“Go,” she said in a voice far stronger than she anticipated.
Her dad squeezed her shoulder, but his gesture of love didn’t ease the chill in her bones. “I’ll be back soon,” he vowed.
He released her shoulder and vanished into the portal with the others. They would return to the army waiting for them. Once there, they would all divide and flood into Dragonia through the different portals.
After they all left, it was just her and Cole, but he didn’t look at her again as the dragons continued to come. They dived and twisted while nipping playfully at each other and freefalling back toward the ground. They always caught themselves before they hit the earth and swooped up again.
She never would have believed some of their moves were possible with their enormous bodies, but they were extremely graceful. Their joy warmed her heart a little even while it continued to break.
Cole may have become imprisoned by the shadows, but if all went well today, the dragons would experience freedom for the first time in a millennium. While they would obey her while she sat on the throne, she wouldneveruse them as the Lord did.
Some dragons landed nearby and crept closer as they craned their heads to inspect her.How many of them have ever seen an arach?
Some of them had to have been born after the last arach fell, and while they probably felt an instinctual pull toward her, they didn’t understand it. She still didn’t fear them. Even if they had no idea what she was, they wouldn’t attack her or Cole.
When one stopped a few feet away and inched its head closer, Lexi lifted her hand toward it. A snort of warm air washed over her palm a second before the dragon’s nose brushed her skin.
Its golden eyes closed, and it snorted another warm breath again as it leaned into her touch. Despite standing at the precipice of war, hope and joy sprang forth as she ran her hand down the dragon’s green scales. It moved its nose back and forth like a dog wiggling its butt to demand more pets.
“They’ll be back soon,” that awful voice said to her. “We should be ready to go when they return.”
Lexi sighed as she was pulled away from the dragon and back to reality. When she lowered her hand, the beast launched into the air. A sense of loss descended over her as it flew higher, but she shifted her focus to what she was supposed to do next.
Walking to the cliff’s edge, she was acutely aware of Cole’s cold presence beside her as she stared down at the Lord’s army. The small number of shadows still surrounding Cole bobbed and swayed. One of them stretched toward her, but the light dissipated it before it touched her.
Normally, Cole would reach out to her, assure her they would get through this, or simply say, I love you. He didn’t look at her; his focus remained on the enemy below. Despite the sun warming the earth, she was freezing.
The dragons filled the sky above until they nearly choked out the sun as their cries of joy turned to ones of agony. She couldn’t be certain what caused their sudden shift as they roared and shrieked, but she was confident it was the Lord.
While he sat on the throne, the dragons were condemned to obey him, and she was certain he was commanding them to return to him or kill her and Cole. But their instincts couldn’t resist the mark of the dragon, and the conflict was tearing them apart.
Lexi almost erected her shield again to shut down her light so they wouldn’t be in any more pain, but the dragons would leave if she did, resulting in more death. Their army counted on her to keep the dragons away from the battlefield for as long as possible.
Below, the numerous portals leading in and out of Dragonia remained quiet, but that would soon change. Since only an arach could open a portal into and out of Dragonia, the arach had established these portals always to remain open to the different realms. The Lord couldn’t shut them down.
The day took on an eerie hush as the dragons fell silent. Then, from below, shouts of war broke the silence as one piece of their army poured out of a portal and rushed at the Lord’s men.
The clang of steel clashing against steel rang out as the armies collided, and the screams of the dying reverberated through the air.
CHAPTERSEVENTY
Brokk ledhis group of lycans, dark fae, witches, dwarves, sirens, warlocks, imps, light fae, and other assorted immortal creatures through the portal leading from the human realm and into Dragonia. Elvin was at his side when they entered Dragonia with their weapons at the ready.
The Lord’s army bellowed as they rushed toward them, prepared to defend the realm and thirsty for blood. Their battle cry echoed over the land baking beneath the unrelenting sun.
The pegasuses took flight to fight from above, while the unicorns used their horns to run their enemies through. The phoenixes also took to the sky as the sasquatch battered the Lord’s men with large, hairy fists.
Brokk wasn’t foolish enough to believe everyone who followed him into Dragonia was a true ally, but he trusted those whowereto watch his back. Just as he would watch theirs. They had too many enemies in front of them for him to worry about those who might betray him.
Though all those designated to lead sections of the army into Dragonia had all split off to find their portals, his smaller piece was the first to arrive. Therefore, they encountered the largest number of enemies who focused solely onthem.
It wasn’t ideal, but while the Lord’s army attacked them, more of their troops would slip in from behind to attack their enemy. They just had to hold out until the others arrived.
The giants, who hadn’t gotten to their feet after Cole stole the shadows from the realm, rose and started toward them. The ground vibrated with every step the massive immortals took.
The witches threw up shields of air to protect them from the initial rush of the Lord’s men, and it knocked some of them back, but the defense wouldn’t last. While the air held them back, the warlocks, led by Talon, lifted a wave of dirt from the ground and heaved it at the immortals who were making their way around the shields.
The shields weren’t enough to keep them from entangling with the Lord’s army, but they allowed them to defend themselves better. The witches moved the shields to block the higher number of enemy but doing so allowed others to slip through.
