Chapter 79 : Amassing An Army

Rubbing my eyes, I groaned and sat up.

How late had I stayed up last night? How much had I had to drink?

I rolled over and bumped into Jared. Squinting one eye open, I saw him sitting up in bed, shirtless.

My other eye popped open and I stared at Jared's toned, muscular chest. Sun poured through the window and made his skin glow.

“Ahh, you're awake." Jared smirked at me.

I pulled myself up and yawned, stretching my arms out to the sides. “What time is it?"

“Almost noon."

“What? Really?" I looked out the window.

“Yeah. The Saboreef Elder asked us to meet him today. We shouldn't keep him waiting."

Jared got up and pulled his clothes on.

My eyes followed his hands as the fabric slid over his muscles, concealing his gorgeous body from view. Sighing, I got up and put my own clothes on.

Jared and I followed the elder's directions to a Saboreef temple not that far from the village. The elder stood at the large stone altar, which had several old parchment rolls and tomes laid out on it.

“What's all this?" I asked. I turned the pages in one of the tomes.

It crinkled and felt thin and brittle.

“This is a story that I think the two of you would like to hear." He motioned to me, and my pendant.

Instinctively, I grabbed the locket and ran it back and forth along the chain that dangled around my neck.

“About the locket?" Jared asked, raising an eyebrow.

The elder nodded. He picked up one of the tomes and flipped through several pages.

“Ahh, here we are," he said, tapping the top of the page. “Many, many years ago, a woman came to the temple, this temple. She was a mystery to us and kept herself shielded under a cloak."

I glanced at Jared, catching the deep crease in his brow. I wondered if he recognized that description. It was pretty vague, but something seemed to be bugging him.

Reaching out, I took his hand.

He glanced at me. “My mother," he mouthed.

I nodded and squeezed his hand. I hated seeing his handsome features scrunched up like that, like he was in pain.

“This woman came to us with a very simple request… simple, though unusual. She asked for a piece of jewelry to be crafted from an old, broken artifact...."

The story sounded a little familiar to me. I knew I'd never heard it before, but it sounded almost like the beginning of another story I knew, like a prequel to something else that had happened.

I kept holding the locket between my fingers, hooking the chain around my chin.

The day I'd composed the song… my mind floated back to that day. I hadn't made it up. The words had come to me from a dream. There'd been a woman humming that song. I could envision it and hear it so clearly.

She hadn't just been humming the song, though, she'd been singing… singing words....

I tightened my grip

“Ow," he muttered.

his beautiful orbs,

“Jared...."

is it, Eliza?" he asked, his eyes deepening with

reading and stared

just remembered.

arched an

words, like

“What are they?"

remember." Sighing, I dropped

this," the elder

It was heavy and dusty, making my nose itch when I breathed it in. On the

it wasn't a


wasn't

scanned the words and

song," I whispered, running my hand

the Light Realm is blessed with the key. Follow your heart to your salvation. To break the bonds of Draven's hate, you must be brave and never falter, the Diadem of Nyx is what you must take, when you find it you will alter the destiny of Draven's fate.

Your courage will make it powerful enough to break free from Draven's hold. Find it in the heart of the Light Realm and break

does

my eyes wide. I could barely believe what I was reading. But it was all starting

everything we've been looking for. Jared,

eyes widened too and he grabbed

to carry that heavy book any more. Quickly, I brushed some

by going to the heart of the Realm of Light," I said

of Nyx?" he asked, his brow furrowing

shrugged. “But if we transfer the dark curse to the Diadem, then it won't affect us

closed the book and set it back on the altar. Turning

the marks and followed Jared's

Jared, I almost forgot. With the celebration and the partying, one of the women showed me something about

“What?"

a map of the Realm of Light, of

to the page where he'd left off. His eyes scanned through the

located in the

going to

***

*Jared*

to making quick travel plans. We wouldn't need long to prepare for

I felt a swell of hope at thinking we actually had a chance to break the curse, not just for me, but

a chance at

'Jared?'

feeling Archer through the

it?' I

and his men are looking for you. They are looking to make good on their promise to overthrow the

should discuss this in

'I'll come to you.'

what's wrong?" Eliza

mine. I had my hand on the small of her back, not realizing I'd stopped walking while talking to

for us. We're going to meet with him briefly before we

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