For the rest of the day, I couldn't stop the terrorising memory of the twisted way the girl from the Temple had laid on the ground, devoid completely of life. The haunting sound of her screams, both as she was stabbed and as she fell to the ground, made me jump each time they pushed into my mind.

She hadn't deserved such a cruel death. What would the children she taught at the Temple think had happened to her? Was the Temple even standing now that the Dragon-borns had reached our village?

I hoped our mother was okay. Throughout the endless walking in the forest, I wondered what her reaction could have been to the note we left her, what her expression would be when she found her two daughters gone alongside the enemy that threatened to end the human race.

I promised myself I would make it up to her however she wanted when we returned.

Darkness settled over the sky when we reached the foot of the mountain, night falling much quicker than I had expected it to. Climbing without the light of the sun to show us which rocks we needed to grip or place our feet on would be the equivalent of signing a death sentence, so we decided we would wait until morning to start making our way towards the Lyre.

We just had to hope the queen or her royal soldiers wouldn't get there first.

As Larc rested his back against a tree, his dinner rations beside him on the cloak he sat on, he flicked through the pages he had taken from the tower. He wanted to make sure he hadn't missed some sort of detail that could be the key to our success, but his searches through the words written on them never proved to be useful.

"Are Dragon-borns born with different coloured wings?" I asked, hoping to distract myself from the lingering memories of earlier, pulling Larc away from his reading.

"Dragon-borns aren't born with wings at all," he explained. "They start to grow once we reach the age of ten and don't reach their full wingspan until around the age of twenty-five, so they don't take too long to grow."

"Not too long to grow?" Haera repeated. "That's fifteen years!"

"It's not long in terms of Dragon-born years," he corrected, placing the papers carefully back in a satchel.

"Do they grow to be different colours then?" I adjusted my question, placing my last piece of bread in my mouth.

"Most are dark, either black or blue in colour, but the monarch's wings are grown gold. The royal guard's wings are stained red in the ceremony of their service — a promise that they will spill the blood of the queen's enemies." Larc laughed, the dark sound coming from deep within his chest. "I find that part to be a little demeaning."

"How so?" My sister questioned with genuine interest.

Larc shrugged. "I don't see the point of their wings being permanently stained. If they ever want to back out from the job or find the role isn't for them, they will have a constant mark with them for the rest of their lives."

I attempted to stifle my yawn as I listened to the Dragon-born's explanation, hoping nobody would see so I could learn more about the Nusal Empire, but nothing could get past Haera and Larc.

"Get some sleep," Haera insisted. She had taken off some of the weapons she had strapped to herself when the other Dragon-borns had flown over our heads earlier, but she still kept enough to be alert if we were attacked by another shadow creature.

"I can take the first watch, if that's okay with you, Haera," Larc offered.

My sister's lips narrowed as she thought. "Sure. You have three hours at most, then you wake me up. Got it?"

"Understood," he replied with a brief nod, shifting to get comfortable where he leant against the tree.

As Haera settled down to get some rest, I attempted to get some of my own too. Though, with the darkness that swarmed behind my closed eyes, all I could picture was our home and everyone back in our village. The Dragon-borns had already found Silverwood — a village so small it wasn't drawn onto any map — and had captured an innocent woman to get information out of her. That was the work of only two soldiers. Had they captured more people? Had they burned our homes to ashes and cinders?

I turned onto my side and buried my face into the crook of my arm. Silverwood had to still be standing or we would have nothing to go home to. Our mother- I stopped the thought before it could take hold of my mind and drag me through a torrent of darker and darker scenarios.

We needed to focus on the Lyre.

As I opened my eyes, I concentrated on Larc. The Dragon-born had taken out the torn papers from his satchel and begun to read through them again. He periodically looked up to scan our surroundings, making sure not to miss any area around us in his search, then returned to reading. When he looked around once more after placing the paper at his side, this time he looked to the sky with a deep longing. A sadness washed over him as he watched the stars shine through the trees above us.

I sat up, glancing at my sister who was still asleep, my heart yearning to know what he was thinking about.

"I didn't know you were still awake. Did I disturb you somehow?" Larc looked towards me with an apologetic smile.

"Don't worry. I never got to sleep in the first place." I smiled back, keeping my voice to a low whisper so I wouldn't wake up my sister. "Have you made any more discoveries looking through those?" I motioned my head to the papers that rested in his lap.

"I haven't, no. I'm not sure why I keep looking at them, it's just the same old information. The Lyre is in the mountains and acts as a lure of some kind."

