Shared Between Them by Korey Mae Johnson Read Free Book Online Page B

leapt up from his seat. “And when we find her…” He shook his head. “I'll make sure we keep her. I'll never go against your decisions again.”
    Draevan sighed and shook his head. “No, it was an honest mistake,” he admitted. “If I didn't want her so damn badly, I might have trusted the little brat myself. She made quite a show about swearing on the life of her kin and all that.”
    Taric let out a relieved breath and nodded, smirking. “It doesn't matter, Draevan. We'll find her.” He turned to his packing for this little hunt they were planning. “And when we do, I'm going to tie her to the goddamned bed for the rest of her life!”
    Nothing came of his boasting, however, and they spent the entirety of the next month combing the Blue Forest for her. They found some people who had seen her, some witnesses that said they’d even found where she’d sold Draevan’s horse, but they found no leads to her whereabouts. They returned to the elf kingdom crestfallen. Draevan hadn’t said a word of grief towards Taric since they’d left to search for the girl, but somehow that only made not finding her that much worse. Taric couldn’t help feeling ashamed about being so ridiculously trusting of a girl who surely hated them.
    Upon their return, they found they couldn't get over the strange morbidity of the kingdom's decorations, which were hanging on lamps and towers. They enquired, after seeing the fifth banner of a skeleton hanging from a scaffold, what the devil was going on.
    They'd asked an elf boy, who rolled his young eyes at them both and replied pedantically, “It's Hanging Day! Of course !”
    “Hanging day?” Taric echoed, furrowing his brows.
    “Aye! Hanging Day! It's when all the prisoners in the dungeons are hung! One by one!” He tugged his collar and stuck out his tongue to impression the gruesome manner of death. “Everybody's going to go and watch and feast—it's a holiday.”
    Taric and Draevan walked away and towards the castle, peering at each other. “Elfkind are strange folk,” Taric finally decreed, but then his shoulders slouched when he realized, with much horror, that he would have to marry one of them. “I'm beginning to think the fate of the world isn't our problem. Let's just go home and enjoy our treasure.”
    “We can escape the kingdom, maybe. But we can't escape our fate, Taric,” Draevan reminded, his voice pained. “It's foretold—the chosen one will be half giant-slayer and half-elfkind. Unfortunately, I cannot think of any other giants, or of anyone who’s ever slain any… 'Tis too late. We can no sooner keep the sun from rising.”
    Taric grunted unhappily, cursing his own name.
    When they walked into the castle, they were told that the king requested audience with them upon their return. They were led out to the festival yard in the back of the castle, where everyone was beginning to assemble for the hangings. The king had never looked happier, his smile never redder, his piercings particularly shiny. They could almost be fooled that the king was happy to see them return, but they feared the king really just liked a good, entertaining execution.
    Only an elf would view an execution like a normal person would view a picnic on a sunny spring day. Thinking about it, the only time when Draevan or Taric had ever heard of an elf being seen was when a village execution was going on. They’d heard in the nearby villages that elves would sometimes appear to watch and then leave afterwards with a spring in their step.
    “Did you take care of your business, lads?” the king asked them, chortling.
    “As best we could,” Draevan grumbled and plopped heavily down in the seat the king offered him. There was a turkey leg on the platter in front of him that he made quick work of as the king offered his condolences to their mood and then began to crow merrily about the hangings that were coming about.
    “You see,” the king told them, “because of you lads, it's a larger