The smell of warm Muyeva made my stomach growl and forced me from the most comfortable sleep I had ever had. My eyes peeled open, stuck together by the remains of sleep, to find a tray sitting on the end of the bed. It wasn't much, but a bowl of the mashed substance had my mouth watering again.

"Eat up," Larc said with a smile when he noticed I was awake. "We need to leave while my mother's favoured guards aren't back yet." An empty tray of food sat on the desk that he must have eaten while I was still asleep.

"Where are we going?" I asked as I picked up the fork, my stomach growling as if it hadn't felt the touches of food in weeks. "What's the plan?"

"I want to head back to the cave to see if there's anything left of the Goddess that might be of any help to restore the Lyre." Larc leant against the doorway that led to the balcony, watching the surroundings outside and me at the same time.

A nauseating feeling settled in my chest. "There was nothing left of her when me and Haera left the cave. All that remained was a shadowed corpse. I felt no power coming from her at all."

He grimaced. "I thought that might be the case. I still want to go back anyway and give the place a proper look-over. My mother arrived before I could get the chance to do so last time, and I didn't have the intention of trying to fix the Lyre back then." Larc met my eyes, the gold in his own shimmered brightly in the sunlight. "I also think I might have an idea of how to take down the shadow creatures."

"Really?" I dropped my fork into the Muyeva. If we had a way to take down the beasts, we might not need to fix the Lyre. "How?"

"Do you remember when we found the tower in the Silverwood Forest and how the protective barrier wouldn't let the creature inside?" At my replying nod, he continued, "When I swung my sword into it and pulled some of its flesh away, bringing it into the barrier, it got destroyed by the Goddess's magic. I think that your magic might be able to do the same thing."

"Me? But I can't do anything but heal things. I don't know how to destroy a shadow creature."

"I don't want to try it out until we're certain it will do something as there's too much risk to you, but perhaps healing is all we need." Determination riled up his words, creating an excitement bubbling within him.

I shovelled a forkful of Muyeva into my mouth as I thought. It could work and it was definitely worth a try, but Larc felt too eager, like he was trying to use me again. Shaking my head, I cleared the nonsense from my mind. I was starting to sound like my sister. Larc was trying to stop the humans from dying out and trying to fix his mistakes. I needed to give him another chance.

"It's a possibility," I responded once I swallowed my food. "But I can't try until I get my strength back. My magic still feels really weak." It was normal for the feeling of the Goddess within me to feel distant if I had used it too much or if I didn't have enough energy for it to be used, but I had eaten and slept now. I was beginning to worry there was something wrong with it.

"That's okay. I don't want you to try unless you'll be completely safe doing so."

"How is your arm holding up?" I asked as I eyed the bandage wrapped around his wound. There didn't appear to be any blood soaking through the material, so that was a good sign.

"It's much better. It doesn't hurt as much now that it's not bleeding any more." For emphasis, he circled his shoulder and stretched his arm out with ease.

"That's good." My magic sent a pleased tingle through my body. Even if it was a weak sensation, it was nice to feel it still there.

Larc clasped his hands awkwardly and looked towards the ground. "Do you know what your... clothing size is? Or at least your shoe size? You'll need something proper to wear before we travel."

I looked down at the clothes sitting on my frame — clothes I hadn't changed out of since the morning I had found Larc fallen from the sky. My boots had been taken from me when I had been locked up in the dungeon as it made it more difficult for me to run away. When was the last time I had even washed? Embarrassment crept up my neck. I had to smell awful.

After telling him my sizes and finishing the last forkful of Muyeva, I summoned the courage to ask the Dragon-born another question. "Is there a bath I could use?"

"There is, though," he turned to face a doorway that led out of his bedroom into another chamber, "there isn't any door. I won't look because of that human embarrassment you spoke of, but that means I won't be able to help you."

"That's alright, I won't need any help."

"Even if you can't reach certain spots?"

All I could do was blink, wondering if I heard him correctly. "What?"

"Your..." His eyes widened in realisation of his mistake, "wings."

A laugh forced its way out of my lips. "I haven't got any of those."

"I've noticed." His voice was quiet as a blush emerged across his cheeks. "Clothes. I'll go and get the clothes sorted for you while you bathe. I'm just going to ask a servant to fetch them, so I won't be long."

"Thank you," I replied, laughter still flowing from me as he fled the room. Larc was cute when he was flustered. Now, I was curious who helped him reach his wings while he was washing. A blush of my own rushed to my face and I headed to the bathroom to get the image of Larc bathing out of my mind.

It was a small room where the tub sat opposite a grand mirror, a plush rug inbetween to step on as you got in and out of the water. Despite all of the fancy things I could see, I couldn't find any way to fill up the tub. I scanned the room again and my eyes landed on the golden taps sitting at one end of the bath.

Of course, they had running water in Nusal. They wouldn't need a bucket to run back and forth from a water source to fill it up. I was in a castle built for the royal family and in the prince's bedroom. I had slept in Larc's bed and now I was bathing in his tub.

Haera would have a fit.

Instant warm water flowed from the tap and into the bath, making a smile come to my face. It would be wonderful to have a luxury like this every day. As the water ran, I heard Larc return and awkwardness flooded back into the room. Turning off the water, I stepped in and started washing with the first soap I could find. Once I was ready to get out again, I found two towels — one hung on a rack as if it had been drying and the other was folded on top of a counter, waiting to be used.

