“We need to visit the Wisps, Seda. Everything depends on their information,” Roya said, glancing at Cahir.
Benny walked over to Roya, and she quickly glared at him, taking a small step back.
Elco huffed from her side, “If the Wisps want to talk to you, you must go. They are the divine servants of the gods. I will catch up. They cannot see me hidden behind this dune.”
Seda looked across the distance toward the Camp. She wasn’t sure if leaving Elco here was a good idea. If the Jotnar left that place and ventured this direction, they would see him. Who were the Wisps? How did Cahir know about a place called Umbrea?
She was so tired. She felt like she could sleep fordays. She never heard about any of these things, but she would risk a new place to avoid returning to Joro.
But what if these new places are worse? What if Elco gets caught?
“I cannot leave him,” she said, choking back a sob. “He’s my friend.”
The sand shifted beneath their feet, indicating that the Jotnar were moving.
“Please, go. I promise I’ll find you. I can’t leave now. You need time to get as far away from here as you can.”
“But what if they find you, Elco!?”
“I have enough in me to fight back if they do. I have not fought back in a thousand years. You gave that to me, Seda. You gave me a reason to fight back. I will find you.”
Seda crashed down onto the ground next to him again and cried into his inky mane. “Do you promise?”
“I promise.”
“We’re going to the Wisps,” she stated as she stood on her injured ankle and wiped away her tears. She took a limping step toward the unknown and away from the Camp.
Cahir ran up to her.
“May I?” he asked as he held out his arms.
Seda gazed into his beautiful, kind eyes, feeling the calm after a storm. As she looked into them, a wave of happy, safe memories from years past washed over her. She finally felt like she had come home.
She nodded her head, and he pulled her up into his arms, cradling her against his strong, warm chest, and took another step forward. The group followed them from behind.
“What happened to your eye?” Seda asked him as he walked through the hot sand.
“That guy, Ojore, has it out for me,” he chuckled. “I kind of deserved it.”
She laughed, nuzzling her nose into his shirt and breathing in his familiar cedar scent. As he walked away, she glanced over his arm toward a fading Elco in the distance on the sand, hoping she’d made the right decision.
Chapter 29
The Monster King
“You guys did what?!” The Monster King snarled at his Captain.
“The Jotnar got hostile with us, Your Highness,” the Captain replied. He returned to the outskirts of Joro with a few guards and a disoriented woman they had decided to bring back to the city. The woman was bound but did not resist in the cell on the way home. She had recently given birth, and her baby did not survive. The woman sat in the cell, rocking back and forth, mumbling incoherently.
The Monster King growled and moved toward his Captain, striking him on the side with a baton. The Captain dropped to his knees and hissed in pain.
“Do you realize what you just did? I’m gone from their collection once, and now hell has broken loose! You let that disgusting wingedcreature escape, and you lost Seda Arbor! She was the key to all of this! I need her! I needbothof them!” the Monster King seethed.
This deal with the Jotnar to exchange bloodstone for people was wearing him down. He needed them now more than ever if the Fae were returning. They had been collecting the bloodstone for years, tearing apart the rocks within the Willow Grove to extract it. Bloodstone was the only material that could stop the Fae and other magical creatures—not all, but most. He didn’t know if it would work against his number one target, but it was worth trying.
The Captain stood back up on his legs and stared stoically at the Monster King, hesitant that he might get struck again with his stick, but smart enough to show respect. The Monster King pulled out his dark stone and held it up to the light, letting the dark sparkle reflect across the area. The Captain shrank back when he saw it and hissed again. He squeezed it and watched as the Captain shrank into himself in pain, his body convulsing in and out of his magicked Dragor and human forms.
A man stepped beside the Monster King and observed as the Captain convulsed. The Monster King put the stone back into his pocket and snarled down at the Captain, “You have been demoted.” He grinned wickedly. “If you ever want to rise again in my ranks, you will follow all ofmyorders.” The Dragor curled his tail around his face, lowering himself close to the floor.
