Chapter 5

CHAPTER5

Lore couldn’t sleep. There were people out there who needed her, and she was supposed to curl up on a cozy bed of moss, with the moon over her head. And just... dream? No. She couldn’t do it.

Not a single part of her cared that those who were being tortured were human. She’d met a lot of good humans in her life. They’d even helped her out when she was in a bind or hidden her from the eyes of the Umbral Soldiers.

Good people were everywhere. No one could say that all humans were bad, just as no one could say that all elves were powerful. And knowing that those people were the ones who were being hunted? It made her sick to her stomach.

She just wanted to help.

But she couldn’t help them because there was a bigger picture to focus on. An entire kingdom waited for her to save it, and yet she wanted to save each individual.

Sighing, she rolled over yet again and stared out into the woods. Could she sneak away for the night? Abraxas was asleep, but he was a light sleeper. If she so much as stood up, she had a feeling he would notice. And he’d know what she was doing. He’d make her lie right back down and scold her for a good amount of time before staying up the rest of the night to ensure she stayed put.

She didn’t enjoy feeling trapped. And all of this felt like she had a collar around her neck with a hundred different people tugging her in every which direction.

Sighing again, she rolled over onto her back. Maybe she could save them tomorrow. Maybe, if she was lucky, they would still be alive when she broke down and couldn’t take the hollow echo of their screams anymore.

A hand came down over her mouth and she froze. Abraxas loomed over her, crouched in the darkness and nowhere near his bed. “Don’t scream.”

She furrowed her brows, glowering until he removed his hand from her mouth. “I wasn’t going to. You’re lucky I didn’t pop your skull.”

“Well, you weren’t sleeping, and that means I wasn’t sleeping. So let’s go.”

“Go?” She sat up, her hair a tangled mess around her head. “What do you mean, go?”

“You want to save the humans, and I want to sleep. So let’s get one group freed and then I can rest for the night.”

She stared at him while her heart thudded hard in her chest. Sometimes, she was reminded of how much she loved him. How much her heart beat only for him and that he could see inside her head like she was a book he knew how to read.

“Abraxas,” she whispered, her throat tight with emotion.

All he did was grin at her and hold out his hand for her to take. “Come on, Lady of Starlight. Do you think I don’t know you?”

He gathered her up in his arms, tugging her upright before disappearing between the trees. She’d forgotten this was his home. That he’d had hundreds of years to explore every inch of this forest. No one knew how to get around the castle better than Abraxas.

They snuck through the trees with light footsteps. She hadn’t grabbed any of her weapons, and neither had he. Their journey was too swift for such things. And as they crouched just outside of the light cast by fires, she understood why.

Four elven guards stood watch around a group of humans who were all tied with metal chains. They could hardly move away from each other. If anyone needed to lift an arm, at least three others had to do so as well to give them enough slack. It made eating difficult, it seemed, although they had little in their laps for food.

The fires were far away from them, perhaps only lit for the elves themselves. No human huddled around the flames for warmth. Instead, they were curled around each other.

The elves didn’t look like they were paying much attention. Maybe they had been nervous in the early days of kidnapping the mortals and bringing them to the castle. Lore couldn’t imagine there weren’t at least a few people who had wanted to fight back. But now? There was no one left to fight.

Abraxas pointed at the nearest guard. “I can silence him rather quickly, but the other three don’t seem to linger close together. They are well spaced.”

Or she could create a diversion.

Because what if these guards weren’t terrible people? Elves stuck together. They always had. If Margaret had told the elves to fight, then they would do just that. It wasn’t a question of why, nor did they need any reasoning. An elf said that mortals were to be rounded up, therefore, they would do exactly that.

Good people, she reminded herself, were hidden all over this kingdom. Killing the good ones to free others meant she was no better than Margaret.

Sighing, she pinched the bridge of her nose. She didn’t want anyone to sense the magic, but... Was this worth the risk?

“Don’t,” Abraxas said, his voice low. “No magic unless necessary.”

“Right.” Hand to hand it was, then. “Don’t kill any of them.”

“I won’t.”

She pointed at the guard she wanted Abraxas to focus on and then burst out of the shadows. Distraction was still the best option, so she ran for the farthest guard. Leaping over the fire, she curved her body toward the man who had already attempted to draw his sword.

A swift kick to the head stopped that, and she landed on the opposite side of him as he fell. Lore crouched, eyes up for the next person who was already running at her. Both of them, actually.

They’d learned well from Margaret, it seemed. If someone attacked, they shouldn’t waste any time trying to fight honorably. Mob the person and they were much more likely to make it out alive.

She balled her hands into fists, watching as the men slid their blades out of their sheaths. They’d come at her together, though right now they circled her. Perhaps they hadn’t yet recognized who she was. Or they would eventually. Right now, they were focused on staying alive. Good. They would need that focus to fight her.

Lore launched herself at the one on the left, using her momentum to spin him around while she wrapped her legs around his waist. He stumbled at her weight, but didn’t fall like she’d hoped he would. Instead, he dropped his sword and reached behind his head for her shirt. He planned to fling her over his head, she realized, and that wasn’t something she could let happen.

Hissing in his ear, she wrapped both her arms around his neck and squeezed hard. But then he turned his back to the other man, and she heard the sound of a blade whistling through the air.

Soon, she would feel that sword against her spine. Severing all the nerves there.

The pain never came.

Instead, she heard a snarl that rumbled through the forest and sent a shiver down her spine. That sound reached deep into the part of her brain that told her to run, flee, hide. There was a predator nearby and if she didn’t run, then it would devour her as well.

The elf in her grasp sagged. She fell with him onto the forest floor, holding tight to his neck for a few more moments just to make sure he really had passed out.

