The Goddess Chronicles Books 4-6: Urban Fantasy by KB Anne

Author:KB Anne [Anne, KB]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gripping Tales
Published: 2020-12-25T05:00:00+00:00

13

Eight of Pentacles

The dawn broke in a fiery blaze as the ground shook beneath them, but the villagers stood firmly in place behind Caer, Scott, and Gallean. They would die for Caer. Somehow she could sense that. Along the way she had developed a relationship with them without even knowing it.

It was like she’d known them her entire life. Sure, she had watched them from afar and snuck into their homes while they slept, but there was something more. Something kindred.

“Gallean, why are the villagers familiar to me?”

He looked away from her as he answered. “Because you’ve watched them since your arrival in the Shadow Realm.”

Lie. Why would he lie to her? He often told partial truths, for her own protection he’d claimed, but he had never lied. As she became the warrior she was destined to be, she no longer needed the shelter of a child.

“There’s something more to it. You’re not telling me the truth. Why are they willing to die for me?”

His eyes softened. “When Balor killed your father and took over the kingdom, many of his people were turned to stone. These villagers are the ones who managed to get away.”

“But you said they were orphans and thieves,” Scott said.

“Some resorted to thievery to survive, but they are all orphans. Orphaned from their land, from their kind, from their . . . queen.”

“From their queen?” Caer’s eyes misted. She couldn’t be held responsible for their lives. She had one mission and that was to kill Balor at whatever cost. She couldn’t worry about people she didn’t know.

They’re your people, Caer, a voice whispered in her head. It was the voice of her father.

“No,” she hissed through gritted teeth. “I have no people.”

Scott frowned at her. She ignored him. He may be her love in the Otherworld, but in this one they were strangers.

She gripped her sword. “I will kill Balor no matter what the cost.”

The boundary shield shattered, and the heavy mist surrounding the island lifted. Before them, a mighty army of soldiers disembarked from boats at the water’s edge. In the distance, tall ships with broad white sails bunched together, ready to be set free once their bounty was attained, to catch the wind and sail away from the Land of Shadows as swiftly as the winds could carry them.

She sensed Balor’s presence long before she saw him. His very being sent a chill deep into her bones as she scanned the enemy. Soon her eyes landed on the giant. His hulking frame stood towering over the sea of beasts. His cold gray eye searched for her. His other may have been covered with a patch, but his seeing one promised pain, suffering, and death. She swallowed hard. Balor was much larger than she remembered, but then, she had only seen him through a small hole in the stone.

“Reveal yourself to me,” he demanded to the small gathering of people around her.

It would be simple to merely disappear into the shadows. After all, she’d spent a lifetime hiding in them.

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