Queen of Abaddon by Heather Killough-Walden

Author:Heather Killough-Walden
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2015-03-28T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

He might not have been much older than fifteen, or perhaps sixteen. But again, she would know him anywhere.

Across his back lay a longsword, strapped firm and secure, with its grip well within his reach. There was also a small pack, and Raven noticed the end of a rolled up parchment peeking out from one corner. Dangling from the pack were what looked like crudely made charms. The beginnings of magic.

She couldn’t see his eyes; his gaze was distant. He was waiting for something, or rather watching something or someone come near. Raven followed his line of sight now, looking out over the water.

That’s when she noticed the fog coming in. It must have been sitting like a silent cat in the distance, thick and immobile, waiting to pounce. But now it rolled rapidly toward them, a massive white beast without form or face, but nonetheless seeming to possess a life all its own. Any moment now, it would swallow them whole.

“Is this another glimpse into Drake’s past?” Loki asked, turning to glance at her over his shoulder.

“It is,” responded Grolsch, taking the words from her mouth. “I know this,” he continued without looking at them. He, too, was watching the fog roll in. “I remember him telling me about this moment one night in a tavern.”

Strangely enough, Drake seemed to be watching the fog moving in as well. Last time, he’d been oblivious to their actual surroundings, immersed instead in the surroundings of his past.

“That fog is real,” said Raven. She could feel the mist of it drawing closer; it was curling the hair that framed her face. She could swear it was real.

“No, he’s watching it,” Loki countered, shaking his head. “It has to be in Drake’s world, not ours.”

Raven’s brow furrowed. She moved from her spot by the water, and walked slowly in Drake’s direction. She made it to the tree before she stopped, her nerves preventing her from going any further.

Every time I see him, he’s hurting.

It was a thought that danced through her mind, outlined with pain that zapped through her nerve endings and stopped to pulse deep and hard in the chambers of her heart. The first time she’d witnessed a past vision of Drake, he’d been a skinny little boy with bleeding knees and an iron will. And now here he stood again, a little older, a lot harder, just as thin, and even more beat up.

She watched him, close enough now that she could have run to him in three steps and reached out – touched his cheek – and she wondered how in the realms he could still be so devastatingly beautiful.

Suddenly, Drake’s head turned, and the light caught his eyes. Silver flashed, and Raven froze. She’d raised her right hand out toward him and hadn’t even realized it. That infamous, hypnotic gaze sought her out, and for just a moment, they made eye contact. She felt like lead in the weight of it.

But then he let her go, and continued to search the area around her.

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