Daegan twists his mouth and keeps his gaze forward. “Yeah… remember how we told you that we were dying off faster and less babies were being born?”
I nod, even though he’s still looking forward.
He sighs, his eyes distant, and then finally, he meets my gaze. “It’s gotten a lot worse over the last one hundred years or so.”
I feel sick. The dragons are on the brink of extinction. And they’re not the first species to be wiped out by the curse. Or the second.
“We need to figure this shit out,” I say. “I won’t let you…”
I can’t even finish the thought, but I don’t think he was going to let me anyway. “We will. And either way, you’re going to live way longer than me with your elf lifespan.”
“Why would you say that?” I whip my head at him in horror. Even if he dies at two hundred, I refuse to go another one hundred without him.
His eyes soften. “Sorry. I just meant… I don’t know. Let’s not think about that right now. No matter what, we’ll make the most of whatever time we have.”
Daegan reaches his arm out and wraps it around me, pulling me close to him as we approach the large palace. I look up in amazement, taking it all in. I wonder if he sleeps in one of the tall spires.
Could this be my future home? I’m certainly not going back to Ellyar, and if we finally break the curse, will Daegan and I simply fall into a quiet life together?
I realize how ridiculous the thought is right after I think it. Of course our lives will never be quiet. No feud is going to be magically solved by the veil clearing. Sure, we’ll hopefully save our lands, the dragons, and whoever elseis suffering because of it, but the elves and dragons will still have more than bad blood between them. Half the people on the continent will probably come for the elves, actually. There will be more bloodshed and more death, that’s for certain.
No, life is never going to be simple for us, I fear. But as long as I have these guys by my side, I’ll be all right.
As if she’s reading my mind, Kezra flies in from who knows where, reminding me that she’s a part of this too. Of course we couldn’t have done any of it without her, but again, I don’t think she’ll stick around long after the skies clear. She’ll return to her people in the forest.
“I thought I’d see more emberstone here… you don’t really use it for… anything?
He looks around thoughtfully. “No. The Eternal Pit is a sacred spot. We didn’t disturb the stone unless loose shards were found nearby. It’s always been incredibly rare.”
I nod thoughtfully, looking at the grand palace ahead of us with a bit of nerves.
“Okay,” he breathes, stopping just before the grand main entrance that’s lined with lit torches and a perfectly manicured path leading to a white stairway. A large set of double doors waits at the top, standing twice as tall as Daegan. “Let’s do this.”
On the journey here, we discussed finally revealing our plan to a select few more people. The argument was that they might have some insight that we hadn’t thought of yet. Maybe even a solution to our main problem now, which is that we don’t know where or how to burn the items. But in the end, we all decided to keep it between the four of us for just a while longer. Hopefully, while we’re here, we’ll figure it all out. If we truly run out of ideas, we’ll revisit the discussion again.
Raef lets out a strangled sigh beside me as he looks up at the massive palace. “Finally,” he sighs. “I’m going to have sex with my bed.”
I snort, covering my mouth.
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Daegan laughs.
“Fuck you.”
I laugh again, relishing the moment. I look over at Daegan, and he’s actually smiling. Both of them are.
Chapter 77
Taevis Vaelor is a dick, and I don’t like him. There’s no other way to put it. No, he didn’t send me straight to the gallows, but his blue eyes, which are so different from his son’s, hold enough disgust and loathing to tell me everything I need to know. I’m the enemy, and I came waltzing into his home on his son’s arm.
As soon as we found him in the grand dining room with a few of his trusted advisors by his side, it became tense. He does not want me, the princess of the elves, anywhere near his home or his son.
Unfortunately for him, his son doesn’t care what his father says, and it doesn’t seem like he has much power over what he does. Maybe he did once upon a time, but Daegan doesn’t let anyone tell him what to do. He stands proudly at my side, defending me and refusing to hear any arguments against me staying.
Giving up on the subject, Taevis instead looks between Raef and Daegan with a completely different expression. “So, they really tried to ambush you outside the castle? What were you even doing back there?”
His father has missed so much of what’s happened. Daegan hasn’t even been back here since he was imprisoned in Ellyar for nearly a year. Raef and Rhydra came for a short time, but that was while Daegan was still locked up, before the elves attacked us in a bloody battle. Did he even try to get his son free? Did he try to retaliate when his son and Raef were nearly slaughtered?
“I needed something that’s of high value and importance to me,” I say, speaking for the first time. I don’t know why I chose now.
