by Jaymin Eve
Still, now was not the time for me to be carried. I wanted to stand on my own two feet. So I struggled to be let down, and he immediately set me down, keeping me close to his side.
“We need to move fast.” Daniel was serious as he glanced between us. “Laous is going to come for her, and he has way too much control over the justices. We can’t beat him here, in his territory.”
“Has anyone ever made it through the full six levels to reach the seventh?” I asked.
Daniel and Lexen both shook their heads.
Great. I should have guessed that. “So how are we going to get through it, then?” I asked, trying not to sound as pissed off and worried as I felt.
Lexen and Daniel exchanged a grin. The pair of them way too cocky and gorgeous for any girl to keep her sanity. “We’re overlord minors,” Lexen told me. “We have one or two tricks up our sleeves. We can’t hook to the network, but our individual strengths should be enough to get us out of here.”
Daniel started to move, walking to the rounded stone doorway of this cave. There was another stone tunnel behind it, and at the end of that everything looked red. As we got closer, the heat increased to the point where I started to feel faint.
“Explain to me properly about this network you all use?” I asked, looking for information and a distraction.
“The network is an energy grid which spans across Overworld, connecting everything,” Lexen said. “It runs just below our land, and flows between the magical elements. In Darken it’s the stone of our mountains. Imperials have the Cascading Justices. Royale have a current through their legreto, their water. Leights are the forests, all of them connected, all of them alive.”
“It’s mostly where we get our energy and powers from,” Daniel added. “Overlords have extra ties with the network. Ties we are born with. Especially within our own section.”
“So Laous is pretty powerful right now?” I mused, realizing that the danger was far from over.
Daniel nodded. “Yes, he is. In normal circumstances I could call for a clear path to the exit from this place, but to do so now would alert Laous’ warriors…”
I sucked in some hot air, trying to calm myself. Lexen or Daniel getting hurt was too awful to think about.
Further conversation was cut off as we stepped out of the cave for the first time. We stood on the edge of Shaken Ridge, in a section that almost seemed like an in-between place, where the ground didn’t try and throw us around, but we weren’t on the fire step yet either. Below us was a world of red. Heat smashed against me hard enough that I took a step back. This was impossible. There was no way for us to get through without burning to death. There didn’t look to be a single path, just an ocean of lava and spouting fire holes.
“There are two paths through this land,” Daniel said, reading my mind. Or the disbelief that was no doubt on my face.
“One requires a level of athletic ability which might be difficult for you,” Lexen added, sending a smirk in my direction.
I flipped him off. “You saw me in one gym class.” Which was exactly the same as every other gym class I’d ever been to, but I could totally pretend I had some sort of athletic skills hidden away.
“So what’s the other path?” I looked between both of them, hoping it wouldn’t involve climbing.
Lexen took a few steps back, lifting his arms in the air and dropping his head forward. I stumbled toward him, worried about what was happening, but before I got more than a step, Daniel grasped my biceps, holding me back. A rumble had both of our heads shooting up. Lexen was staring at me, his eyes a pure shining white. All of the black was gone. What looked like white electricity was streaming across his body, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his eyes long enough to see what was happening.
“I’m going to let you go,” Daniel said slowly. “Lexen’s having some problems sharing. But you have to promise you won’t go to him. He could hurt you if you get too close.”
“I promise,” I choked out.
Daniel released me, placing both of his hands in the air. He seemed to be silently communicating with Lexen. I was missing a lot of the finer details because I couldn’t seem to focus on anything but the Daelighter standing before me covered in white light.
An icy blast hit me, stinging my hot skin. Wings burst from Lexen’s back, huge and black, spanning out ten feet on either side. His skin took on a scaly texture as his body grew bigger, until he was almost twice his normal size. The white bolts of power that still ran across him slowly died off as he changed.
I swallowed hard, pressing my hand to my chest as I stared. “I’m starting to understand what he meant when he said he took on attributes of his dragon,” I spluttered.
Daniel snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. “This is the power of the Draygo people. There are not many of them left, and Lexen is the only one to be born an overlord. Which makes him extra powerful. He does this hybrid shift using Qenita’s energy, which means he is undetectable through the network. A power unlike any other.”
Shut. The. Hell. Up! Seriously. I just kissed a freaking dragon-man.
“Will he be able to fly us the entire way down?” My question was far tamer than my thoughts.
Daniel shook his head. “No. Technically, we should be dead to even exist here. The Cascading Justices drain the living, even Imperials. It’s why we mostly remain on the incubation level, where the network is the strongest and feeds our energy.”
This was all too technical for me, especially when trying to wrap my mind around being dead. “Lexen will be able to skip at least two of the levels,” Daniel added. “I can get us through the rest.”
I nodded, sucking in a few much-needed breaths. Lexen tilted his head, his movements less human-like than ever before. The last of the light across his body faded; only those flames in his eyes remained. As he stepped closer to me, I was surprised by the fact that I had no urge to run. It was just a twelve foot man, parts of his skin covered in white and black scales, with huge wings towering above us … no worries.
