Page 86 of Blood of Dragons
“Coreno Amore Nia.” He gripped her cheeks with his palms and brought their foreheads together.
I looked away, their affection so profound it gave me a sense of longing, a longing for someone I’d never really had in the first place, for someone I hated as much as I desired.
Ezra let her go and marched off. He didn’t look back at me or her.
He just left.
Hours passed, and Queen Eldinar remained where she stood, her eyes on the trail where her husband had disappeared, the two blades at her hips, the bow across her back. Her eyes stayed straight ahead and none of the guards dared to speak with her.
I kept quiet, didn’t even ask for my sword and tried to disappear as much as possible. But my heart had raced since the moment Commander Luxe had told me of the danger that marched for our borders.
I had a hard time believing that Talon would enlist the help of monsters and destroy a magical forest just to get what he wanted, but I’d seen him do horrible things before. I’d watched him destroy my own life firsthand.
As the night deepened, so did the music of the forest. It usually grew quieter as we neared twilight, but now, it grew louder, erratic rather than subdued, like the forest felt the danger that approached her trees.
I wanted to reach out my mind and speak to Inferno, but he was too far away. Without being connected by a fuse, I couldn’t reach out to him for help. I’d told Talon I didn’t want to see him again—and now I’d give anything for him to appear before me.
I looked at Queen Eldinar, who hadn’t moved for hours, who was as still as the trees and the statues that surrounded her palace. She was petite and short, just like I was, but something about her stance indicated the power beneath her steel.
I took the steps to her side.
She still didn’t look at me.
“Your Majesty?”
She remained still, like she hadn’t heard me.
“I don’t know why the Behemoths march here, but I don’t think it has anything to do with the Death King.”
Her hands gripped the hilts of her blades, and she remained still.
I didn’t expect an answer.
“You assume this, why?”
I couldn’t tell her that he breached the borders of their forest with his mind, that I’d seen him several nights for long-winded conversations. “I just don’t think he would.”
“A very concrete reason…”
“I just want to prepare you?—”
“Do you hear that?”
I turned quiet, hearing nothing but the sound of my own breaths.
“Close your eyes and listen.”
I did as she commanded and closed my eyes. But all I heard was the sound of the forest, the high-pitched music that seemed off-key. But then I heard it…thump, thump, thump…so quiet it sounded like a heartbeat.
“That’s the march of the enemy,” she said solemnly. “They’re almost here.”
I opened my eyes again and felt the terror rush through me. What did my uncle see at the front line? What did Commander Luxe see? “Do we have enough soldiers to beat their army?”
“A single elf has the strength of three men, so we can defeat an army thrice our size. But Behemoths are much stronger than men…so I can’t answer your question.”
I swallowed, my mouth and throat suddenly dry. If I lost this forest, there would be nowhere else for me to go. Nowhere else to call home.
“Kneel.” Queen Eldinar moved down the last of the stairs until she reached the grass outside her palace. She slowly brought herself down, bending one knee while the other pressed into the grass.