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Chapter 20

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.

Floating past three guards who were clustered together, she discovered the entrance to the dungeons. Apparently most of Solis Occasum had fallen, but not what was underneath the ground.

Torchlight illuminated the stairs that plummeted into the darkness. They were slick with water that dripped down from the ceiling in echoing wet plops. There were three more guards at the entrance, and four stationed all along the stairwell until she reached the bottom.

Then there were even more guards.

Sighing, she shook her head at the over indulgence. Margaret really thought she had protected this place well. And perhaps, to someone who didn’t realize how powerful Lore had become, she had. A dragon could not dig through the ground to get to Zephyr. He would have to wait up top or fight down in his mortal form, which they all knew wasn’t Abraxas’s strongest form.

The guards were all stationed in a very tight stairwell. It would make it very difficult to fight their way down to him. And so, this would create a rather interesting puzzle to solve.

The first cell she passed by was filled with familiar faces.

She paused in front of that cell, staring at the other women who had participated in the bridal competition for Zander’s hand. They were all huddled together with their families, their clothing dirty and their eyes haunted. But they were well fed, and they were alive. It was a start.

She walked past another cell filled with dwarves, more filled with humans she didn’t recognize, but from the state of their clothing, they must be nobility. People that Margaret needed to keep alive and to make appearances so the others would remain quiet and calm. It was a barbaric thing to do to the people of this realm, and yet she wasn’t surprised.

What did surprise her was the troop of elves trapped in the cell beyond the humans. Elves that should have been guarding the prison not being locked inside with the others.

Peering through the shadows, she tried to see their faces, but quickly lost interest. If Margaret had trapped elves, perhaps they had tried to fight against her. It meant little to her.

There was only one person in this prison she needed to see. And that was Zephyr.

He was at the very end of the dungeon. Far away from the others, so he wouldn’t even be able to hear them moving if they called out to him. There wasn’t a single sound here, other than the shuffle every now and then of the single guard who stood before his door.

This was a massive elf. The man was almost twice her height and easily twice her weight. He stood with his arms crossed, glaring down the hallway as though he knew she might show up.

Lore waved her hand in front of his face a few times just to make sure he couldn’t actually see her. He didn’t react, and she considered that to be a good sign. At least he wouldn’t try to stop her from what she was about to do.

Walking around him, she slipped through the cage bars and stood in front of Zephyr. The boy was even worse for wear than she’d thought he would be. Apparently Margaret wanted him incapable of walking out of this prison if Lore showed up. His legs were folded underneath his body, forced to be on his knees. And when she peered around him, she could see that his feet had turned a deep, dark purple. How long had he been in this position? Too long, she could only imagine.

She ghosted her icy hand over his features, hoping that a little chill might help him.

“Lore?” he blinked his eyes open, blearily staring into the darkness around him as though he thought he could see her. He couldn’t. Not yet, at least. “Are you there?”

“Quiet.” The elf turned on his heel and snapped at Zephyr. His teeth were filed into sharp points. “There’s no one here to save you, princeling.”

She watched as Zephyr wilted in front of her. His head dropped back down to his chest and she heard them whisper under his breath, “I thought I felt her.”

“You did,” she replied, even knowing that he couldn’t hear her. “You did, my boy. I just can’t do anything to help you right now or they’ll realize that I was here. But we are coming for you.”

Even if it took an act of a goddess, she would get him out of this prison. He just had to trust in her a little longer, and then they would be here.

She readied herself to leave, knowing that she’d have to leave him behind, even though it hurt her heart to do so.

The sound of a key in a lock caught her attention. The big guard walked into the cell with a grin on his face that made her want to punch him already. He circled Zephyr, looking at the dark outlines of whip marks on his bare back and his eyes trailing over the shivers that racked Zephyr’s body.

“Did you hear me?” the guard asked, running a tongue over his pointed teeth. “No one is coming for you. No one is ever coming for you.”

Zephyr didn’t respond. He just hung there with his arms over his head, dejectedly looking down at the floor. But she also saw the way his muscles bunched and how his jaw ticked.

The boy still had some fight left in him.

The guard kicked him. Hard. Right in the center of the back so that Zephyr swung forward and his shoulders made a horrible clicking noise. The would-be prince made a noise, then. A wheezing, horrible cry that echoed around him. Neither of his shoulders went back into place. He hung there, his fingers turning blue as the guard came around and crouched in front of him.

“You are a pawn in her plan,” the guard said. “Both of them. You think you’re important to Margaret? You aren’t. And you think your goddess is going to save you? She has forgotten you exist. You are nothing more than a rotten leech that grew up in a graveyard. No one wants you, princeling. You’re ours for as long as we see fit, and then I will tear your throat out with my teeth.”

Zephyr’s eyes locked on the guard’s sharpened teeth and Lore could see the fight draining out of him. The hope. All of those emotions that she needed him to keep were slowly leaking out of him.

And she couldn’t let that happen.

Magic flooded through her body and into her corporeal form. She felt her hands sharpen, strengthen, become something new. And with one sharp jab, she shoved her hand through the guard’s body and wrapped her fingers around his still beating heart.

She could feel it. The warmth and the movement as it thundered against her palm.

She didn’t need to see his face. The guard froze as though he knew something was terribly wrong. And then she felt him realize she was behind him. He turned his head slowly, his eyes seeing nothing but knowing she was there.

Lore leaned close to his ear and whispered, “Are you so sure a goddess won’t save him?”

Before the guard could croak a response, she squeezed his heart. He let out a gasp and tried to claw at his own chest, but he could not stop her from squeezing the thundering muscle into a still, silent, mush.

He dropped onto the floor in front of Zephyr, dead with blood leaking out of his nose. It was a shame she couldn’t do more. She’d like to kick the body away from Zephyr.

But then the power whispered she could. So she did. She kicked his body all the way to the edge of the cell where he would rot for all eternity if she had her way.

“Lore?” Zephyr gasped, his voice hoarse and hopeful. “It is you, isn’t it?”

She replied, “Of course it is.”

And though her voice rang true and clear in the room, she still wasn’t sure if he’d heard her. But perhaps he didn’t need to. Because Zephyr still smiled and then bared his own teeth at the body.

His fight was back. His hope had returned, and that was all she could ever ask for from the young man who had trusted her. Believed in her. So few had done that, and she would reward him in every way possible.

She’d overstayed her welcome, and that dead body would raise questions. For now, all she could do was wave a hand and conjure a mimic to stand in front of the cell. It wasn’t much of a spell, hopefully not enough to make Margaret wonder why there were spells cast in her dungeon. But the other one? The one that she’d used to kill the man?

Margaret would soon know that all her guards hadn’t been so useful to keep them away from her captured prince.

Lore had run out of time. They all had. They needed to get Zephyr out of here as quickly as possible, and then they needed to flee again. Time was no longer on their side.

Bending down, she pressed a kiss to his forehead and promised him they would return quickly. “Just a little longer,” she said before fading back into her body. “Tomorrow, Zephyr. Tomorrow we will find you.”

And as her soul slammed back into her body, she drew a deep gasping breath and opened her eyes.

Beauty and Abraxas stood before her, staring down at her body with hope in both their eyes as well. “I found him,” she said. “We’ve run out of time. We leave now.”

Her two companions eyed each other and then looked back at her. “Are you sure?” Abraxas asked. “You didn’t want to rush anything just moments ago.”

“I didn’t then, I don’t now.” She leapt upright and raced toward their weapons. “And then I killed a man for touching him. Rash, I know, but it’s time to get him. Get ready.”

“Now that’s the Lore I know!” Beauty crowed before rushing to get her own weapon.

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