Page 23 of King Elijah (The Zemiran Chronicles 2)

Nine

AFTER THE VOLERIC’Spower fell away, Lincoln sat back down on the bed. He opened his eyes to Nola standing over him, stroking his hair with the tips of her fingers.

“What happened?” she asked, cupping her palm over his cheek. “Lincoln, what’s going on?” He could hear the rise of panic in her voice, and it brought him fully back to wakefulness.

Lincoln leaned forward and wrapped his arm around her protectively, his own fear swelling in his chest.

“We fucked up; that’s what happened.”

Nola’s eyes narrowed as Lincoln tried to find the words to explain without frightening her.

“The Shadow Land,” he started, and her eyes immediately went wide.

“What about the Shadow Land?”

“We let something in, Nola,” he said, looking above deck. “Fuck. We need to get Mazie to turn the ship around.”

Her lips pressed in a hard line, and she stepped back, shaking her head.

Lincoln rolled off the bed and grabbed his trousers, slipping on his clothes. She followed him, quickly getting dressed and reaching for her sword to sheath at her hip.

“We closed the portal, Lincoln,” she said. “I don’t understand.”

“Not until after a shadow slipped through. It was so dark when we returned to that shore. We couldn’t have seen it escape through the portal with us.”

She ran her hand through her thick, long strands, taking a few heavy breaths.

“Is it in Zemira?” Nola asked. “Are Elijah and Aiden okay?”

Lincoln shook his head. “There’s another country north of Zemira. Elijah’s birthplace. The monster must have felt the power of the sorcerers who reside there and headed their way. It’s been devouring their magic and killing scores of people for the last few weeks.”

She let out a heavy gasp. “Then we have to stop it,” she said. “This is our fault, Lincoln. We must make it right. The Kroneon—it can send it back!”

Lincoln cocked his head and gave her a small smile. “Always so eager to fight, but we have no plan.”

“Then we make a plan. This is our fault and our responsibility. A shadow is precisely what that thing is—a shadow. It almost killed us! It injured Hill, and in that battle, I was the only magical creature for it to feed upon. The only way to drive a sword through its chest is to solidify it.”

“Then we feed it magic.”

Her face hardened. “From me?” she asked. The pain and fear in her eyes skewered him. He couldn’t believe she would think for a second that he was capable of doing something like that. He could never use her as bait. The pain of the moment washed over him, and it was more than a minute before he could collect himself enough to speak.

“No, Nola,” he stammered. “I could never . . .” He kept looking at her, his own expression pained to match hers. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter, more fragile than she had ever heard before. “Do you really think I would put you in danger like that?”

Nola stared back at him, taking in the sudden shift in his body language. She visibly softened and took a step in toward him. The moment her face hit his chest, his arms came up, as if on instinct, wrapping themselves around her slender shoulders to hold her. He was squeezing her too tightly, but he didn’t care.

After a moment, they both pulled back enough to look each other in the eye. That brief, inconsequential moment had shaken them both more deeply than either of them would admit. Lincoln brought his hand up to caress Nola’s face. His fingers were light, almost worshipful, as he grazed over her soft skin. She felt like something fragile and precious that he must protect at all costs. She always would, for the rest of his life. He could only hope that she understood that.

“I could never put you in harm’s way,” he said, voice still quiet. “I don’t have it in me.”

Nola seemed soothed by his words, and she pressed her cheek into his tender touch.

“Then what will we do?” she asked.

“We go to Elijah, and we figure this out together, as a family. For now, we make sure that the Kroneon is safely locked where we stored it away, and we turn this ship around and head to Zemira, where Elijah will be waiting for us.”

Nola nodded but her eyes still looked wary and scared. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s go home.”

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