I examined his face, the same stunning and masculine features, a sheen of scales running down his cheeks and across his forehead. He still felt like Lexen to me … an amazing, beefed up, dragon version. I mean, who didn’t think dragons were cool? When he reached us, he swept me up into his arms, chest rumbling loudly as I sank against him.
Daniel was silently waiting, watching closely. I could tell part of him didn’t trust dragon-Lexen as much as he did normal-Lexen. I wondered why I didn’t have that same reservation. Maybe I was naturally stupid.
After a few moments I was adjusted to one side so Daniel could step in and grip onto the other, free side. Then, without any warning, Lexen’s wings burst out to their full lengths and we were flying.
18
I’d thought flying on the magic carpet was scary, but it was nothing compared to the sensation of soaring like this. Lexen’s powerful wings lifted us high and out over the flames below. I tried my best not to look down, because if I started to panic I would wiggle and he’d probably drop me.
I must have said something out loud about being dropped because Lexen let out a rumbly chuckle. “Trust me, little human. I’m not going to drop you.”
His voice was at least ten octaves deeper than usual, a hybrid of man and beast, just like his body. “When are you going to quit with the ‘little human’ stuff?” I said, needing to find a distraction from the possibility of falling into flaming lava.
There was silence, just the whoosh of wings and the roaring of flames below. “It doesn’t mean what it used to,” Lexen finally said. He left it at that, and I found I was satisfied with his answer.
I’d sort of known that already; his voice used to snarl over the word “human,” but now it was gentle. It had gone from an insult to a nickname.
“You two should stop fighting the inevitable,” Daniel said. I twisted my head, my heart aching as I stared into his tortured eyes. How could there be so much emotion in a pair of eyes? Se
riously.
“What’s the inevitable?” I asked, voice barely audible above the crackling noise of fire and lava around us.
His lips twisted into a grin and I realized there was a deep dimple carved into his cheeks. Je-sus … Lexen had hot friends.
“Emma doesn’t understand our world,” Lexen interrupted Daniel. “She doesn’t understand what this sort of relationship would cost her. I … won’t do that to her, no matter what my draygone soul wants.”
A growl ripped from his throat then and I was startled enough that I jolted. “Can you maybe not speak in code any longer?” Annoying Daelighters. “Tell me exactly what you mean for once.”
His growls halted in an instant, and I almost died of shock when he answered me straight up: “Draygones have one mate – choosing someone who calls to their souls. It’s an eternal bond. As a Draygo, I have a draygone soul within me. It is what makes me different from other Daelighters.”
“Your dragon has chosen me?” I choked out, tears already springing to my eyes. I swallowed a few times, willing away the damp pressure. I’d always felt a link between us, so this explained a lot.
“Fuck,” Daniel cursed. “She’s going to cry, Lex. You know I don’t deal well with crying females.”
I snort-laughed. “I promise not to dry my eyes on you, Daniel.”
He still wore a slightly panicked look, very at odds with his overtly masculine badass façade.
“Why did that upset you?” Even with his dragon voice there was a layer of concern tingeing Lexen’s words.
I had to clear my throat a few times. “I felt a connection to you from the first moment I saw you. Before that, actually. Your house would always draw my eye and curiosity. Like that time you slowed your car next to me and cracked the window. There was this draw to go closer.” Fear had made me run, but part of me wanted to open that car door and see who was inside.
Lexen nodded, clearly remembering what I was talking about.
“Then when you kidnapped me and were such a bastard,” I continued, “it was easy to hide those feelings … focusing instead on my animosity and annoyance. Only the more I got to know you…”
“The stronger it got,” he finished for me.
“Yeah, pretty much.”
I was about to ask him what he had meant about his world and dragging me into it, when I noticed that we were now past the land of flames, moving across an entirely new landscape.
“Gauntlet of Malinta … monsters,” Daniel said, following my line of sight. “Be grateful that Lexen will have the strength to bypass it also.”
Grateful didn’t even begin to cover it. It was a land of swirling sand. Which doesn’t sound that terrible until you take into account that every time one of those huge mounds of orangey sand shifted in the breeze, claws would emerge. There were thousands of monsters pushing their way in and around the sand, fighting each other, ripping wisps of what I assumed were souls to shreds. Creatures I had no names for, creatures that would probably haunt me. The screams were very loud now that we were flying above it, and I had to tear my eyes away because I was starting to feel nauseous.
“Focus on me, Emma,” Daniel said when I looked down again. “You can’t help them. That’s the first thing to learn about the justices. It’s every Daelighter for themselves.”
“How can you stand living near this place?” I murmured, my jaw clenching hard as I fought to stop the tears. Seeing those souls beg … cry … scream … it was too much for me to handle.
Daniel’s features were hard, his eyes flat. “Like Lexen, I have no choice. Born to the Imperials. Royal blood and all. I will fulfill my destiny to curate and punish the dead.”
Which was clearly the last thing he wanted to do, judging by that tone.
“Are there any Daelighters who go straight to the land of redemption at the bottom?”
