Page 44 of Shadows of Light
She couldn’t remember the last time she sat down to read. It was her favorite pastime before her life turned upside down and she became a queen. She couldn’t wait for the day when she could do it again.
This room would have been her perfect retreat; now, it was nothing.
Before she could cry, Lexi shut the door and continued her exploration. Unlike the Gloaming’s palace, there weren’t any locked doors, and the building didn’t shift around her, but it was so big and easy to get lost there.
More than a few times, she found herself exploring the same area for the second or third time. After a week, she finally made her way into the upper levels of the palace.
It was there that she encountered the Lord’s bedroom. It was easily three times the size of the other bedrooms she discovered. Its bed was twice the size of a normal king bed, and the sprawling rooms making up the entire suite took up most of the floor.
Gold trimmed all the rooms. The color scheme was mostly burgundy though black and white were interjected into the furnishings too. The Lord’s robe and slippers remained beside the bed, waiting for him.
The room smelled of spices, and while she expected it to also smell of blood and insanity, it didn’t. After everything she’d seen in this palace, after everything the Lord had done, this small corner of organized, untouched sanity was more unnerving than all the destruction.
Lexi forced herself to search the Lord’s closets, trunks, and drawers in case the man hid something away there. When she finished, she climbed up to the tower of the Lord’s room.
With the wind ruffling her hair, she gazed out at the breathtaking realm with its purple sky and fluffy pink clouds. Dragonia was a lush, fertile land with high mountains and numerous caves.
After what Brokk had said about Cole not going far, she was certain it was true. He was in one of those caves, and she would find him.
Discovering nothing, Lexi retreated from the Lord’s rooms, closed the door, and vowed to have this area sealed off. Those rooms most likely belonged to her ancestors, but they wouldneverbelong to anyone else.
The only other room on the floor was the document room she’d been looking for; as she’d feared, the Lord had demolished it. However, unlike all the other rooms, she couldn’t retreat from this one.
She had to know if she could salvage something from here; this room could hold the answers she’d been seeking for months. Stepping inside, she surveyed the splintered wood fragments from the smashed trunks and the thousands of papers littering the floor. Many of them had been shredded and were probably beyond repair, but she had to try.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-SIX
Paper and woodcrunched beneath her as she crept through the debris. She made her way over to the metal shelves built into the wall on the other side. Each shelf was at least five feet wide and two feet high.
The drawers probably once contained numerous amounts of information, but when she pulled the first one open, she wasn’t surprised to find it empty. She had no doubt the contents of all the others littered the floor too.
In some places, the debris was piled so high it caused her to stand two to three feet off the ground. She tried not to let hopelessness get the best of her; she’d spent all this time searching for answers in this place, and they might be here, but the Lordruinedthem.
She had no idea how to fix any of this, but she had to try. Taking a deep breath, she set to work, trying to piece some of this together as she sorted it into piles.
The dragons’ shadows passed across the windows while they flew around the room. During her search, Lexi uncovered pieces of the black drapes that must have once covered the windows.
As exhaustion crept in, she called off her mission, walked over to a window, and waved down a dragon. Becoming used to riding them, she didn’t hesitate before scrambling out the window and onto its back, but she still didn’t look down as they descended to her room.
Lexi slept for a couple of hours before rising, dressing, and returning to the top floor with her guards in tow. They didn’t ask where she was going or how she knew about this place; they simply remained outside while Lexi returned to work.
The sun had risen, and it was nearing lunch when Alina appeared in one of the windows. “The others are looking for you.”
Lexi wiped the sweat from her brow as she turned to face the speaker. “Here I am.”
“Perhaps you should tell them that; they’re worried.”
Lexi gazed around the room; although it seemed hopeless, she wasn’t ready to give in yet. “Please let them know I’m here. I’m not leaving.”
“Yes, my queen.”
When Alina pushed away from the window, Belindo, Nithe, and Astarot landed on the sill she’d vacated. The dragons were getting bigger, and their wings had grown enough to support the weight of their plump bodies. Occasionally, little plumes of fire escaped them.
They hopped down to join Lexi in the mess. Belindo and Nithe toddled around while Astarot spread his wings and flew up to Lexi’s shoulder.
She suppressed a grunt when his tiny body weighed down on her but smiled when he nuzzled her cheek. Pretty soon, he would be too big to do such a thing, so she enjoyed it while she could.
About ten minutes later, her dad, Sahira, and Kaylia arrived in the doorway. Their eyes widened at the mess before shifting to her.