"The clothes are just around the corner of the door!" Larc called once he heard the water draining away. "I'm looking away if you want to get them."

Wrapping myself in the clean towel, I peered around the corner to find he was indeed looking away. I scooped up the pile of clothes and slipped back into the bathroom. "Thank you!" I called back. "I've got them."

The clothes looked like part of a Dragon-born guard uniform without the two holes in the back of the shirt for wings. It was a basic white tunic with crimson fighting leathers to go on top, paired with a tall set of hunting boots. I supposed it was much better than what I had previously worn.

When I had changed, I stepped back into the bedroom. "I'm ready." My eyes landed on a satchel full of things we might need for our journey sitting on the bed.

"You look good." His smile was heart-warming as he picked up the satchel and walked over to me with open arms. At my retreating steps backwards, his arms lowered a little. "I need to carry you so we can fly out of Nusal."

"Right." Larc had carried me before when we had fled the throne room and I had been fine, so this was no different, right?

"It would be best if you put your arms around my neck so I can hold your waist to keep you stable." He motioned his head towards the balcony for us to move onto it.

I followed him out onto the marble and found myself unable to go too far. My legs wobbled as I looked over the edge — the edge that bore no railings and expanded into a cloud-filled void below. Now would be the time to hold onto Larc.

Reaching up to secure my hands at the base of his neck, I felt his arms wrap around my torso, pulling me closer and into a position where he would be able to fly away. I could hear a heartbeat from where my head rested against his chest. It began at a slow and steady pace but increased in speed once Larc got into a comfortable stance.

"Are you ready?" His voice was close, his breath brushing against my ear.

All I could do was nod in reply, squeezing my eyes shut as I prepared myself. The flight up to the Nusal Empire hadn't been pleasant — especially for my stomach — so I didn't have high hopes for this one either.

Larc flapped his wings and our feet lifted off the ground, making me cling tight to his shirt. He wouldn't drop me. Larc wouldn't let me fall. I would be fine. I repeated those words over and over in my mind until we dropped, soaring downwards as the air rushed around us. Breathing was difficult as we plummeted, but we soon evened out again as we got close enough to the ground, it gave me enough courage to open my eyes.

It took a while for the clouds to clear and the ground to come into sight, but as soon as we did so, the familiar layout of Silverwood Village came into view. Seeing my home from above was strange. I couldn't see any people walking around or any signs of life at all.

"Can we go down? I need to try and find Haera and my mother," I pleaded, tugging on Larc's shirt. It had been days since I had last seen them, I needed to make sure they were okay and Stelni hadn't been lying. "We can get the Lyre shards from them too."

Larc continued towards the mountain, leaving Silverwood far behind. "It's not safe and they're not down there. Both Haera and your mother are in a different village. One called Demornt? At least that's what Stelni called it. There's a wall there that's protecting everyone. I sent Stelni down there to check out how that works too." Feeling my frown, Larc squeezed me reassuringly. "We can go to Demornt as soon as we've checked on the Goddess."

I nodded into his shoulder. It wouldn't be too long until I would see my family again.

"We're almost there." He flew around the mountain as we approached it, trying to find the entrance to the cave we had entered before. The last time we were here, Haera had nearly fallen to her death. Then, we had been filled with so much hope that we would get to the Lyre before the other Dragon-borns to destroy it and stop the Queen from attacking us relentlessly. How foolish we had been.

Larc landed on the path outside of the cave and steadied me as I regained my balance. Coming face to face with the dark gap in the mountain once more sent shivers down my spine.

"There are still shadow creatures in there, right?" It might have been possible that the flying beasts had fled once the Lyre had been destroyed, but considering that the entrance was so narrow, I doubted they had been able to escape. I tried to squint and see if I could make out any movement or shapes, but the darkness swallowed up everything. There weren't any floating blue sparks anymore to guide our way now that the Lyre was gone.

"Most likely, yes. If we run to the bottom like we did last time to attempt to avoid them, we should hopefully be fine." Despite the reassurance running through his tone, worry creased his brow.

If the sparks were gone, would the protective barrier be too? How were we going to run in complete darkness?

Larc stretched out his wings to make them as thin as possible to squeeze into the cave, a hand on his winged blade just in case. Once he was safely through, he beckoned me with his hand to join him.

With a deep breath, I pushed myself into the cave, trying to summon my magic to my fingertips to produce some sort of light — even the faintest of glows would have been better than nothing — and the Goddess responded to my plea with a faded blue at my fingers. It wasn't much, but if I held it in front of me, we could see the walls of the cave around us.

As I looked around, sets of blue eyes were staring down at us between the stalactites. They were here after all.

Larc tugged on my hand. "Come on, let's go."

We ran down the slopes of the cavern until we reached the bottom. I didn't hear any squeaks or wings flapping as we sped away without looking back which made the feeling of security that rose in me a sensation of panic. Why weren't they chasing us? Had they not seen us? The shadow creatures had to have seen us directly under them, they had been staring right at us.

Thick clouds of blue sparks met us when we reached the pedestal where the Lyre had once sat as if they had swarmed here to protect their creator. The foliage that had once draped from the walls had wilted and crumbled, leaving nothing but decaying stems behind. Chains still hung behind the pedestal, but there was something off about them. Instead of keeping a woman captive as she watched over her instrument, they were unlocked.

I scanned the small part of the cave again in case I had missed something, in case the one plan Larc had wasn't about to fall to pieces. How did this happen?

The Goddess we had left behind with shadows contorting her body was gone.