She couldn’t stop the grin from forming on her lips, but there was still one thing left to do to ensure their task had worked as intended. A wave of fatigue swept over her and attempted to fray her concentration, but she breathed deeply, strengthening her connection to the elements once more. Then, extending her senses, she sought familiar strains of consciousness. At first, she got nothing back, felt nothing in her quiet surroundings. She pushed further, extending her reach wider. Valorre sidled into her, as if to remind her to utilize his strength as well. She reached for him again, pressed her palm to his hide…
She felt them.
It was a small spark, but it was there.
Salinda.
Maiya.
She’d found the Forest People.
24
Teryn paced the clearing, feeling as if he were going out of his mind. A chill had crept down his spine when he’d witnessed Cora and Valorre disappear, and it hadn’t left since. He stared at the empty space she’d occupied. The plan had been for her to try to find the Forest People, travel there, and return at once.
“Shouldn’t she be back already?” he voiced aloud.
Berol gave him no answer. She seemed fully unperturbed as she preened on the oak branch.
He shook his head. Had it been five minutes? Ten? Thirty? Or had it merely been seconds that felt like hours?—
Sound and motion filled the clearing. He halted his pacing and found Cora and Valorre in nearly the same place they’d vacated. His heart leaped into his throat, half with relief, half with surprise. Even though he’d been expecting her, he wasn’t sure he could ever get used to seeing someone appear from thin air. Berol too had lost her composure and was rapidly flapping her wings, squawking at the newcomers.
Teryn rushed to Cora and framed her face with his hands. She looked slightly pale and unsteady on her feet. “Are you all right? Did something happen?”
Despite her pallor, she grinned, and the sight set him at ease. “I’m a little tired, but everything went fine. I found them. I truly found them. Now Valorre and I both have a clear image of the location. That will greatly aid my efforts when I return with Mareleau and Noah in tow.”
“And Berol,” he reminded her. It would be even harder waiting for his falcon to return with word that their party had made it and had physically reached the camp, but at least it would be something.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, and Berol.”
He let out a heavy breath and folded his wife in his arms. Perhaps he was being overprotective, but soon they’d part ways and he wouldn’t be there to protect her at all. If this was his last chance to fuss over her, he’d take it. He planted a kiss on the top of her head. “You have no idea how tormenting it was to watch you disappear.”
“I have some idea,” she said, and the serious note in her voice reminded him that she had witnessed similar terrors. Not with him turning fully invisible, but his soul leaving his body. A blood mage taking over. Or when Teryn had nearly died.
They stepped apart and Valorre tossed his mane with a snort.
Cora’s smile turned wry. “Valorre wants to know if it was torment watching him disappear too.”
He wanted to laugh, but Valorre’s earlier tantrum had him steeling his expression. “Oh, very.”
Valorre must have been pleased by that because he seemed to stand a little taller as he shook out his mane.
“We should return.” Cora strode over to the oak tree and extracted a bow and quiver from behind it. Shouldering her weapons, she said, “I might need these for our travels.”
That of course had his protectiveness flaring yet again. The thought of her being in any sort of danger made him want to discard his duties as king consort and insist on coming with her. But he knew better. Not only could his wife protect herself, but with her absent, he was the only one who could protect Khero and Ridine Castle. Staying behindwashis way of protecting her. His eyes flicked to her waist where the dagger he’d gifted her hung from her belt. That eased his panic even more, for he was fully aware of her skills with a dagger.
“I’ll be fine,” she said, as if she could read his mind. “Besides, I’m not leaving just yet. We have some time.”
He nodded, but his mind lingered on the last word. They hadn’t fully set a time for Cora, Mareleau, and Noah to leave. They hadn’t even determined if it would be today or if they’d wait for the following morning. He supposed it would depend on the severity of Mareleau’s discomfort with the collar as well as how dire the situation with the dragons had become overnight. He hadn’t heard a single roar or wingbeat while they’d been in the woods. If they were lucky, the creatures could have fled back through the Veil, unable to sense Mareleau’s magic.
Teryn’s hope was short-lived. After Cora worldwalked them back to their suite, a missive from Lord Hardingham awaited outside their bedroom door. A council meeting would commence at once to address the latest developments with the dragons. Teryn and Cora rushed to get ready, not even bothering to call upon their servants to aid them, and hurried to the council room.
There they got their answer for how dire the situation had become.
The first report stated more crops had burned. The second reported dragon sightings all over the kingdom and beyond. The final, however, detailed the burning of a farmhouse. The family of four that lived there. And the father who had died in the flames.
Teryn’s stomach dropped to his feet. He and Cora didn’t have time after all.