Then she rolled, crouching in the dirt as she looked up at the elf who had tried to kill her. His eyes bulged, his mouth moving on a cry that would never come out of his mouth. Abraxas had ripped his throat out with one hand and the other was still plunged into the elf’s chest, bloody, taloned fingers sticking out the back of the ruined mess of his ribs.

She shook her head in disappointment. “I said no killing, Abraxas.”

“He was going to kill you.” Her dragon released the man who fell onto the ground, either dead or soon to be dead. Abraxas grimaced at the gore on his fingers. “No one touches what’s mine.”

And she loved him for that, really she did, but the humans would not love him for his aggression. His actions would only add to their fear.

She shook her head and turned her attention to the mortals that cowered in their chains. No one wanted to look at them. Not a single one.

Then she realized they must fear all magical creatures. Lore no longer hid her ears. They were on full display, with her hair braided on either side of her skull. Abraxas was clearly not human, although most of them would struggle to guess what he was.

None of them wanted trouble. None of them wanted yet another captor who would make them walk miles to an unknown future.

Dropping to her knees next to the nearest guard, the one who was still alive but very much passed out, she rummaged through his pockets. “See if you can find the keys, Abraxas.”

“There are no keys.”

“There have to be keys. How else would they get them into the chains in the first place?” There was nothing in this man’s pockets other than a few vials of unnamed potions and a piece of paper that looked like a child’s drawing.

She was suddenly very glad she hadn’t killed this one.

“Keys,” she muttered, trying hard not to look at the terrified humans. “There has to be...”

“Lore,” Abraxas snapped. And then he pointed when she looked up at him. “There are no keys.”

She followed the direction of his finger to the humans nearest to her. One man was braver than the others, or perhaps more foolish. He held up his wrists for her to see that there were no locks on any of the chains around their wrists. They were forged onto the humans, melted so that they would never get them off. Not without a saw or something equally as sharp.

Her heart twisted in her chest and she thought she might throw up. Red ringed all of their wrists, burns that she hadn’t noticed before. Angry flesh that was likely to get infected if they didn’t take care of them.

She sat back on her haunches, staring at the mess in front of her. “Well. Damn.”

Abraxas patted her shoulder and approached the man. “If I may?”

Though brave, he still flinched from the intensity of a dragon covered in blood before him. “What are you planning to do to us?”

“We’re going to let you go.” Abraxas reached for the manacles and took hold of the chain that connected the man to the next. “There is a town not far from here. Get there before the sun rises and find whatever basement you can hide in. There’s not many people left, so find a house that’s been abandoned. No need for you to go anywhere until it’s night again. Keep out of sight. And keep quiet.”

The chain link snapped between his powerful hands. The humans all started murmuring, hope in their voices as they stood.

A woman at the end quietly asked, “Just him?”

Did they think Lore and Abraxas were trying to send a message?

Rage simmered underneath her skin and magic bubbled to the surface again. Not a massive amount, just enough to snap the chains with Abraxas. “No. All of you. But I don’t suggest you stick together. A large group is much easier to find.”

And so they spent the better part of an hour breaking through the chains. There were easily forty people here, although Lore lost count as she freed them. They each wanted to tell her their names, whisper where they came from, and beg her for more information on where they might be safe.

She didn’t know. There was nowhere safe left in this kingdom.

“Have you heard of the Stygian Mountains?” She heard Abraxas ask. “They’re overrun with spiders, but if you have your wits about you, it’s possible to avoid them.”

She looked at the woman in front of her, who was frail and thin, but looked quick enough. “The Fields of Somber are safe now. The crypts are not the most comfortable, but most, if not all, of the wights should be gone. Take your time finding a crypt that is empty of bodies and bring food there. Your family can stay.”

Over and over again, they advised these people on where to go, how to seek shelter, what area might still have food that they could take with them.

And all the while, she hoped she wasn’t sending them to their death.

“Thank you,” another woman whispered, reaching out for Lore’s hands and holding them tightly. “We don’t know what we would do without you. What is your name, miss? So I might speak of you to my grandchildren someday.”

Lore looked at Abraxas, wondering just how much he’d heard. Her dragon had stiffened, but he gave her a slow nod. As if to say now was the time for them to spread rumors.

They’d been so afraid of Margaret realizing she was here, but perhaps it would be good to have rumors of a goddess reborn. Perhaps that would give people hope again.

She smiled at the woman and let the moonlight play across her skin. Lore had done this so many times in her life, if only to have light to read by. But she knew what humans saw.

The moon glowed inside her. Its magic glittered like diamonds and lit her entire body up with rays of light that flashed in their eyes.

A gasp echoed from one person, then another.

“Goddess Divine?” someone whispered. “I thought she was only sent for the creatures?”

“No.” Lore sought the person who had said that and then smiled at the man. “I was sent for the kingdom, not for the elves or the creatures alone. I never would have left if I knew this was the end of that story.”

“But... they claim you were sent to free them from us. That you knew what had happened and you... you...” The man staggered back, fear in his eyes. “That if you ever returned, it would be to destroy us all for good.”

“People put words in the mouths of gods. You would be wise to heed only the sights you have seen yourself.” Lore shook her head again. “I was sent for everyone. This kingdom is my home as much as it is yours, and I will see no one die or become enslaved. I made a mistake. I trusted the wrong people, and you were the ones to suffer for that. For this, I am sorry. I will repay your pain, but first I have to fix what I broke.”

They all staggered away from her, then. Some of them giving her a quick thank you before disappearing into the trees. Others didn’t even look at her.

She understood their fear, but she hated that she had become the symbol for it.

“Come,” Abraxas said, cupping the back of her neck and pressing a kiss to her forehead. “We need to go as well.”

And so they left the fallen elves where they were and disappeared into the shadows.