Page 15 of Shadows of Light
“You’re free now,” he whispered, but it was loud enough they could all hear it.
The queen tried to speak, but water spewed from her mouth. She coughed, hacked, and shook so much, the dragons nearly lost their hold on her. Lexi eyed the chains; Gibborim could easily snap them if he chose to do so.
“I think it’s time for you to leave!” Lexi called to Gibborim. “I’ll open a portal for you.”
With that, Lexi imagined the big, beautiful land of Colossal and the magnificent, floating castle there. Large enough for the giants and dragons to go through, a portal opened in the middle of the river.
“I’ll make sure she knows of your kindness,” Gibborim promised Lexi.
“After what I saw down there, it might not matter, but make sure she knows we don’t want to war with the giants, and nothing like this willeverhappen again.”
“I promise she’ll know. I’d like to take our king with me.”
“Of course.”
“And his head.”
“You can have it, but it’s in the Lord’s solar.”
“Do you know where that is?”
“No,” Lexi admitted.
“I’ll return for it. For now, I think it’s best to take my sister home.”
“Of course.” Lexi shifted her attention to the dragons. “Please carry her through before returning.”
“We will,” Alina said.
Water poured from the king’s body when Gibborim lifted him from the ground. Lexi swallowed the bile in her throat when the king’s flesh sloshed and water poured out of the hole in his neck.
She wasn’t built for this.
“Thank you,” Gibborim said.
With his brother-in-law slung over his shoulder, Gibborim strode proudly through the portal with his queen at his side. Once the dragons were safely back in Dragonia, Lexi closed the portal.
“We have to find his head,” Lexi said, though none of them had time to search the palace. “Then we’ll send word for Gibborim to retrieve it.”
“Let’s hope his head keeps them satisfied, and they don’t try to kill us,” Orin said.
“Their queen lives,” Varo said. “They might take that good news and help us start a new world with it.”
Only a couple of days had passed, but Varo had lost weight since the war with the Lord, his mother’s death, and Cole’s loss. Dark circles rimmed his white-blue eyes; judging by their size, Lexi didn’t think he’d slept.
His shoulders were hunched forward as if he was trying to disappear. Uncertain of how to draw him out, when she was barely surviving herself, Lexi rested her hand on his arm. She hoped it gave him a small measure of comfort.
A small, sad smile twitched at the corners of Varo’s mouth as his fingers found hers. It wasn’t much, but it gave her some hope they would both be okay.
“I have some good news for you.” When they all looked at him, her dad smiled. “He’s in rough shape, but Maverick is alive.”
For a second, Lexi wasn’t sure she heard him right, but then Kaylia and Sahira laughed, and Brokk released a whoop of laughter. Joy burst through Lexi as what he’d said sank in.
“Take me to him.”
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Lexi kneltbeside Maverick’s badly burned body in the infirmary. Multiple beds took up space in the vast room located in a separate wing of the first floor.
