Page 91 of Seized to Sacrifice
Nyx nodded. ‘But too slowly. Ceres could wipe out half the realm with a snap of his fingers.’
‘Ifhe could get to this realm,’ Thorne reminded them. ‘As long as he’s getting his agents to do his work for him, we have a chance.’
‘Aye. That's true enough,’ Rye said. ‘It’s time we went north. There’s nothing else we can do here. The archives hold no information of value to us. We need to go to Kitore, see what the Great Library holds. We’ll go alone and travel light, traverse the mountains on foot and we should be able to get through the passes even if they’re still frozen. If we leave tomorrow, we’ll be there within a sennight if we’re lucky.’
All in agreement, they went to their beds and Thorne closed his eyes.
He found himself back in his realm, the Beast sitting next to him as he had been before. Black eyes stared at him, unblinking.
‘It's time we talked properly.’
‘Aye,’ Thorne said, ‘I suppose it is. It's been a long time.’
‘We need to be whole for Elle and her babe.’
‘You don't care?’ Thorne asked. ‘You don't care that it's not ours?’
The Beast looked at him unblinkingly. ‘Sheis ours,’ he said. ‘Therefore, the babe is as well. Doesn't matter who sired it. We and the others will be its father. Us.’
Thorne heaved a sigh.
‘It's unlikely we'll have any others,’ the Beast continued. ‘You tried for a long time, after all, and it came to nothing.’
Thorne looked up in surprise.
‘You think I didn't know what you were doing rutting with all those human females? You wanted to make your own, but you weren't able to in all the years that you tried.’
The Beast looked out over their realm, taking in the distant lightning, and the black clouds that were rolling in. ‘Now we have the chance to have one. Don’t let your pride get in the way. I'm talking to you because Elle needs us to be strong for her. That means we need to become one. I know you're angry about what I did. I'm angry with myself, but what's done is done. We need to move forward if we want to survive. If we want Elle to survive. If we want our Brothers to survive.’
Thorne sat back, thinking about the Beast’s words. Everything he said made sense and Thorne would be lying if he said he didn’t want to have control of himself again.
‘I agree,’ he said finally, ‘but how do we do it? How do we become whole? We've been separate for so long.’
The Beast shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’
‘I want my memories back,’ Thorne said. ‘I want to know everything.’
‘Are you sure about that?’ the Beast asked him, sounding surprised.
Thorne nodded without hesitation. ‘Yes. I don't care how bad it is. I need to know everything I don't remember including the times with Elle.’
Very well,’ he said. ‘I’ll give you access to my mind as I have access to yours, but you won’t like what you recall.’ He turned away suddenly, listening.
‘What is it?’ Thone asked him.
‘You need to wake up. Something’s happening.’
* * *
Elle
It wasthe middle of the night when Elle was woken again and, thinking it was another small quake, she wryly wondered if she'd ever get a good night's sleep in this camp.
‘What’s all the noise?’ she mumbled sleepily. ‘Is it another quake?’
She opened her eyes as she heard them moving around the tent with some urgency, finding all three Brothers already up, dressed, and strapping on their weapons.
‘What’s happening?’ she asked in alarm.
