Page 129 of Wings of Death

He nods towards my mother’s journal lying on the forest floor amongst the leaves and twigs.

I rush to pick it up, thankful it isn’t burnt to ash. The pages she tore out of the other journal, though, are. Now I’m never going to find out who her second was.

There’s a cool tingle on the skin of my neck, and I turn to face Alaron, who is standing about as close as he can get.

“Did you just kiss my neck?” I ask, arching a brow.

He takes my hand and presses his lips to the back of it. My skin tingles at his touch, the cool sensation lingering.

“I did,” he says with a cheeky glint in his eyes before his expression shifts back into a serious one. “I am glad you areokay, but not all that surprised, given who your mother was. Who your father is. Their power and strength flows through your veins, Zarla.”

“She was a goddess,” I tell him, “and my father a god.”

He simply smiles. “I think you knew that all along,” he says before dropping my hand and walking over to where Hethenos is deep in the ground.

He reaches a hand out and closes his eyes as dark magic leaches up from the ground and into his chest. He shakes a little and opens his eyes.

“She won’t be needing that anymore,” he says as he walks over to me, “and I don’t believe you need it anymore either.”

He reaches his hand out, and the dark magic swirls inside me before leaving my body and flowing back into Alaron. Once it’s gone, a sense of relief washes over me.

He moves to the stone ruins and places his hand against the edge of one. “Stones hold a lot of memories, you know.”

I knit my brows together at his words, and he looks back at me.

“You are very cryptic,” I tell him. “I don’t suppose you can explain that one a little further?”

He presses his lips together and pretends to zip them closed.

I let out a laugh. “Thank you, Alaron.”

He leans against the stone and looks at me. “Anytime.” He pauses for a moment. “I say this because I find myself deeply intrigued by you. There are those close to you who cannot be trusted. This is not the end of their deception.”

I frown, but before I can ask him who he’s referring to, he vanishes.

A cool drop of water lands on the end of my nose, and I glance up through the tree canopy to see it’s starting to rain. Great. Am I going to have to haul Hethenos out of that hole before it fills with water and she drowns?

She deserves nothing less, but I decide against it. If only Alaron could have helped me out with this one.

And then Demetros and Lacinda land in the clearing.

“What in the gods happened here?” she asks as she scans the area.

I run to them, and they open their arms wide to embrace me.

“Thank the gods you’re okay,” I say before stepping back and spotting Lacinda’s cut lip. “Well, mostly okay.”

She shrugs. “This is nothing. You should feel the lump on his head.” She laughs, gesturing to Demetros.

“How are you doing?” he asks, looking over to the large hole in the ground containing Hethenos.

I give him a tight-lipped smile. “I’m fine. Thank you for taking on Yimel. If you hadn’t been there, I don’t know what would have happened.”

His eyes darken. “What happened after he knocked us out?”

I tuck my hair behind my ears. “Yimel came into my cell. He was pretty pissed, saying we could rule the Kingdom together. He was deluded. Then Hethenos showed up and killed him and Rimel.”

They both gasp.

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