Page 9

With magic dragging Synick along behind him, Hel trudged ahead. His memory of this land wasn’t as sharp as he thought it would be. The vast open grassy fields with sparse trees and black rocky cliffs jutting out in various places were familiar, but he hadn’t the faintest idea where Valeen’s old castle was located from here. It could be in any direction. He glanced up at the stars, even they were different from Adalon, the constellations forming in unique shapes. The brightest stars in the sky stood North and the other South, the southernmost star being red.

He stopped and pulled out a civar, the end already lit and bright in the low evening light and brought it to his lips. Where was the damned castle from here? He flicked through his memory for the stars she’d built it beneath. The ones they’d danced and made love under many times. He thought of the time they laid on the balcony that hung off their room, he could see her pointing up and turning to smile at him. He remembered how beautiful she looked, how carefree and light compared towhat she was now, while she explained why she built her castle in that specific place… they weren’t even married yet and all he could think about was his burning desire to kiss her, to touch her, but was it something to do with horses?

He quietly swore as the specifics eluded him and let out a cloud of smoke. It had been so long ago. Some events of that time were branded into his mind, a scar he could never escape, and others were lost as if the wind carried them away and stored them somewhere else. It was there though, on the tip of his tongue.

Leif, Piper, and Varlett in her dragon form, were taking care of the undead. Varlett carried the two elves in her dragon form to the sea to drop the creatures of the underrealm into a watery grave. The brine of it was faint in the air so he knew it wasn’t far. Varlett might remember, but he couldn’t even stomach looking at her let alone ask for her help.

There was nothing more he wanted to do than shove his hand into Varlett’s chest and rip her heart out. But breaking the link between her and Valeen would be tricky. If he used rune magic to combat Varlett’s spell, there would be other consequences; she would have taken precautions. The bitch was clever and had learned much of what she knew from him.

Hel paused and pressed his boot on the back of Synick’s head, driving his face into the grass. His former mentor mumbled and bucked, drawing a smile out of Hel. It was only a small payback for the years of torture Hel had endured at his hand, and for what he’d done to his wife and her sister.

Asking Valeen the constellation she’d build her castle directly under was an option, obviously, but he wanted to find it before she did. She held out hope that everything would be as it once was, that her castle would stand strong, that it would have been memorialized and made into a temple they’d keep excellent care of.

He didn’t share her sentiments, even if he kept it to himself. Two thousand years was a long time, and she might have been too caught up in the chaos of Katana and Synick’s return to notice, but one of the three moons was cracked, pieces of it floated apart from the silver orb. Her magical wall that kept her territory, House of Night, protected from the rest of Runevale’s territories was connected to the strength of those moons. He took another deep inhale off his civar, sending a sense of calm through his body, even if it only lasted moments, it aided in keeping his treacherous thoughts at bay.

Given the state of the moon Fennor, Valeen’s wall had likely fallen, and he hesitated to even imagine what that meant, what this place had become in their absence.Fuck. The council would have done horrible things to Villhara and her people to show everyone what happened to those who stood against them.

A rustle in the grass behind him pulled his attention. Hel finally lifted his boot off Synick’s head and turned. The magic in his veins flared ready to seek and kill.

A dull red hat poked out first, then the little gnome named Tifapine parted the tall grass, an inch or two over her head, and stepped up beside him. She adjusted her hat, brushed her stubby hands over her dirty floral-print dress and lifted her big brown eyes. “Um, hello. I hope you don’t mind that I’ve been following you. It’s scary out here.”

For some irrational reason he had the urge to squat down to her level, but he didn’t. “They’ve been looking for you.”

“I heard Leif and Piper calling for me, but those monsters were by them, and I am not cut out to be dealing with monsters. One of the arms, and I mean only the arm, tried to grab me. The fingers pulled it forward in the grass!” she wailed.

That was disturbing, even to him, and for a small gnome, he could only imagine. “If safety is your priority, I’m surprised you didn’t wait for Valeen to return before you came out of hiding.”He and the gnome weren’t well acquainted. If anything, she’d been scared of him in the past.

“Well,” she began and tapped her chin with a finger, “since you’re her, um, lover now, I suppose you’re safe. There isn’t anyone scarier than you and you’re on our side now. And you wouldn’t hurt someone as cute as me, you said so yourself. Even if Thane said I should stay far away from you. He exaggerates sometimes.”

He smiled and took another pull from his civar. “I’m her husband and mate, more than a lover. And although your king is probably correct, I wouldn’t hurt you.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask but since those creepy things appeared and you had to fight, it didn’t seem like the opportune time, but why are there three moons? And why is one of them broken, and one of them is red at the center, it almost looks like it’s bleeding.”

“There are three because that’s the way that it is.” He pointed at the one with the crimson center. “That’s Luna. They say that Soulender was forged from the heart of it and that’s why she bleeds.”

Her eyes widened and she clutched her hat on both sides, tugging on it. “Is that true?”

“Might be. Might just be an old tale. The broken one is Fennor… I don’t know why it’s broken. Perhaps a falling star impacted it.” Or the council got to it somehow. “The one with the rings is Nuna.”

“I don’t see any rings around any of them.”

Hel looked again and frowned. The once bright rings were so faint they were barely visible. The gnome probably didn’t have the eyesight to catch them. He roughly scrubbed at his chin cursing himself for not realizing it before. Another sign the protective wall had likely fallen.

“Where are you going?” Tifapine asked.

“Looking for Valeen’s castle.”

“Is it nearby?”

“I believe so. She built it”—the location suddenly came to him—“in the northwest under the constellation of the rearing winged horse Sargentos.”

After searching the glittering night sky full of moving colors of amethyst, turquoise, and bright green, he found Sargentos. If he went north about three miles, her castle should be there.

“Should we wait for the others, or can we go look? She was just telling me how beautiful it was last night, made of moonstone so it glowed in the dark and crescent moons and stars adorned the peaks and valleys of it. She said the path leading to the castle entrance was paved with shimmering black stones that reflected the stars above, and it sounds so beautiful. She said the air smelled like ever blooming wisteria and jasmine and her black lilies from her big gardens. I can’t wait to see it.”

“If you can keep up, you can come.”

“My little legs don’t go very fast so I might fall behind, but I’ll find your trail through the grass,” she said, as chipper as ever.