Chapter 8

CHAPTER8

Power crackled in her hands at the first hint of danger. The voice was not familiar to her, and unfamiliar meant a threat. Not to mention he’d told them to put their backs against the wall, and Lore had no intention to do that.

If they had to fight their way out of Borovoi’s house, then she would gladly do so.

A slight flash of hesitation burned in her mind, though. Why were they having to fight if the magical creatures had taken over Tenebrous? Everyone could see that she was an elf. She wasn’t wearing her hood over her head, and Abraxas was anything but human.

She needed to play this right. And they couldn’t attack whoever this was like Abraxas intended to. The frame of her dragon’s mortal body was already warping with his anger. A shimmering haze changed what he looked like, and she could see red scales rising underneath his skin. They waited to be released, and he would destroy this entire house if he changed inside it.

“Easy,” she breathed, her voice measured and low. “Take a breath.”

“I will not take a breath,” the unknown man snarled. “I’ll put an arrow between your eyes before you so much as flinch. Take your time turning toward me and we’ll all be fine.”

We’ll all be fine?

She rolled the words around in her head and wondered if this was the first time he’d held someone hostage. It made her question this situation yet again.

Who was this man?

She turned, knowing that Abraxas had heard her and understood she didn’t want him to attack. Not yet, at least. If she had to, she would gladly release her dragon, but right now, she needed to understand what was going on.

Flicking her gaze up toward the grizzled face of the man holding the crossbow, she lifted her hands above her head. “We’re not here to hurt anyone.”

No ears, scales, tail, or any other quality that would make her think magical creature. His beard covered his entire face, a thin layer of grime caking his forehead. He looked... mortal.

Now that was a problem.

If this man was a mortal, then he was living in a very prominent creature’s home. That should make it easy to find him.

But then again, this could be the best place for him to hide. No one would walk into Borovoi’s house, assuming they would find mortals here. This might be the best place in the entire kingdom to hide while Margaret’s folks meandered around trying to hunt them down.

“We’re not here to hurt you,” she said, now wishing she had left her hood up. “We just want to talk.”

“I’m not talking to an elf.”

“I’m not with Margaret and her people, if that’s what you’re thinking.” She inched closer to Abraxas. “Neither of us are. We’ve been gone for a long time, and we’re just now getting home.”

“You expect me to believe that? I see those sharp ears and I know exactly what they mean. You can’t be here. Because if you are, that means you’re here to kill us.”

“We’re not killing anyone.”

He thrust the crossbow at her as though the movement was a threat. But his finger never moved on the trigger. “You think I want to do this? You think I want to hurt anyone?”

“Maybe.” Lore lowered her hands, so she looked more like a person to him. Abraxas had never even lifted his, and she placed her hand on his shoulder that was still vibrating with his need to attack. “I wouldn’t blame you if it made you feel better. From what I’ve seen, the elves have done a lot to this kingdom already. And for that, I am sorry.”

“Trickery.”

“Truth,” she corrected. “I do not speak for the rest of them, but I do speak for a small few. I’m certain of that.”

She hoped, at least.

Right now, though, he had to put that crossbow down before her dragon lost patience. How could she get him to do that? Lore supposed she could start glowing, but she was the elves’ goddess, not those of the mortals. That might startle him even more.

She thought she might survive a crossbow bolt to the chest. Maybe even one to the eye. It felt like her body wouldn’t let her die when there was so much left to do, but she didn’t want Abraxas to live through yet another attempt on her life.

“Da?” A voice filtered through the door as it opened yet again. “What’s taking you so long? You were supposed to help bring everything in.”

She knew that voice.

Lore knew that voice as though it were her own.

All worries about that crossbow fled as she staggered to the side to look around the man and fill her gaze with the woman standing in the doorway with her arms wrapped around a large sack.

“Beauty?” she croaked, the word sticking in her throat. “Is that you?”

The sack hit the ground hard. The contents scattered. Maybe a whole bundle of potatoes, she didn’t know. Lore’s eyes were locked on the young woman, who had lost far too much weight. There were deep hollows in her cheeks and harsh shadows underneath her eyes. Beauty’s lovely gold hair was lank around her features, unwashed and clearly not taken care of. But she was alive. She was standing right there when Lore had been so afraid that... that...

“Lore?” Beauty asked, her own voice wavering with immediate tears.

Lore couldn’t speak. All she could do was nod as her jaw quivered. She clenched her teeth so hard it hurt, but she refused to start sobbing.

Beauty took a step toward her. Then another. Completely ignoring her father’s barked orders to stay where she was. “Damn it, girl, why aren’t you listening to me?”

Without a second thought about the dangers of the man with the crossbow, Lore lurched forward and pulled the other woman into her arms. They sank into each other, crying happy tears that they were both alive and finally, finally together after such a long time.

“I was so afraid you were dead,” she whispered into Beauty’s hair.

“I thought you were never coming back.” Beauty tucked her head into Lore’s shoulder, tears soaking through the cloak and sticking to her skin.

Lore had forgotten how short Beauty was. Or maybe she had forgotten how fragile the little mortal felt in her arms. So much had changed since they had seen each other, and yet it felt as though she had stepped out of time. Nothing had changed between them, no matter how many years passed. Lore and Beauty were still the best of friends, and nothing would ever change that. Ever.

Leaning back, she ghosted her fingers over Beauty’s sunken cheeks and shook her head. “You look awful.”

“I feel awful,” Beauty replied with a laugh, tears still running down her cheeks. “You look like... like...”

A goddess. The word was there, even though she knew that Beauty wouldn’t say it. She knew what she looked like and how incredibly fortunate she was to look like this when all the other people she cared about had suffered so much.

