Terra's Victory (Destiny's Trinities Book 7) Read Free Page B

he couldn’t let himself settle for the easy answer.
    It was Lindal’s predicament that was chewing up his juice, making his heart run far more than it should and making his head throb in a way it hadn’t done for over two hundred years.
    When he saw Aubrey’s long figure ahead, leaning on the heavy stone parapet, Zack was relieved.
    Aubrey straightened up as Zack came alongside him. He was a tall man, almost as tall as Lindal, with pure white hair and a white beard and sharp green eyes that missed very little. He had been turned in the seventeenth century, in the middle of England’s civil war. He had once told Zack that war, rebellion and troubled times had defined his life.
    Now Aubrey looked at him with a small smile. “This is not good, if my habits allow me to be tracked down by anyone.”
    “Only those who have known you for a very long time could do it,” Zack assured him. “It is only friends who know you come here every Christmas Eve to feed the birds and watch the skaters.” He leaned on the parapet and nodded toward the skating rink, visible through the gap the little creek made in the trees. It was a lovely view. A peaceful one.
    Down below, on the ice, were gathered wrens and sparrows and ducks, their necks all craned to watch for the next bread crumb to fall.
    Zack picked up a small handful of the stale bread chunks and dropped them down and watched the birds peck at them and at each other, fighting for them.
    Aubrey leaned back on the stonework, next to him. “Something troubles you.”
    “These days, that’s just about everything.”
    “So what was it among the everything that made you seek me out?”
    Zack sighed. He had come looking for his maker, to talk and see if there was some way out of this mess, so there was no point in holding back. He told Aubrey about Baralathor’s visit and the political dilemma it created.
    Aubrey absently dropped pieces of bread, his gaze far away. “The Elves have ever been insular and untrusting of anyone but themselves. It is not in their nature to accept help, especially not from our kind.”
    “Only they did accept help. They gave it, too. The prophecies convinced them we had to work together,” Zack pointed out. “Now, just when we’re getting down to the wire, they’re trying to pick up their toys and go home.”
    Aubrey gripped his hands together and glanced at Zack. “It is precisely because we are drawing toward the end of the war that they speak of hiding away. Now is the time when desperation rises like stench from a sewer. Both sides can see the end coming and neither wants to lose. The Elves are no different in this. Their fear makes them question their allies’ strength.”
    “They have never trusted the blood,” Zack said. “Now, they’re back to not trusting us to pull it off. Yet we can’t win if they don’t help us.”
    Aubrey didn’t look at him as he spoke. “If Lindal takes up his rightful place as heir and king, his influence will ensure the elves will stay and fight with us but you will lose your mate. If he does not go, we lose our strongest allies.”
    Zack’s insides jumped. He hadn’t specifically spelled this out to Aubrey. The wise old man had spotted it, anyway.
    “What is it that you want me to say?” Aubrey asked. “Do you seek to ease your heart, or win the war?”
    “Both,” Zack said flatly.
    Aubrey’s smile was more of grimace.
    “I know,” Zack agreed. “Not one of the choices.”
    Aubrey blew out a breath, letting it fog the air in front of him and watched it evaporate. “Have you considered that this isn’t really your choice to make, in the first place?”
    Zack gripped the rough edges of the cold stonework. “I can’t stand the idea of just…waiting. I had to do something.”
    “So you came seeking advice from a man who can give you no answers.”
    Zack grinned. “It’s doing something , anyway.”
    The low, belly deep growl came from behind him. In reaction, the hair on the back of his