Page 11 of Shadows of Light
Brokk and Orin both shot her identical looks of incredulity that, despite the circumstances, made Lexi chuckle. The brothers weren’t often on the same page about things, but they clearly considered Alina insane.
“Some of you can go with him,” Alina continued.
Lexi’s eyes widened as she studied the fast-moving current. They could traverse the river with a boat, but it didn’t look like fun, and she was sure more than a few had dashed against the river’s cliffs.
“I’ll take Lexi down with me,” Alina stated.
Lexi’s amusement over Brokk and Orin’s reaction to Alina vanished. “Wait…what?”
“You can fly down on me. The giant queen is not directly beneath us; she’s a little further down the river, closer to the other side of the palace. The river widens there; that is where they’ll locate the queen.”
Lexi gawked at her as she tried to absorb this “fly down” on her statement.
“Maybe setting her free isn’t such a good idea,” Orin said.
“Maybe not,” Lexi agreed, “but either way, we risk a war with the giants. Setting her free might be the only way to prevent it; keeping her imprisoned guarantees it.”
“She’s right,” her dad said. “We have no choice. We can only hope that setting the queen free will make her happy enough to return home and not seek retribution on Dragonia and the dragons.”
“We are not afraid of giants,” Alina retorted.
Lexi ran her hand over Alina to soothe her. “Even so, we can’t continue warring with other realms. This is supposed to be a time of peace and healing, not another period of more death. Now, let’s get back to this whole ‘I’ll fly down on you’ thing.”
“I will allow you to ride down on me.”
Lexi opened her mouth to reply before closing it. Beside her, Orin chuckled; she restrained herself from shoving him off the bridge.
“Go ahead, Kitten. Hop on board,” Orin said.
Lexi grated her teeth as she glowered at him. “Call me that again, and I’ll toss you in the dungeon with the others.”
“I’ll eat him for you, if you’d like,” Alina offered.
When Lexi hesitated to ponder this, Orin rolled his eyes. “I know I’m an asshole, but I’m not annoying enough to be dragon shit.”
“I think onlyyouwould agree with that,” her dad retorted, and Brokk laughed.
“When Cole returns, he won’t be happy to learn you let the dragons eat me.”
Lexi focused on the river to keep her tears hidden. “That’sifhe returns.”
Brokk rested his hand on her shoulder. “He will.”
Lexi wanted to believe those words, but she didn’t think Brokk was entirely convinced of them either.
“If we’re going to do this before nightfall, we should go,” her dad said.
CHAPTERTEN
Oh shit.Oh no. Why did I agree to this? I’m going to die. I don’t want to die.
Lexi had no idea why she agreed to this… okay, that wasn’t entirely true. She said yes because, if Alina offered, then her ancestors must have flown on the dragons too, which meant it was one more thing she would have to master.
Plus, there was a time when she dreamed of riding dragons and soaring high on their backs. Of course, she’d been an idiot kid who wasn’tactuallyclinging to a dragon’s back as it plunged from the sky at alarming speeds that whipped her hair around, plastered her clothes to her body, and caused her stomach to somersault.
Why is the ground so far away?If she fell off now, she’d splat all over the place, and she wasn’t sure an immortal could come back from breaking every bone and organ in their body.
Closing her eyes again, she pressed closer to Alina’s back as she tried not to think about her friends having to scrape her from the earth. She’d probably leave a dent in the dirt too.