Daniel shrugged. “Imperial is the underworld for all of Overworld, all of the different lands and sectors. Some of them are brutal. Some are gentle. But very few beings make it straight to freedom. Most land in the bottom three platforms, though.”
“We’re also very long lived,” Lexen reminded me. “Daelighters don’t die from natural causes. Our lands and the network keep us young and strong, so we have generally lived a long life by the time we end up in House of Imperial.”
That long life was still a concept I wasn’t quite able to wrap my head around. No doubt it was one of those things preventing Lexen and me from having a chance together. Seemed pretty unfair that fate wanted to throw us together – his soul choosing mine as the one and only – and then I was going to die in sixty years. I mean, I’d take those sixty years, but I wasn’t sure Lexen would want the same thing.
Shit, why was I even thinking about this? I was only seventeen years…
“What date is it?”
If anyone was surprised by my random question, no one showed it. “We have a different calendar to you,” Lexen replied. “But I keep track of both. It’s September 16th.”
My birthday was yesterday.
I had turned eighteen and didn’t even know, probably because I’d been stuck in an egg prison at the time. I’d turned eighteen without friends or family, without a single happy birthday or gift. Without my parents.
Lexen’s hand pressed into my spine and he couldn’t move it without dropping me, but somehow he managed to shift his thumb slightly. Letting me know he was there. “Breathe, Emma. Just breathe. I got you.”
The rumble of those low words in my ear jolted me from the soul-crushing sadness tearing through me, tearing me down. A hand brushed my cheek and I whipped my head up and locked eyes with Daniel. We stared for an infinite amount of time, a sense of understanding between us. We both lived with a pain inside that was threatening to destroy us.
“Don’t let the demons win,” Daniel said, his tone solemn. “Keep fighting them, badass.”
I actually laughed, shaking my head. I wasn’t much of a fighter. It fell a little too close to exercise for my liking. Maybe I could read the demons to death. That was more my speed.
Lexen dropped a little lower as we passed the gauntlet of monsters. I tilted my head back so I could see his face better. My position was awkward, but I saw enough to know he was fatiguing.
“How much longer do you have?” Daniel asked, his gaze lowering to the land below us.
“I’m going to make it another two,” Lexen bit out.
He was going to kill himself trying to save us, that was for sure. “Don’t push yourself, just go as far as you can,” I said. A thought hit me then. “Would it have been easier just to fly back up the top justice level?”
“There is no going back up to the top,” Daniel told me. “This land works very hard to keep you in the justices. It only lets you move in one direction.”
Great, we’d stumbled into the Overworld version of Ikea. We were screwed; we were never getting out of here.
“It’d be good if you can make it past the Maze,” Daniel said to Lexen. “It’s filled with tricks and riddles to solve. If you don’t use your wits, you could be trapped there forever. We’ll get through no trouble, but it will take some time. Time we don’t really have.”
We were above that land now. I blinked as I watched it below, trying to wrap my mind around the sheer size of it. From our angle, it was sort of easy to make out a path through the massive green hedges, but if we’d been on the ground, and had to navigate through the miles and miles of twists and turns, it would be next to impossible.
Lexen dropped a little lower again. We were only about twenty feet up from the top of the maze now.
“Go left!” I shouted down at a figure standing near a crossroads.
Daniel covered my mouth. “No helping, remember,” he warned me again.
I shook my head, dislodging him. “You’re not the boss of me. I’ll help if I want to help.”
Annnd I was back to belligerent teenager. Being told what to do was a huge pet hate of mine. Lexen laughed and Daniel wisel
y said nothing more. We dropped a little more, and I thought that Lexen’s wing flaps were slowing. Lifting my hand, I pressed it to his chest. I wished I could send some of my energy into him, my clumsy, unathletic energy.
On second thought, that might be more of a hindrance.
His thumb caressed my spine again, and I swear I felt it all the way to the tips of my fingers. My hand was tingling where it remained pressed against him. I was wondering if our energies were clashing together somehow, because it felt like heat shifted between us, when Daniel cleared his throat. “Legreto level,” he said.
Legreto level…
We had left the maze and were now over a platform of water. Sunlight brushed across me. For the first time it was warm, almost like I was outside. Pure magic, because there was still only darkness above. The Land of Legreto was stunning. I’d never seen clearer water, aquamarine in color as it thrashed around its level. There were pockets of land scattered along the body of water, land which disappeared at each rise and fall of the tide. It looked like you’d have to have perfect timing to be able to cross, jumping from one to another. I could see a plethora of creatures swimming in the depths of the water. Some looked huge and were shaped like sharks, so I was guessing it wasn’t ideal to be caught in the waters.
We were going to find out, because Lexen was dropping rapidly now.
When we were about six feet above the water line, Daniel pointed toward a reasonably large domed section of land. “Put us down there, Lex. I see a clear run through.”
“I … can … make it.” The labored words were calling him out on his lie. But I knew he was going to give it a shot. He was practically gliding by this point.
I patted his chest, drawing his attention. “Just land. You still need enough energy to make it past the obstacles of the next level, and if I’m deducing anything from Daniel, it’s that your energy is not going to come back. The justices will keep draining you.”
