Page 96 of Crown of Hearts
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We rose with the sun, packing up our small campsite and readying the horses.
“Good morning.” Elara braided the last part of her hair before reaching for her horse’s saddle.
“Here.” Looking for an excuse to touch her, I helped her onto the horse.
“Thank you.” She put on her riding gloves. “Hopefully we have better luck with the hunt today.”
We had no such luck.
No animal appeared. As if the forest was watching us, protecting its own from our bows and arrows. Not that I minded too much. It was a good distraction from everything that awaited us once we returned.
Speaking of which . . .
“How do you think things are faring at the palace?” I asked Elara.
“What do you mean?”
“We left Lance, Thatcher and Gwen there unattended,” I remarked, as if they were small children in constant need of being watched. Maybe they were.
“True,” she admitted. “We’d be lucky to return and find they hadn’t destroyed the place yet. Why did we leave them there alone again?”
“Because none of them wanted to go hunting,” I answered.
“Right. I’m sure it will be fine regardless. It’s a big palace — they’ll stay out of each other’s way.”
“I should think so.” Knowing the three of them, she was probably right, and we would be lucky if they hadn’t burned the place down.
Suddenly Elara’s mare stopped, and it was only when I noticed her grip on the reins that I realised she was the one who had halted the horse.
“Is something wrong?”
“Do you hear something?”
Our guards drew their swords, our hunting party quiet.
I even halted my breathing until finally, very faintly in the distance, there was a sound. It wasn’t easily distinguishable, nor could I decipher what exactly the sound was, only the direction it was coming from.
Jack and Alastor moved their horses in front of ours.
“Stay back, Your Majesties,” Jack ordered while looking ahead.
Something was coming our way.
We all seemed to hold our breath in anticipation until something broke through the leaves.
A man on a horse came cantering towards us.
The surprise was in it being a familiar man.
“Ray?” Elara said in shock, and his horse reared at the sight of all of us ready to strike him down.
“Whoa.” Ray held on to the horse, calming it. It looked like he hadn’t slept, as if he’d been riding through the night.
“Ray, are you all right?” Elara said.
He heaved. “What are you all doing here?”
