Luminescent (Inheritance Cycle and Beyond)

Chapter Sixty-Five: Blinding

"Did you have a pleasant night?" Murtagh announced loudly, he didn't want to spook the child into running away. A puff of smoke emitted from Thorn's nostrils as Alethea yawned, revealing the rows of enormous, razor-sharp teeth.

"We did," Thorn replied in content. "This forest is quite comforting and peaceful, just as Alethea said it would be. I see you slept well if you slept at all."

Murtagh snorted and rolled his eyes as flashes of last night entered his mind. Skin on skin. Hot kisses that left a need for more. His lips pressed against the milky white skin of her neck as she arched her back and dug her fingernails into his scalp.

"If you are going to think of those images, you might as well go and return to your mate," Thorn replied dryly as a plume of smoke puffed out of his nostrils.

"And's fault is that?" Murtagh shot back in challenge.

"Both of yours," Alethea commented as she flickered open a bright blue eye and eyed the two men. A few seconds later, her eye fixated onto something behind Murtagh. "we will not harm you, child."

Murtagh turned around slightly and looked at the spot the child stood. A few seconds later, the green eye reappeared before the body connected to it. The small child shuffled forward, twisting her hands in front of her nervously.

Murtagh's early assessment of the child still stood firm. She was a mess, wearing ill-fitting clothing, and was covered in patches of dirt and what suspiciously looked like blood. Her brown hair hung in limp waves, and in some places, knots.

"Sorry..." The word was so quiet Murtagh almost missed it.

"Where are your parents, little one?" Alethea asked, raising her head from the ground. The girl twisted her hands even more so together as her eyes darted around. She didn't respond.

Murtagh walked to the child and bent down on one knee, so he was looking at her in the face. Her cheeks were sunken in, and the green eye Murtagh knew had to be a dazzling color under normal circumstances was a muted, dull, color.

"You're a long way from home," Murtagh commented gently. The child shrugged her shoulders in a vague answer. "when was the last time you ate?"

Once again, the child's shoulders shrugged.

"The elves feed you, do they not?" Alethea asked. A solemn nod answered the Dragon's question. "you've no appetite, then."

Another nod.

"You need to eat, little one." Murtagh said as he brushed his fingers against her cheekbones. "you are much too skinny."

The green eye drifted to the forest floor.

"She says that she has never had much of an appetite," Thorn spoke up in Murtagh's mind. "I believe the elves brought her back with them because they took pity on her appearance."

"What do you mean by that?" Murtagh asked Thorn.

"She was not treated kindly by her own race," Thorn replied. "the people in her village called her the demon child and abused her."

"Why would they abuse one of their own?"

"Look at her other eye, I believe you will find your answer." Alethea inserted. Murtagh glanced back at the white Dragon before reaching up and brushing the curtain of limp hair behind the child's ear.