No wonder the dragons were so attracted to her; it was a beautiful spectacle, and he’d never imagined seeing something so wondrous in his life. Though he never could have known something like it existed before meeting Lexi, that light and the hope it represented was suddenlyeverything.
What made it more amazing were the hundred or so dragons circling her, perching on the side of the mountain or creeping closer. They tangled with each other before breaking free and flipping through the air.
But it wasn’t all joy as the dragon’s shrieks of agony and joy mingled in the air.
“My Hecate,” a witch breathed from beside him. “Wearedoing the right thing.”
Brokk was about to reply when a sword burst through the witch’s throat and lifted her.
CHAPTERSEVENTY-TWO
“It’s time to go.”
Lexi didn’t recognize the voice, or more likevoices, issuing from Cole. Was it Cole anymore?
“They are ready for us to leave,” the voices said.
Lexi looked behind her to the portal to the prison realm, but she couldn’t see anyone approaching. A few seconds later, her father emerged with a small army at his back.
His was the only group with some vampires mixed in with the other immortals. Those vampires remained in the portal, waiting for their chance to emerge. They couldn’t do so until she opened a portal into the palace.
Once she did, they would transport from the portal where they remained and into the new one. It was the only way for them to avoid the sun.
Turning to the cliff face, she barely glanced at the portal she’d already opened for Sahira to lead her small army onto the battlefield below. She hoped her aunt and the others were all okay, but there were already many dying down there.
Lexi didn’t bother to ask Cole how he’d known her father was coming. He had shadows everywhere. She knew this, but it still didn’t stop the hair on her nape from rising.
When their eyes met, no spark of love shone within his silver depths that were always so full of warmth when he looked at her. Black shadows squirmed across his handsome features and down his neck.
When Lexi was younger, she watchedInvasion of the Body Snatchersand now felt like she was in that movie. Cole stood before her, but the shadows had taken him over and left a shell behind.
“Open a portal into the palace,” Cole continued in that awful voice.
Lexi looked to the sky and the dragons. She yearned to be with them, free of all this and flying over the land, but they still had so far to go before that could happen. And no one would be free if they lost this war.
She tore her attention away from the dragons and focused on opening another portal into the palace’s main hall. It materialized before her. Once she went through the portal, her light would cut off, and the dragons would leave.
The others, already vulnerable to the Lord’s army and the giants, would become more vulnerable, but they knew this was coming. They all hoped the dragons would follow her light once she emerged in the palace and mostly avoid the battlefield. They were prepared for that not to happen, though.
“Let’s go,” that guttural voice said.
Lexi shuddered as Cole glided into the portal. And hewasgliding!
His feet didn’t touch the ground as he moved. Instead, the shadows rolled beneath him as they carried him into the portal.
It was the creepiest thing she’d ever seen, and it was happening toCole.She had no idea how to process that.
When she met her father’s eyes, the apprehension in them more than matched hers. What would the Shadow Reaver do if they destroyed the Lord? Would it be satisfied with his death and those of his men? Or would it seek more blood afterward?
Her soul screamed against the possibility Cole could become the next threat and she might have to help destroy him. What could she do to stop him if the dragons wouldn’t kill him and the shadows were his weapons?
There had to be something; Cole believed there was, but she wasn’t so sure.
“Go,” her father whispered.
She had to retain some faith Cole wouldn’t destroy them all when this was over. If she didn’t, then she was going into this war with the knowledge they were all doomed no matter what. They’d come too far for that to be true, and Cole sacrificed too much to become their enemy.
Lexi glanced at the sky and the dragons circling there. If all the dragons stayed with her, she was supposed to remain here. But some of them were already soaring back toward the palace, and she couldn’t let Cole go on alone like this.
