“You do?” he asked surprised by her words.

“Yes, I do. I know that as a King you will have to make difficult choices, and I know that the safety of those under your care comes first.”

“No,” he shook his head, “your safety comes first then everyone else’s.”

She smiled. “Fine, my safety comes first. I’m sorry that Lorsan put you in a position to have to kill.”

Trik let out a deep sigh. “Well, he’s going to be putting me in that position many times starting tomorrow.”

“What?” Cassie asked confused.

“We leave out at first light,” he looked down at her and reached out and gently brushed his thumb across her cheek. “for battle, Love. I’m tired of waiting. It’s time we end this.”

She walked into his opened arms and laid her head on his chest. Trik felt the rightness of her warm body and as he closed his eyes and let her scent and her familiarity soak into his bones, he prayed to the Forest Lords that this wouldn’t be the last time he would hold his Chosen. He prayed that there would be many more nights, with hopefully less clothing.

“I heard that,” her muffled voice said and he laughed as he kissed her head.

“Can’t blame a man for hoping, Beautiful, especially when his future wife looks like you.”

Chapter 13

“We’ve set the world on fire. We’ve taken the very thing that was to make them great and poured it out all over the ground, trampling it as we fled. We struck, and now we run as the beast we have provoked comes to life. If we lose, we can at least say that we did not go quietly into the night. We stood for what was right. We stood for those who could not stand for themselves.” ~Tony

Elora heard the explosion before she felt the heat of it as Cush carried her in his arms. He picked up his pace and his feet never faltered even when the ground quaked.

“We almost got in that vehicle,” she mumbled to herself in disbelief. “We would have been blown to teeny tiny bits.”

“I can’t imagine you in bite size pieces,” Cush told her, not even breathing hard.

“Did you just make a joke?” she asked him as she looked up at him.

His lips twitched but he didn’t answer her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled up so that she could look over his shoulder. Her mouth opened slightly as she saw the flames that engulfed the vehicle. These flames weren’t the same as the ones that Rin and Cush had produced; these flames were black.

“What the,” she muttered.

“Black flames?” Cush asked as he continued to run.

She nodded as her eyes continued to stare at the odd flames.

“Their magic is a product of what is inside of them. Dark magic for a dark soul,” he explained.

“So basically whatever you look like on the inside is what will come out?”

“Exactly,” he agreed.

They continued on in silence and Elora eventually settled back in his arms. She laid her head against his chest and tried to keep the wall up between them. She was getting tired of holding it up. She missed him, oddly enough, even as she was held in his arms. She missed the closeness that she felt between them when she didn’t have a mental wall separating them. She knew that the minute she let it down he would know what she was thinking and would know that she intended to stay in the human world without him. And she knew that he would probably blow a gasket, so for now she would just keep that little tidbit to herself. Damn, where is my best friend when I need her? she thought to herself. Oh that’s right, she’s stuck in another realm attempting to take out a dark-elf king, she added and grinned to herself. Cassie would tease her about talking to herself, but then if Elora knew Cassie, her best friend had already had many of her own pep talks with herself.

She didn’t know how long they had been running when she finally felt Cush begin to slow. She picked her head up from his chest and looked around. She saw that her mom was standing next to them so Elora pushed away from Cush, motioning for him to put her down. She could tell that he didn’t want to but he finally gave in.

“There’s a motel there,” Tony said breathlessly. He was pointing to a dilapidated building that was sporting a twitching neon sign that struggled to advertise V_CA_CY.

“Good,” Oakley wheezed as he too attempted to catch his breath. “Running for my life exhausts me and I could use a shower.”

“We get two rooms,” Cush spoke up.

“I call girls and guys,” Elora said quickly before Cush could assign them. Cush frowned at her but she simply shrugged.

“You have much to learn if you think that will deter him,” Lisa whispered to her as she leaned in close.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Elora asked her mom.

“We’ll talk soon.” Lisa smiled to her gently. “I’m in agreement with your brother; I need a shower.”

Cush took Elora’s hand. “We’ll get the rooms; you guys keep watch for anything that looks suspicious.”

“And by suspicious you mean?” Oakley asked.

“People who are too beautiful, black flames, or someone holding a sign that says I’m a dark elf and I’m here to kill you,” Elora quipped.

“Right,” Oakley chuckled, “thanks, Sis.”

“Anytime, Bro. Like I said, I got your back.”

Twenty minutes later Elora threw herself on the stale motel bed and sighed. “Saving the world is tiring.”