Page 38 of Shadows of Light
When she settled into position, she looked down at Brokk, Orin, Maverick, and her dad. “Stay safe.”
“You too,” her dad called back.
Alina rose into the sky as the four of them turned and ran for the portal one of the other dragons opened on the ground. Lexi closed her eyes against the uneasiness in her stomach and tried not to think about the distance separating her from the earth as Alina opened a portal and plunged into it.
I won’t fall. I’m safe.
It was true, as she had a death grip on Alina’s spikes and nestled securely on her back. However, no matter how much her brain repeated this, her stomach continued to somersault.
Screams greeted them as soon as they exited into Dragonia. The strength of those screams wasn’t as bad as the Lord’s war—she didn’t think anything could ever be that bad again—but they threw her back into the war, with all its blood and violence.
They’d lost so many because of the unquenchable appetite of the wendigos the Lord unleashed on Dragonia. Now, they would lose more before this was over.
The numbers wouldn’t be as high if they didn’t have as many fighters down there this time, but one life lost was too many, especially when there wasnoreason for this continued fighting. Although, to some, greed and power far outweighed the value of life, but not to her.
From the open portals into Dragonia, the wendigos were already spreading across the recent battlefield. The awful creatures were emerging from the portal that once opened into the dwarf realm of Drumbledon.
She hadn’t considered it necessary before, but since the dwarves weren’t returning to their old realm, Lexi would shut the portal down. She wasn’t close enough to close it now.
Most of the residents of Dragonia had retreated from the open portals or already returned home for the night. Only the guards remained to stand against the wendigos. There weren’t enough of them to stop the monstrous creatures from flooding out of the portal.
The wendigos’ hands dragged across the ground; their foot-long claws left gouges in the earth as they walked. Their arms were nearly as tall as the seven-foot beasts, with distorted black faces consisting more of ligaments than flesh.
Made mostly of bone, the wendigos’ ribs protruded from their bodies, and their sunken stomachs almost touched their spines. They were repugnant creatures that could never be satisfied, no matter how much they killed and ate.
Lexi had hoped never to see them again, but something had driven them here, and she suspected it wasn’t their idea. Someone had unleashed a new plot against her. They’d managed to slip past Cole’s shadows, and now they were here.
Some other idiot was out there, pulling strings and foolish enough to think they could somehow control these monsters. But the wendigos ate anything in their way and would turn on their puppet masters soon enough. They had no loyalties to anything other than their unquenchable needs.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-TWO
Lexi leaned closerto Alina’s neck as Alina arced to the side. The other dragons took up her call as from behind the wendigos, dark fae, lycans, berserkers, and vampires emerged from the portal.
As she’d suspected, the wendigos weren’t doing this alone. Someone was pulling the strings.
She’d like to think only one, big enemy remained out there, and once eradicated, they’d all be safe, but she wasn’t foolish enough to do so. Her enemies were like the hydra; as soon as they cut one down, two more emerged.
Countless others plotted against her; these just slipped past Cole’s shadows. They’d also been foolish enough to bring another battle to Dragonia.
For that, she would show no mercy.
She was tired of killing, screams, blood, and nightmares, but if one of these invaders survived to grace her dungeon, others would see it as a weakness. When they tried to exploit that supposed weakness, more would die, and she wouldn’t allow that.
“Torch them!” Lexi shouted to be heard over the wind rushing around her. “But before you do, let me tell our troops it’s coming!”
Alina didn’t respond, but when she dropped to soar only ten feet above her army trying to hold back the horde, Lexi knew the dragon heard her when she didn’t unleash fire on them.
“Fall back!” Lexi commanded. “The dragons will take care of them!Fallback!”
The tip of Alina’s wing skimmed the ground as she banked away from the battle. As the guards retreated, a blue dragon filled the space Alina vacated. The blue dragon unleashed its wrath on their enemies in a wave of red and orange.
The fire ripping across the earth scorched the wendigos and drove back any others trying to enter through the portal. Another dragon fell in behind it, and then another, and another until fire blazed across the earth.
Most of those who entered behind the wendigos perished or were repelled. Some of them eluded the dragons’ fire and continued to rush the guards, but they had to know they wouldn’t survive. She was sure panic was what propelled them.
Lexi spotted her dad, Brokk, Maverick, and Orin below. They charged into the battle with swords raised as they joined the guards. The clash of steel against steel rang across the land as the crackle of the flames increased in intensity.
When Alina swept close to the earth again, her fire scorched through more wendigos and lycans. The heat of those flames, billowing back over the dragon, warmed Lexi’s skin but didn’t burn her.
