“You’re far more optimistic than me,” Orin said. “I’m not so sure some of the realms, especially the warlocks; they’ve always had a darker side. Or the vamps, they’d love to get their realm back.”
“Not all of them,” Del said. “Many of us have made the human realm our home and wouldn’t go back. Many have never lived anywhere else; I haven’t.”
“But some would,” Orin pressed.
“Yes, some would.”
“I think the Lord could start a massive civil war between all the realms,” Orin said.
“Quite possibly,” Cole agreed. “But it doesn’t matter. I still have to deliver these bodies to him, or he’s coming for Lexi and me soon. And I have to do it alone.”
Before any of them could speak, he drove his sword through the neck of the decapitated head. He shifted the blade into his other hand before grabbing Varo’s clone by its shirt collar.
“I have to go,” he said.
“Where are you going to tell the Lord you found them?” Sahira asked.
“The human realm,” Cole answered. “There are plenty of places for them to hide here, and the Lord can’t punish humans for hiding immortals they would never even know were immortal. Besides, I will be coming out of the human realm portal when I exit near the palace. The Lord will know that.”
“Where is the portal to Dragonia in this realm?” Varo asked.
“There’s one near the city, or what remains of it. It’s well hidden from the humans,” Cole answered. “From here, I’ll open a portal close to it. Once I’m there, if someone sees me with the bodies, it shouldn’t be a problem as I’ll be taking them straight to Dragonia.”
“Won’t opening a portal weaken you?” Lexi asked.
“I’ll be fine.”
Arguing with him was pointless, and she didn’t want to spend what might be their last moments together fighting. Instead, she walked over and rested her head against his chest.
“You better come back to me,” she whispered.
“Always.” He rested his cheek against the top of her head. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
She tried not to think about the possibility that it could be days or weeks from now. None of them knew what the Lord would do. Lexi reluctantly released him and stepped away.
“When does the harrow stone have to go back?” Cole asked Sahira.
“Tomorrow morning,” Sahira said.
“Wait for as long as you can before returning it. I want to go with you to thank the crones for letting us use it.”
“I will.”
Without another word, Cole opened a portal and walked away. Lexi watched until the darkness swallowed him completely. Something inside her deflated when he vanished.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Cole stepped out of the portal from the human realm and into Dragonia. No one could open a portal into and out of Dragonia without the Lord’s knowledge. The entire kingdom was protected against such a thing happening.
Thanks to the arach before him, the Lord controlled the portals that remained permanently open to the realms. All of those portals led to an exit point near the palace, where the Lord’s men watched over them.
When an immortal was leaving Dragonia, all they had to do was locate the portal to the realm they sought, picture where they wanted to go in that realm, and they would return there. The amount of magic behind the system the arach established was incredible.
He suspected the elaborate portals were a group effort, and one alone couldn’t have completed them, but there was still a lot of magic behind them.
And that magic was manifesting inside Lexi right now. He had no idea how they would help her learn to control and use it, but they would.
Cole tilted his head back as he took in the Dragonian realm. Rising above him, the golden peaks and turrets of the palace stretched high into the purple sky. Only a few pink clouds floated through the air.
When he walked a few feet away from the portal, some of the Lord’s men turned toward him. By the looks of them, they were young, barely trained warlocks, but he couldn’t be sure.
They lifted their spears and pointed them straight at his heart. One lunged a little too far forward; the pointed tip rested against Cole’s chest. When the shadows stirred inside him, Cole suppressed them.
He lifted his eyebrows at the Lord’s men. They’d been far too lax on their duty. If they’d been his men and he’d gotten this close before they noticed, they wouldn’t be one of his guards anymore.
He’d have them removed from their duties immediately, but he welcomed this incompetence from the Lord’s men.
Without blinking, he dropped one of the bodies, grabbed the spear resting against his chest and snapped it in half before shoving it away from him. The guard gawked at him and then the broken pieces of his spear. Cole doubted the guy had seen him move.
The rest of the guards kept their weapons aimed at him but backed away when he stepped toward the man who nearly speared him.
“I am the dark fae king,” he snarled at the guard. “Don’t ever point a weapon at me again unless you want it shoved up your ass.”
The man hesitated before starting to swing the broken remains of the spear toward him again. Then he wisely thought better of it and lowered the broken shaft to the ground.
Cole hefted Orin’s head into the air for them to see. “Tell the Lord I’ve brought him presents.”
They gaped at the head before one of them blurted, “It’s Orin.”
“Aren’t you observant,” Cole drawled. “Now, run along and tell the Lord I’m here and I have the bodies of my brothers for him.”
Their gazes shifted to Varo’s fake body, but it was impossible to see its face.
This didn’t matter as the tallest one nudged the shoulder of the one to the left of him as he spoke. “Go tell the Lord.”
The other man hesitated before bowing his head and scurrying away like a rat with cheese. He kept his head down, and his shoulders hunched forward like he was bracing himself for a blow while he ran.
Cole doubted the Lord was ever easy to deal with and never kind to those who served him. He didn’t care to think about the number of times the Lord abused the man. The man had chosen his path and would suffer the consequences of it… just as Cole would if this all blew up.
He refused to let that possibility enter his mind. He had to maintain his confidence while here. A lack of confidence would get him destroyed if he didn’t.
Cole and the guy who’d nearly speared him eyed each other before Cole dismissively shifted his attention toward the palace. The portal opened near a large river that cut through the land.
A thousand feet above the river was a single bridge made of gray rocks. It stretched across the river for over two hundred feet before reaching the open palace gates.
The man who’d left disappeared behind the enormous stone walls surrounding the palace. After a couple of minutes, he came back into view as he ran up the hill toward the bridge.
One of the dragons circling lazily overhead roared before twisting to its side and making a sharp right. Sunlight glinted off its blue underbelly and the lethal talons tucked against it.
What would happen if Lexi got near one of these creatures?