Page 38 of Queen of Legends and Lies
Does he recognize our visitors?
Three large alicorn silhouettes cut through the darkness, flanked by Tirenese guards with drawn weapons. The riders raise their arms, showing empty hands. If I hadn’t left my wings out to enhance my vision, I wouldn’t have recognized them.
I release a relieved breath. “They’re from Flighthaven. Allow them to land.”
Helene Mortimer and Elijah Durand—two fledglings who helped us at Flighthaven only days ago when we attempted to rescue Sterling—are accompanied by Instructor Celeste Dawson.
When we dropped Helene and Elijah off at their families’ estates a few days ago, I didn’t expect to see them again so soon. And I haven’t seen Celeste since, well, since I was a student. Before Sterling kidnapped me.
Relief floods through me that yet another person I know managed to escape the drachen’s corruption and Xenon’s rule.
The guard, whose name I really do need to learn, gestures to another one, who meets our visitors in the air.
The crowd parts for them, their whispers building into a crescendo of awe. With the guard alongside them, the trio lands, sliding off the alicorns with practiced ease.
Seeing them again feels like a sliver of hope piercing the veil of fear that shrouds us. “What are you doing here?”
Elijah just shrugs, muscles rippling in his massive arms as he shoves his hands in his pockets. His cold brown eyes scrutinizehis new setting, and the action takes me back to my own arrival in Tirene.
Helene, her shiny black hair tightly braided and wrapped around her head in her usual style, has a similar expression of awe on her face as she nods to the willowy blond who taught my former weapons combat class at the flight academy.
Celeste steps away from her alicorn and gestures to the limp form on the back of her saddle.
Who else came with them? Are they dead?
She pulls the bindings loose as Helene and Elijah shift uncomfortably. Their eyes are locked on something behind me. When I turn my head, I find Leesa staring back at them, eyes wide. Her ex-girlfriend. And the man she turned down.
And Leesa’s standing next to Bastian, the man she’s in love with. What a joy this is going to be.
But my sister’s love life isn’t something I have time to dwell on.
Celeste grunts, and I return my attention to her. She’s grabbing the person by the waist of the pants and pulling him down. He’s enormous, yet she lifts him with relative ease. The woman is strong, I’ll give her that.
She catches his head, her body blocking the view of his face as she lowers him to the ground.
The guards on the other side stiffen.
I’m prepared for the worst. A corpse. Maybe one of my friends. What I’m not prepared for is the sight ofhisface as Celeste backs away.
My heart skips, then beats in double time.
Sterling.
Chapter Fourteen
The man I’m in love with is reduced to a deathlike stillness, his normally bronze-hued skin drained of color.
I cry out, my voice breaking as I fall to my knees beside him. My vision and hearing waver, like I’m underwater, the world fading out.
His chest rises and falls with shallow, laborious breaths.
Relief washes over me. He’s alive.
Whatever Xenon did to him or made him do, we’ll work through that. I’ll heal his corruption with my tears, and he’ll recover. It worked on Leesa, and it’ll work for Sterling.
My vision stabilizes, and the world comes back into focus.
The crowd’s gasps and murmurs swell into a cacophonous wave, their shock resonating with my own. Their almost king has been delivered to them mere moments after my ascent to the throne.
