Page 85 of Tale of the Heart Queen

“Where have you been?” Willow cries as she hugs her sister.

“What are you doing here?” Lor asks at the same time.

Out of the crowd emerge three more figures—Mael, Amya, and Tristan—that make my heart squeeze. “Thank Zerra,” Amya says, throwing her arms around me. “I thought he was finally going to finish you.”

“I’m not that easy to kill, little sister,” I say, and she gives me a watery smile.

“I know that.”

Mael claps me on the back, and then we embrace. “I’m so fucking glad you aren’t dead,” he says.

“Don’t get mushy on me.”

He laughs, and then we join Lor and her siblings. Lor hugs both of them, too.

“What are you doing here?” she asks again, and then they fill us in on what’s been happening in Aphelion.

“What a disaster,” Lor says.

“You could say that again,” Mael agrees. “Gabriel looks like he wants to hurl himself off a cliff.”

“We need to go and see him,” Lor says. “Do you think they’ve tracked down Atlas?”

She looks around like he might suddenly appear in the middle of the street.

“The warders will find him,” Amya says, sensing her apprehension.

“Where have you two been?” Tristan asks. “What happened?”

Lor sighs. “That is a very long story.”

“Do you have any money?” I ask Mael. “We had to impose on the innkeeper’s good graces.”

“Of course,” Mael says, digging into his pocket and pulling out a sack of coins.

“Excuse me a moment,” I say before I return to the inn. The innkeeper stands at the bar, pursing her lips together.

“As promised,” I say with a shit-eating grin before I deposit the sack on the countertop.

She lifts an eyebrow as she sidles over and lifts it, weighing it in her hand. It’s more than enough to cover our room and food for the night, and she knows it.

“And there will be more,” I say. “For your kindness. I don’t know what we would have done otherwise.”

She eyes me up and down and must decide I’m sincere because she finally cracks a reluctant smile.

“Who are you, anyway? A royal, I know, but who?”

“I’m . . . the Aurora Prince,” I say, and her eyes widen. “If you ever need a favor, you know where to find me.”

“Safe travels,” she says, and then I’m about to turn away when an explosion bursts in my ears, shaking the entire building. Screams echo from outside before a ball of fire shatters through a window, crashing into the middle of the long communal table bisecting the room.

Everyone jumps up, screaming while they scramble to escape. Outside, I see more balls of fire raining down on the village.

“Lor.” I dash outside, scanning the street. She’s running towards me, and I see Mael and the others trying to help everyone else find safety.

“We need to take cover,” she says, grabbing my hand as the six of us weave through the chaos.

“What’s happening?” Mael asks. “What is this?”