"Are you okay?" I asked as I mindlessly fiddled with the bandage wrapped around my hand. "You looked quite sad a moment ago before you noticed I was up."

"You saw that?" Larc sighed through his mouth, his gaze returning to the night sky. "It has only been two days since my queen took my wings, but I miss flying so much. If I think about it too much, it physically hurts me, like my heart might actually be breaking." He shook his head at the notion. "On nights like these, I used to fly up as far as I could into the sky and pretend to be amongst the stars. Young Larc used to imagine he could touch them if he really wanted to, but I really just wanted to get away from everything."

"It sounds like it was amazing," I replied in awe, imagining what it would be like to fly far above the trees and clouds.

"It was. I'd give anything to feel the wind rushing through my hair and around my wings again." His next smile was harrowingly sorrowful.

"Is there really no way to get them back? The Goddess's power has a limit to it, but some other races have some advanced healing abilities too. Maybe there still is a way you could get them back?" Just like the girl from the Temple, Larc hadn't done anything wrong either. All he wanted to do was save the humans from dying and being taken out by his queen. He didn't deserve to lose what he loved most because of that.

"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but Dragon-borns aren't too friendly with any other race. Our queen tends to start wars with everyone we come across for one reason or another."

I frowned, silently cursing the queen for taking away Larc's flight and every opportunity he had for getting it back. "Then maybe we could get the humans to make you some new wings. Sure, they'll be wary of you at first since you're a Dragon-born, but I bet some of the inventors in our biggest cities would salivate over the chance to make a contraption to help someone fly."

Something akin to hope passed through his features before he motioned his head for me to sit next to him.

I accepted the invitation, settling on his cloak. Warmth radiated from his body as our arms brushed against each other, a welcomed feeling on a cold night.

"You see that star there?" Larc asked, pointing towards the patch of sky we could see through the trees.

I followed his finger, only to be confused as to what I was looking at. "There's a lot of them up there, I don't know which one you're talking about."

"The brightest one just above the tree line."

My eyes found the star he talked about and a smile found its way to my lips. "I found it. People claim that one is the Goddess's spirit watching over us as it's the brightest one." When I was a child, the volunteers at the Temple would take us out on cloudless nights to watch the stars. We were told the Goddess was always watching over us, and I had never found a reason to believe it wasn't true.

"That one has always been my favourite star. It was the one I always tried to reach when I was younger, but of course, I never managed to do so. I used to think there was a reason for that, that the world stopped me from reaching it for some greater purpose, just like how there's most likely a purpose for everything that happens." He turned away from the sky to meet my gaze. "My wings were taken to help stop this war, I couldn't expect to do this without there being some sacrifices along the way. I would love to get my wings back one day, I would do anything to be able to be in the sky again, but if it is needed to stop the war, then so be it." Tears welled in Larc's eyes, but they refused to break free from their barrier.

Without thinking, I secured his hand in mine, tightening my fingers so he couldn't tug free from my hold, and rested my head on his shoulder. "Whatever comes our way, I promise you won't have to face it alone."

His free hand trembled as he brought it up to hold my cheek. "You're too kind for your own good." The golden eyes that I had come to enjoy losing myself in fell to my lips for a slight moment before finding any other part of my face to look at. "One day, the wrong person will take advantage of that."

It was my turn to lower my gaze to his lips. The skin looked soft despite the days of travel we had been through and I wanted to know what it would be like to touch them, to feel them underneath my fingertips. To taste them.

"It's happened before and it will happen again, but I don't mind," I replied, pulling myself away from the dangerous thoughts clouding my judgement. "As long as I can make people's lives better, it would be worth it."

Our breath tangled together in a dance of temptation and curiosity, our faces drawing closer as we studied each other. Before we could get any closer, Larc's eyes widened and a red flushed his skin, causing him to pull away.

"You should try and get some sleep again," he concluded as he shifted where he sat. "Before you know it, Haera will be waking you up for your watch shift."

I found myself frowning, disappointment stroking me with an unwanted hand. Had I really wanted to kiss him? Haera would never allow such a thing and I feared she would stop breathing altogether if she ever found out if I did, but there was a pull in my chest that wanted our lips to touch — even if it was for the slightest moment.

Squeezing his hand once before letting it go, I returned to my own cloak and attempted to get comfortable. "Good night, Larc." With everything that had just happened and my heart pounding in my chest, I doubted I would have any more luck in trying to fall asleep than before.

"Sweet dreams, Zofia."