A single instance of death wasn’t enough suffering for her to have earned this. Not when so many others had lived and continued onward.

“I’m here now,” Lore whispered, brushing aside what was left unsaid between them. “I’m going to fix this.”

“How?”

Lore shrugged. “Like I always do, I suppose. I’ll figure it out along the way.”

Ever the supportive friend, Beauty gave her a nod and firmly agreed. “Of course you will. I never questioned it for a second.”

And then Lore realized that Beauty had only looked at her. The tree had likely blocked her companion from Beauty’s gaze, and that meant her friend hadn’t realized who she’d brought. The shadows in Beauty’s eyes said the same thing. She thought Lore had been too late. She thought that by Lore returning here, that meant that she hadn’t found Abraxas.

So Lore stood to the side and held out her arm for Beauty to follow her pointed finger.

Abraxas stood with his arms lax at his sides. He didn’t even look at Beauty’s father, who still held the crossbow trained upon him. Instead, he had eyes only for them. Soft eyes that were currently locked on their dearest friend, who thought he had died.

The air caught in Beauty’s throat. She stepped forward once, twice, her eyes wide as though she were seeing a ghost.

“Is it really you?” she asked, her voice heavy with unshed tears. “But you... You said you were going away to die.”

And her powerful, stoic, never ending pillar of strength dragon crumbled. Abraxas’s features fell as he stared at the woman who had been loyal to them both for such a long time, and then he spread his arms wide. “I’m sorry I made you think that, Beauty.”

They came together as only dear friends could. Beauty wrapped her arms around him and held him tight against her. Abraxas looked so large as he folded himself around Beauty, his hands so gentle, as if he was afraid he might hurt her with his claws or his powerful grip.

Even Beauty’s father lowered his weapon as he stared at his daughter sobbing in the arms of this man.

“Who are you?” he asked, staring at Lore as she tried her best not to cry again.

She didn’t know if she should answer. Beauty’s father deserved the truth, of course, but he also didn’t need to know everything that his daughter had been up to. What if Beauty hadn’t told him about her part in all this? What if Lore was the one who let all the secrets out?

It was Beauty who turned to her father and choked out, “It’s them, Da. They came home.”

There was no way to know if the old man understood what his daughter was telling him. His eyes widened, though, and then he cleared his throat. “I’ll finish up. You bring them down, little one, and I’ll get everything we need.”

And then he left as though he hadn’t just been holding a crossbow to their heads, saying that he was going to kill them at any moment.

“How things have changed,” she murmured as she watched him leave the house. “I remember you saying that he was a kindly old man who was afraid to do anything that would change Tenebrous for the better.”

“A lot has changed since you’ve been gone,” Beauty agreed. “Him most of all. There’s so much I have to tell you, but first, why don’t we all get somewhere safer?”

It was left unsaid that Lore and Abraxas would be perfectly safe if they stayed out here. No one cared if magical creatures were investigating an abandoned home. In fact, Lore thought maybe others would be more likely to join if they saw them standing here.

The sad thing was that Beauty herself would be in danger. In the place where she grew up.

Lore had the strangest sense of déjà vu, as though she’d been here before. And she supposed, in a way, she had. This was the very place where she had been in danger for such a long time, with humans hunting her down because she was an elf. Now the mortals were hunted.

She’d thought maybe there would be a small sense of justice in her chest. That it was right for the humans to run and hide when they had been the ones doing this for years. Instead, all it did was make her feel rather sad.

No one needed to experience what she had. No one needed to know what it felt like for their homes to no longer be safe. Knowing more people lived that life now? It made her heart hurt.

“Let’s go,” she said, her eyes flicking to the door. “Where are we going, exactly? There are very few places here that are safe, it seems.”

Beauty nodded. “Borovoi had one last trick up his sleeve, apparently. He took the magic of this house with him when he left, but there was more to this building than he let on.”

“You knew Borovoi?” Abraxas asked, a frown on his face.

“Everyone knew Borovoi. But he helped me get ready for the bridal trials. Same as Lore.”

“How terrible,” Abraxas muttered. “That man had his fingers in more than I ever gave him credit for.”

“Which is precisely why I said we needed to come here,” Lore said. “I’d like to point out that I was right and that Borovoi didn’t just leave everyone to their own devices and then run.”

Beauty coughed into her hand. “He sort of did. I mean, he’s not here anymore. No one knows where to find him. But I will say he left us a safe place to hide. So I suppose the true answer is a bit in the middle of your opinions?”

Though she and her dragon were still glaring at each other, at least they could let this go. Lore shrugged first, and Abraxas grunted.

“Fine,” she said. “I suppose we were both right, then.”

The bubble of laughter that erupted from Beauty was music to her ears. She’d thought she might never hear that sound again, and Lore had forgotten how much she loved it.

“I missed you two so much,” Beauty said while shaking her head. “Especially mediating your arguments. The two of you are worse than children, sometimes. Follow me, and try not to argue about who goes through the door first, would you?”

How easily they slipped back into their old ways. Lore had thought maybe someone would be uncomfortable, but they weren’t. Not in the slightest.

Shaking her head, she watched as Abraxas held out his arm for her to go first. Clearly indicating that she needed to follow Beauty and he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

A childish part of her wanted to stand right where she was, fold her arms over her chest, and make him beg her to go first. After all, that’s what they did, apparently. They argued.

Instead, she gave him a bright smile and marched after Beauty, who disappeared into the side of the tree. The same door that had led Lore to the first party where they had met.

She paused only for a moment, luxuriating in the way her heart pinched at the memory. This was where everything had begun, and now she was here again. Starting another impossible journey by walking through a door in a tree.

She took a deep breath and plunged ahead.