His golden eyes settle on me… not curious or welcoming, but measuring. He doesn’t look like a man eager to keep me. He looks like one who is waiting. But I don’t know what for.
CHAPTER 49
AUREN
Vivienne is gone. Devastation tears through my chest so violently it steals the breath from my lungs. As I remember her reaching for me in the final moments before she was taken, the painful memory of losing my mother resurfaces.
I remember the helplessness I felt when she’d been captured and killed. And the way it hollowed out everything I thought I understood about the world.
My grief turns into cold rage. The Goblin King took my mate, and I know what I must do. I start for the door, but Tarin’s voice stops me. “Auren, wait!”
My brother strides toward me, his face grim. “Where are you going?”
“To get her back.”
“We’ll gather our best warriors. We’ll—”
“There isn’t time,” I grind out. “I need to get to her now.”
“Even if you leave this very moment,” he says. “It will take days to reach the Goblin kingdom.”
My gaze lifts to the balcony and the dark outline of the mountain beyond the city walls, already imagining what lies beyond. He’s right. It will take too long. Which is why I’ve decided on another path entirely. “There is a stationary portal gate in the lower caverns.”
Everyone falls still, staring at me as though they cannot believe what I’ve just said.
Tarin blinks at me. “You cannot truly mean to use the gate.”
“I have no choice.”
“No,” he states firmly.
The force of my fury must show on my face, because several of my warriors take a cautious step back.
“The lower gate has not been used in generations,” he says carefully. “There is a reason for that.”
He says this as if every Elf doesn’t already know the cautionary tales told to us by our forefathers about the portal. But I’ve already weighed the risks in my mind. Vivienne is my mate, my wife… my queen. She needs me, and I will not leave her to wait days for rescue. I meet Tarin’s gaze evenly. “I know the dangers of using the gate.”
“Then gods help you, act as though you remember it.” His voice rises, sharp with anger and fear. “You cannot risk yourself.”
I understand his concern. Stationary portal gates were built from old and dangerously unstable magic. Powerful energy anchored into stone and blood and ancient runes, requiring so much focus to wield that most wise rulers barred their use long ago.
Even the slightest loss of focus when opening a gate can cause countless issues, including transporting you leagues from your destination. Even worse, it may open into the heart of a mountain or the bottom of the sea or some other cursed plane.
Spread throughout the realm, many of them have been hidden or inactivated. But some are so powerful, something as simple as a tempest can reactivate them. Every now and then, there are tales of unfortunate travelers falling through, never to be heard from again.
I know all this, and I do not care. “The Goblin King took my wife.” The words come out rougher than I intend, torn from someplace deep and savage inside me.
Tarin drags a hand through his hair, his composure fracturing. “Auren, if the power of the gate is unstable in any way, you could—”
“If I do nothing, she is alone with him.” Cold terror coils beneath my rage as I imagine her waking in an unfamiliar place, held captive in the Goblin court.
Vivienne—my fierce, stubborn, beautiful wife. My queen.
Images assault me one after another with merciless clarity as I recall her standing in the moonlight with her hair loose over her shoulders, her laugh when I made a fool of myself singing, the softness of her body curled against mine in the dark, the way she looked at me last night.
Even after I broke her trust, she chose me anyway. And now she is gone.
Something vicious twists in my chest as I imagine her imprisoned and afraid. “I must find her, and I cannot delay.” I sweep my gaze over my gathered warriors. “I will not risk anyone else. I’ll go alone.”
