Wings of Deceit

Chapter Nineteen

A flurry of confusing yet beautiful sounds left the Queen's mouth as her gaze landed on Larc, her words from the Dragon-born language. She looked as if she was expecting him to be there, that she was happy that his failures had led him here. Larc's eyes quickly darted to me, drawing the Queen's attention to me too.

"Apologies, I didn't realise I was in the presence of Humans," the Queen looked my sister and me up and down with a pitying smile, switching to use our language. Our glaring weakness against her was something to be sympathetic over.

Larc clutched the Lyre tighter and held it above his head, ready to throw the artefact on the ground to let it shatter. His next words rolled off his tongue in Kaeuni, fuelled with an anger I didn't know was coiling inside of him. It had to be some kind of threat.

The Goddess slumped over in her chains as the Lyre was taken from the pedestal, the shadows curling around her legs reaching up to claim more of her exposed skin. Was she protecting her artefact? Or was it protecting her?

"Speak in the Human Tongue," the Queen commanded. "It would be a shame to leave your new playthings out of the conversation. Now, why would I give you your wings back in exchange for the Lyre?"

"Larc?" I felt my heart drop into my stomach, the curling dread of the realisation building up inside of me. He couldn't simply give it to the Queen. We had travelled and fought together to destroy it.

"I fucking knew it," Haera spat, pulling out two daggers that had been strapped and sheathed on her thighs. "I knew you were up to no good from the start." My sister charged towards the Dragon-borns in anger, but she was held in place by the Queen's raised hand and an invisible force.

"Restrain the humans." She motioned her head for her guards to move forward. "We can't let them interfere with this negotiation."

The red-winged Dragon-borns moved towards Haera first, pinning her to the cavern floor with swift and precise movements. She fought against the hands and the magic that held her down, but it was no use. The next set of guards paced towards me, causing a voice in my head to scream at me to run, but my feet couldn't find the ability to do so. As hands wrapped around my arms, they suddenly stopped in surprise.

"Your Highness," the guard to my left called to gain her attention, sniffing the air around me in disbelief. "This one is married to Prince Larcitharius."

"Remove your hands from her before you lose them," Larc growled. The threat made the guards apprehensive about whose orders to follow, their gazes flicking between the royalty before them.

"Married?" The Queen chuckled until she was almost breathless. "You sure moved on quickly after your last human lover. What was his name? Harphi? It has only been five years since he died."

"Don't bring up that name. That relationship was never meant to be." Larc's chest rose and fell with sharp breaths, his hands balling into fists at his sides.

That had to be how he knew the Human Tongue so well. This couldn't be his first time tricking a human into falling in love with him. A single tear slid down my cheek as my heart twisted — as if a hand had plunged into my chest, pulled it out, and thrown it onto the ground.

"You can't give it to her!" I tried to convince him to change his mind even though I knew my attempts would be futile. "She'll use it to kill everyone! You can't have faked all of your kindness."

Larc's eyes lingered on me for one painful moment before returning to the Queen. "You can have the Lyre for the return of my wings."

The Queen's brows narrowed in thought. "How do you know I won't grant you your wings back, take the Lyre, and then sever them again? Surely as my son, you should know me quite well."