Chapter 42 - Broken Hearts Part 1

Lucas POV

Pain, that is all I could feel. It snaked through every part of my body like someone was injecting cement into my blood steam. I groan in agony as I try to sit up. My shoulder protesting with each laboured movement.

I manage to pull myself to a sitting position and look about the carnage around me. The temple was a mess, bodies littered the floor, humans and demons combined. Over them was a thick blanket of red flower petals in the most beautiful paradox.

I grit my teeth and pull myself to standing, my head spinning at the pain radiating from my shoulder. I look down to find an arrow embedded the muscle. Holding the base I yank it out with a quick tug, the relief was brief, before my head began to spin dangerously. I swayed on my feet.

“Magda!” A voice calls out from somewhere behind me, before strong arms wrap around me. I look up to see the face of my father peering down at me.

“Its poison, majesty.” Magda says in a clipped, official tone. I was too busy looking around the room trying to find the one person that I needed by my side to pay any attention to what the witch was doing. I look over to the last place I saw her before I was shot, but the space was empty. Avalon was no longer there.  

I could vaguely feel the witch her prodding and poking at my wound.

“It has not gone deep, and the poison was weak. The person who made it obviously didn’t know what they were doing. He will be fine in a few hours.” She reassured, administering some foul-smelling ointment and wrapping my wound carefully.

“Good.” My fathers clipped voice came back. “Malphas what is the damage.” He asks the war lord.

“Half a dozen demon deaths majesty, almost double that in human deaths. They seemed to come for one thing. And then they left sire.”

“What did they want?”

“The Princess sire.” Malphas’ eyes seemed to shift between my face and my fathers, unsure on how the news would be taken. On my fathers side, he didn’t seem overly surprised.

For be, a sense of foreboding twisted in my insides. “Lonnie, where is she. Is she safe” I ask, my voice scratchy even to my ears. I desperately tried to reach for the demon before me, but my body did not seem to respond.

“She is gone Prince Lucas.” Malphas spoke up, keeping his voice as even as possible. “It would seem she was knocked unconscious before the hunters took her back through the portal. She seemed to be unharmed otherwise.” He added.

A burning rage run through me, but my body simply refused to move. “I must find her.” I call out weakly.

“You are in no position to go anywhere Lucas.” My father admonishes. “You are far too weak. From the reports we have been given from witness, she is yet unharmed. They obviously want her alive. She will be fine whilst you recover you strength. Remember my son, she may look like a delicate flower to you, but she is stronger than you realise.” My father claps a hand to my uninjured shoulder, the closest thing to a sympathetic embrace that you will ever get from the King of the underworld. He stands from his position by my side and walks away with Malphas who continues briefing him on injuries and a plan to go forward.

I lay back with a sigh. A gapping hole in my chest reminding me that my mate and the woman that I love is out there somewhere alone and amongst the enemy.

“She knows these people” I tell myself by way of reassurance she will be alright.

I mulled over in my mind a plan of attack. I new my father would not sanction a full out attack without proper planning and resources. All of which took time, time that I did not have. The longer the Avalon was amongst the hunters, the more time they had to discover who she is, and now, who she is mated too.

There was also the chance that Avalon could now be pregnant. A very high chance in fact. He was not about to sit by and allow his mate and unborn child to wallow in a prison cell whilst my father decides on whether they are worth his time to save or not.

The thought of Avalon being scared and alone was enough to set my teeth on edge. It didn’t help that the hole in my chest seem to grow larger as each moment passed. My hope was that her presence was simply being masked. The other option for the sudden emptiness was incomprehensible. There was no way that Avalon was already dead. Why take the trouble to come for her, if all they wanted was to kill her. Surely they would do that on the spot.

But still the thought niggled, I had to know for sure.

I was left with only one choice. I had to do this alone. Or maybe not completely alone.

Lysander. I would seek out my friend to help me.

One thing was for sure, as soon as I could stand on my own two feet, I would be leaving this place. And I will hunt her down to the ends of the universe if I have to. There is nothing in this world that will stop be from finding her, and nothing I will not do to get her back.