Diadem
Page 25
Terrin eyed the colossal dead bear again and realized begrudgingly that he couldn’t fault them. He nodded silently, his head pounding from lack of sleep and food he had deprived himself.
A guard went to grab the pendant from him, but Vale stopped him with a gesture of her hand, and rose from her seat to stalk forward slowly. She examined the pendant as it hung from Terrin’s fist, and when she finally lifted it from his grasp, there was a sheen of mist in her eyes.
She met his gaze, sorrow and regret rushing from her aura. “Lyra is a good soul. None of us deserve her.” She inhaled as she looped her head through the chain and settled the pendant on her chest with her fingertips. When she met Terrin’s eyes again, her face was a mask of purpose. “I vow, as Queen of Ursa, that the Kingdom of Ursa will be a most loyal ally to Gem for as long as I reign.”
Terrin held her gaze for a few long seconds before averting his gaze and inclining his head. “Gem is honored.”
“No, it is Ursa that is honored.” Terrin met Vale’s misty eyes and nodded at her.
Vale hesitated, her mouth opening as if to say something more. “Does Lyra know where she is?”
Terrin’s shoulders slumped slightly and Alec placed a fist in one of his hands as he shifted. Terrin could feel the anger and despair slipping from his aura.
Vale gestured to a sitting area and called for servants to bring bright silver goblets full of honey rum.
Terrin crooked a finger toward Seamus. He glanced at Vale for approval and she nodded, which spurned him forward to a seat at the table.
“Am I invited?” A familiar voice caused them to turn in their seats to see Frey limping forward, her head entirely shaved bare. Alec’s brows crushed low and he rose to her side but she brushed him off and found a seat at the table, leaving Alec to watch her from where he stood.
Frey gave him a cursory flick of her gaze. Her voice was hard. “Stop staring. It’s called a mourning rite of tonsure and don’t pretend like it makes me any less attractive. Sit.”
Alec kept his gaze on her but did as he was told and sat next to her. He stared at the table but addressed Frey in a low voice, as if he was holding back his concern. “Is your leg okay--?”
Frey breathed in sharply. “Dark magic lingering. It’s almost healed. Been using your barbaric crystal magick along with some of the healers here.”
Alec looked at her then. “Who died?” His voice was soft.
Terrin noticed Vale bow her head, her face impassive as she stared at a spot on the table.
Frey’s gaze followed the path of Vale’s. “Finn. Clawed down by the bastard bear himself.”
Her eyebrows bunched together. “He was always kind to me, even when everyone else had cast me out. Always let me stay with him, never asked any questions.”
In a rare show of vulnerability, she turned into Alec’s hand when he raised it to cup her cheek. As Alec watched her, his eyes spoke for him when his words failed him.
Seamus’s eyes didn’t stray from Frey’s, the expression unreadable. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he said.
Frey batted Alec’s hand away and laid her own hands on the table. “Now, this meeting better be about finding the fucker who took Lyra and ripping him from the face of this earth.”
“Ah, there you are,” Alec muttered, and smoothed a palm over her fuzzy head. She ducked out of his hand and glared at him.
All eyes turned to Terrin, whose own charcoal eyes were alight with the fire of conviction.
“It is indeed about that. But mostly, it’s about finding Lyra and bringing her home. He plans to--to make her bear his child. To what end, we don’t know.” His throat still ached against the words. He needed to save her, and he was deathly afraid they were running out of time. He’d never known such fear in his life, except for the time he believed Lyra was dying.
The golden-haired woman had always had a hold on him, and try as he might to deny it, he cared for her. Cared more deeply for her than he ever thought possible. Since the moment he met her, she’d consumed his thoughts, awake and asleep. At the thought of her being harmed, raped, touched by that man in any capacity--he couldn’t think on it, or he would go mad. He needed to act. Now.
“Was there anything Lyra said that would tell you where she is?” Vale asked, her hands steepled on her chin.
Terrin shook his head slowly. “All she said was something about a dark green key in the middle of a blue circle.” He huffed out a frustrated breath.
Vale frowned and gently worried her lip with her pointer finger and thumb. “I’m willing to offer my services and resources, but I must stay in Ursa at this delicate time of our reign,” Vale commented, regret in her eyes. “I will find another Fae to stand physically in my stead. Faun comes to mind. She’s got a good head on her shoulders, smart as a whip. And of course, Seamus and Frey will go.”
Frey grinned and Seamus inclined his head, his blonde stick-straight hair falling forward in a silly rush. Frey watched him carefully, distrust still etched on her face.
Terrin eyed each one around the circular table. Frey, the small but bold Fae fighter, Seamus, the strong, moral Fae archer, and Alec, his best mind mage and Lyra’s brother. And Faun, who had better be good. Oriel and Poppi would want to join, too. They would make some kind of team, if they could ever figure out where the hell Lyra was.
Terrin set his jaw against the whirlwind of hopelessness that had been consuming him for three weeks, and vowed to himself, to the gods, to every living creature of the earth and beyond that he would get to her. He would get to his Lyra before Ganymede had his way with her and no one would stand in his way.
“Let’s find our girl.”
The End
Continued in Book Three of Gem Kingdom Series, Paragon
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