Page 88 of The Storm of the Empire

I handed her one boot at a time, and she put her hand on my shoulder to balance as she put them on. “Ready?” I asked when she finished.

“Yes.” She put her hand on her sword. “Are you?”

I adjusted my sword belt. “No, but we’ll either find something or we won’t.”

“Remember, jump on my back the minute I shift if we are being chased.” She took the torch I handed her and lit it with her breath.

“Why is that so hot?” I lit mine with hers, too. “Let’s do this.”

We followed the dock into the cave, finding the temple cut out as we left it. Not a stone looked out of place. The silence sunk into my bones, setting my nerves on edge. It wasn’t meant to be quiet. It wasn’t meant to be empty. How many other missing fae were here before I left with Kol? I hadn’t even thought to look at the other faces. So many families were left without answers, and I hadn’t helped.

With all of this gone, I was left without purpose again.

We searched for hours and didn’t find any sign of them. Not a secret passage, not a scrap or signal of life. There was even dust covering every surface and spiderwebs in the corners like no one had been here at all.

“Did we hallucinate being here?”

She met my eyes, setting her jaw. “We didn’t.”

“Could they have drugged us? Or could it have been magic that made us think this place was real?” My mind reeled, and I didn’t like where it was going.

“To what end?”

“To throw us off the path of the eggs? Maybe they caught on to us?” Maybe Faolan was right and I wasn’t careful enough.

“I don’t think such magic exists.” She slumped against the wall, sliding down to a seat. “Or if it does, I’ve never heard of it.”

“So what do we do?”

“I don’t know.” She pressed her fingers into her temples in thought. “I just can’t get my head around what they want dragon eggs for. Where could they be taking them to?”

“If they were in the crates that went overboard, I have no idea. There’s nothing on that coast except the foothills of the Wild Mountains.”

Hazel scoffed. “Which is right where that place Jaxus and Faolan said they escaped from is—wait—” Rage flashed in her irises like they were ablaze.“You don’t think…”

“You think the eggs are being smuggled there?”

“It’s not a terrible theory. If they are completely isolated, how else would they add new dragons to their breeding pool and not have it burned out after centuries? What if the priests are working with them?”

“Wouldn’t Jaxus and Faolan know?”

She lifted her shoulders. “Depends on how much they tell their people. None of us knew about their home’s existence. Anything is possible”

I didn’t like any of it. I especially didn’t like not knowing. I needed to go on. Something deep in my chest drove me. I couldn’t stop now. “Are you up for another flight?”

“What do you have in mind?” she asked.

“Why don’t we go check out the temple?”

“The one we went to in the Storm Kingdom?”

I nodded. “I think we have to.”

She was quiet for a long moment, and I was worried I’d lost her, but slowly, she pushed to her feet. “Let’s go. Neither of us will rest until we do.”

I loved that she felt the same way I did.

We took off again, staying low over the ocean and taking nearly the same path we had on the ship. It was an easy flight, but she dropped off as soon as we met the shore a few hours later, coming in for a rough landing.

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