Page 106 of A World of Ruins

‘You did a good thing there,’ I tell him, watching as Freya shakes the hands of the Venators with a bright smile.

He lifts a shoulder. ‘I was never a good deputy to begin with. Who knows what I would have been like as a general.’

‘You were an excellent deputy, Lorcan,’ Darius says, approaching us. He chuckles, rubbing his thumb along his lower lip. ‘And I don’t say that lightly.’

Something warms in Lorcan’s expression. ‘Thank you.’ He bows his head. ‘Brother.’

I watch them give each other a respectable nod, and it moves me. They still have a long way to go, as decades of miscommunication ripped them apart, but at least . . . they’re healing together.

‘You were great up there,’ he whispers against my ear, and I smile, lowering my head. ‘Gus would have been proud.’

‘Of both of us,’ I whisper, lifting my chin to look up at him. There’s a spot of gold dust on the side of his neck, and I wipe it away.

He murmurs a chuckle under his breath. ‘I guess not all of it came off.’

My smile soon falters when my eyes fall to his chest.

‘I’m sorry about last night,’ I murmur, grimacing at the memory of what I did.

He frowns, capturing my face in his palms. ‘Why are you sorry? Because you had a nightmare?’

I shake my head, lowering his hands from my face. I glance at everyone inside the barracks, talking and paying no heed to us. ‘What if . . .’ I lick my parched lips. ‘What if it wasn’t just a nightmare?’

Darius stares at me. Every muscle in his body suddenly coils as if he is ready to search the lands just to keep me at peace. ‘He’s still in the Isle, Goldie. He can’t hurt you from there.’ His jaw tenses as he shakes his head. ‘I won’t let him.’

I exhale a quivering sigh and nod. Darius wraps his arms around me, pulling me to his chest.

‘Don’t let him haunt your dreams,’ he says, his voice deep and troubled. He still has nightmares about Aurum, too. ‘It’s the one place I can’t protect you.’

I close my eyes. ‘But I can’t protect you from yours.’

‘You protect our world. That is enough for me, Goldie.’

CHAPTERFORTY-FIVE

‘A free pint of Flame Spewer for the saviour of Zerathion!’ A wooden mug is shoved in front of my face as I stop by a stall in the streets of Chrysos. After the nightmare the other day, I busied myself by visiting the city more often.

I eye the flames spitting atop the tankard and jut a brow upwards at the burly vendor giving it to me. The same one who once insulted me the first night I ever came to this city.

I doubt he recognises me from that night, but I remember him.

Freya glances between us, a grimace marring her usually soft features, expecting the worst. Yet I smile at the man instead and take the drink, downing it while maintaining eye contact with him.

‘Thank you,’ I say, the vendor’s eyes widening as I hand him back the mug and walk off with Freya.

She snorts as I hook my arm with hers. ‘I truly have no idea how you handle a drink like that.’

‘It no longer contains goblin blood,’ I reply, content with that thought. ‘Darius made sure creature cruelty was banished from the city.’ I say that just as some pixies fly past a few giggling children.

‘And the rest of Emberwell?’

My lips screw together. ‘We’re getting there.’

There are still nearby towns and villages where animals may be captured and sold now that the treaty is broken. I canenvision Hedris taking on the role of a buyer, although the thought is rather sickening.

‘Is he always going to follow you around?’ Freya suddenly asks, subtly trying to glance behind us at where Ruvyn walks a few paces slower than us.

I chuckle. ‘He did that with Arlayna. I think he enjoys it.’

---