Page 63 of Heir of Broken Souls

Ignoring my outburst, she waves her hand at Elysia, smirking. “What are you waiting for then? Go on, write it down.”

“If anyone walked into this room right now, they’d assume she was the leader of this court.”

Knox snorts at my mumbled words, yet by the coy smirk dancing across Harlow’s lips as Elysia begins to write, I think she likes the idea.

Chapter24

Delilah

How can something feel so right yet so utterly catastrophic to those around you?

The sea calls to me as I stand along the boardwalk of Azalea’s shores. As if every crashing wave screams my name. Every fiber of my being knows that this is the right decision and that this direction will provide desperately needed answers, yet behind my back lies a tattered city, to my right a fallen court, and further in the distance, thousands lie dead.

Our people are slowly dying day by day with every slash and strike of a demonic talon. Our swords are never dropped because our enemy doesn’t stop moving forward. How can we in good conscience leave them? But how can we in good conscience know that answers are somewhere out in the sea and not find their salvation?

By the grim and sorrowful faces everyone adorns, I dare say our hearts are all waging the same war. Knox especially.

His back is as tense as ever, the fighting leathers molding to his body like a second skin. The face of a warrior, the heart of a king, and the face of my mate.

It’s his heart, the one of a king, that has his lips thinned into a straight line, his brow furrowed, and his gaze darting behind him to his ruined city.

All you seek lies beneath the tempestuous saltwater heap.Along with our reminder of why we’re doing this, I send soothing touches in the form of golden tendrils down the bridge.Enter upon your discreet and all your answers will be at your feet.

At the last line, Knox’s shoulders loosen, the furrow in his brow straightening out.

I’ve been doing this all morning, repeating those same two lines from the prophecy that is forcing us to leave our city behind temporarily. The only way I’ll be able to without the guilt suffocating me is knowing that even if I sacrifice myself in exerting all my power upon the demonic army, unless Peter is in his true form, he will never die. He will just continue to summon new beasts from another world, making my sacrifice in vain.

Upon trying to calm Knox, I purposely leave out the part of the prophecy between those two lines I keep repeating. Like the battle we must win at sea that it alludes to.

Although with riddles and prophecies, I’ve come to learn that not everything is as it seems.

Ripping my gaze away from my mate, I spin on my heel toward Nolan. “Don’t forget to feed them three small meals a day. I know others say two but they get crabby if you don’t give them extra snacks.” Humor dances across Nolan’s eyes as I continue. “Oh! And make sure you tell Edgar not to let Creseda fool him. She’s very convincing but three is enough. I don’t want to come back and see that her belly has doubled in three weeks.”

Nolan whistles. “Don’t believe Creseda’s hunger, noted.” He ticks each point off on a finger. “Henry will try to ride through the city, so make sure we ride him and not the other way around.” He runs his fingers over the stubble on his chin. “Oh yes, and don’t let them find their way into the house.”

“Be careful with that last one. Creseda got inside two weeks ago and has been obsessed with returning ever since.”

His brows flick upwards in surprise. “She has expensive taste, it seems.”

Nolan, due to the demand of everything waging along the border of the human and Fae lands—and now Cardania too—hasn’t slept at the house in weeks. He barely knows what occurs there anymore. Granted, he never used to; he preferred staying at his mother’s house but with everything going on he thought it best to stay within the guarded walls of Knox’s estate. That clearly didn’t last long.

I grip his hands, squeezing as I plead, “And please, at the first sign of trouble?—”

“I’ll teleport them away. I promise I won’t let him get his hands on them.”

Emotion clogs my throat. It seems I’m always leaving them behind in the care of others. I wish I didn’t have to, but the sea could turn on us in a matter of seconds, and I don’t want to risk losing them at sea because I feel panicked at the thought of our separation. It would be selfish and cruel to drag them onto the ship…although so is leaving them behind while we’re in the middle of a war.

“Will you be all right?” I ask suddenly, my worry extending to the Fae that has surprised me the most these passing weeks.

People always talk about grief and how it changes you. While Nolan lost his sister and mother, there’s still hope in his heart he will find them. However, with Ace, there is not a flicker of hope left. It irrevocably changed him.

He clears his throat, his eyes taking in his family as we prepare to leave. “I’ll be all right.”

“Promise me you will stay safe.”

So much has changed within the last three months. If I told myself before I’d not only be begging for Nolan’s safety but trusting him to take care of Creseda and Henry too, well, I would have told myself to get some rest because I was clearly hallucinating.

Nolan dips his head, placing his hand over his heart. “I’ll try my best.”