would mean nothing to the woman standing beside Borovoi.
Margaret crossed her arms over her chest, then looked Lore up and down. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”
Chest heaving, Lore refused to give in. “Getting away from the dragon, who apparently is the same man I’ve been trying to rope into this whole plan. Why didn’t you tell me the dragon could change his form? He’s mortal, Margaret, and he walks with the King.”
“I thought everyone knew the dragon was the King’s personal guard.”
“No one knows that he’s a man!” Lore threw her hands up in the air, exasperated that this woman would ever say such a thing. “You have got to be kidding me, Margaret. The dragon can change into a human form. He’s the one that follows the King’s every step. You sent me into battle against the strongest of our own kind with no warning.”
“You said you were working with him,” Margaret corrected. “If you got the dragon under your thumb, then we’re closer to killing the King than you want to admit.”
Lore’s jaw dropped open. She didn’t want to even consider working with Abraxas again. She’d kissed the man who had killed her mother. She’d thought that man was funny, intelligent, and thought she might actually like him.
Of all people, she’d thought Margaret would understand that. Her mother and Margaret had been friends long ago. They had run through the forests together before the King of mortal men had ruined this world. Her death should have hit Margaret hard.
Obviously, it hadn’t. Margaret would stop at nothing to complete this mission. Even offer up her best friend’s daughter to the killer who had ruined the family she’d once been a part of.
“I can’t do this,” Lore muttered. “I can’t look him in the eye or work with him when I know what he’s done. My soul screams at me to get vengeance for the mother who should have lived. For the thousands of souls who have met their premature end because he follows the King’s bidding like a dog.”
Margaret slashed her hand through the air, silencing Lore’s words. “Be silent, you spoiled little brat. How dare you even question this mission simply because you are uncomfortable!”
Seeing his opportunity to step in between the two rabid elves, Borovoi walked into both of their lines of sight. “Lore, what if the dragon doesn’t want to work with the King either? I find it hard to believe that one of our own would help someone like that boy. The dragon is old. He’s seen countless kingdoms start and fall. He’s not a pet. He’s ancient.”
“And yet, he allows the King to treat him like a well trained animal,” she snarled.
“Then what does the King have to hold over his head?” Borovoi waved his hand in the air, and an image appeared like mist over his open fingers. An image of a scaled belly passing over the treetops. “They didn’t hunt us in the old days. There used to be a hundred dragons all over Umbra. Where did they all go?”
“I don’t care.”
Sure, there might have been a small amount of curiosity that sparked inside her. Dragons weren’t abundantly available for people to ask questions of, and it was strange that he worked with the King. This horrible child who had held them all captive must hold something to convince the dragon to be biddable.
But no. She didn’t want to waste her time trying to figure out what that thing was. She could spend the rest of her life trying to figure that out, or to justify Abraxas
’s loyalty. In the end, it wouldn’t change a thing. The dragon had still done horrible deeds in the King's name. He’d still killed her mother.
Borovoi saw these thoughts play across her face. He grinned and pointed at her. “You want to know just as much as I do, elf.”
“I don’t want to know anything. I want to get this all over and done with, and the dragon stopped me today. The hunt was the perfect excuse to get the King on his own and I could have blamed the wound on a boar that I didn’t kill while trying to save his life. It was all exactly as I needed it to be. He’s a liability to the mission.”
Lore knew she shouldn’t have said anything at all. She knew that expression on Margaret’s face, and it was one that meant she would be unhappy for a while. Margaret was about to throw her to the wolves and hope that her insane new plan worked.
“No,” Lore interrupted the woman’s thoughts. “Whatever it is that you just cooked up in your head, I’m not doing it.”
“You don’t have a choice, Lore. You’re going to finish this, because you have to. You haven’t come all this way to stop now, have you?” Margaret lifted a challenging brow.
“Don’t put me in any more danger, Margaret. Killing the King is a hard enough task. Now you’re going to ask me to do something else, and I don’t appreciate it.” Lorelei tried her best to sound like a wise woman. She wanted the assassin in front of her to take her seriously.
But she also knew that if Margaret changed the mission, then she would do whatever the older elf wanted her to do. Because she had done everything possible already and it hadn’t worked. She needed help.
And if she really looked inside her own heart, she wanted to kill the murderous tyrant who had ruined this kingdom. She wanted all this to end so she could free those creatures in the dungeons. So she could give them all the life they deserved.