Chapter 69 THE GOLDEN STATUE
Valerius was laughing.
As the cold of the ice coursed through his veins, he felt stronger than ever. The rotting, diseased body he had carried for years was healing. His skin was tightening, his bones hardening.
"Do you feel it, Dorian?" Valerius shouted from inside the hourglass. "This power... is pure life!"
Dorian lowered his sword. Because he had seen Atlas smile. And now, he saw it too.
Valerius's skin was shining, yes. But not like living flesh.
Like a polished statue.
"She isn't healing you, uncle," Dorian said, his voice calm. "She is freezing you. Like a bug trapped in amber... she is freezing you in time."
Valerius's smile froze on his face. Literally.
He tried to move his lips but couldn't. His jaw was locked.
The gold color in his eyes didn't just spread to his iris. His entire eyeball turned into a golden crystal.
Valerius panicked. He tried to raise his hand.
SNAP.
He couldn't lift his arm. Because his joints had fused. His blood wasn't flowing. His heart wasn't beating.
Above, inside the ice cocoon, Lyra opened her eyes. There was no mercy in those crystal blue eyes. Only the coldness of a queen expelling an intruder from her home.
Lyra pointed her tiny finger down at Valerius.
The glass of the hourglass trembled.
(GRAVITY AND PRESSURE)
"Atlas," Serra said. "Now!"
Atlas understood what his mother meant. His twin had handled the cooling part. Now it was his turn to break.
Atlas clenched his hand toward the hourglass.
The gravity in the room focused on the center of the hourglass.
Trapped inside the ice, Valerius felt tons of pressure crushing him from the outside. His frozen body began to crack.
The fear in his eyes was trapped inside that golden crystal forever.
BOOM!
The hourglass exploded.
But glass shards didn't scatter everywhere. Valerius didn't scatter as pieces of flesh either.
Valerius collapsed into a pile of thousands of tiny, golden ice crystals. The man who was once the "King of Ash" was now nothing more than a heap of glittering dust on the floor.
Lifeless. Soulless. And irreversibly shattered.
(THE LANDING)
When the hourglass exploded, Lyra was left defenseless in the air. Gravity began to pull her down.
"Lyra!"
Dorian lunged forward with an Alpha's superhuman speed. He jumped, stepping on the pile of golden dust (Valerius's remains).
He caught his daughter in mid-air.
When he pressed her to his chest, his breath hitched. Lyra was so cold that Dorian's shirt instantly frosted over. But Dorian didn't let go. He opened the seal on his chest fully, giving his own fire to his daughter.
"I'm here," Dorian said, making a soft landing. "Daddy's here."
Serra ran to them with Atlas in her arms.
Atlas reached out for Lyra in his father's arms.
The moment the two babies touched, the freezing cold and the ash storm in the room ceased.
Lyra's ice-blue skin returned to normal. The wild light in Atlas's silver eyes faded.
Balance was restored.
Serra hugged Dorian and the two babies in his arms. They became a huddle of four.
"It's over," Serra whispered, crying. "Uncle is gone."
"It's over," Dorian said, looking at Valerius's dust. "The glass is broken."
(THE COLLAPSE OF THE CASTLE)
But the peace didn't last long.
Kael ran up the stairs, out of breath. "I don't mean to interrupt the celebration but... the explosives! We took out the castle's main load-bearing columns. This place is coming down!"
Indeed, massive cracks were forming in the obsidian walls. The ceiling (what was left of it) was crumbling and falling.
"Run!" Dorian shouted.
He took Lyra in one arm and Atlas (since Serra was exhausted) in the other.
"Kael, clear the path! Lukas, prep the train! Serra, watch my back!"
The group began to descend those endless stairs of the collapsing glass castle.
With every step, the stairs behind them fell into the void. This wasn't an escape; it was a race.
When they reached the bottom floor, the station, the "Inferno" train was still running. Lukas had kept the engines hot.
Everyone threw themselves into the carriage.
Dorian was the last to board. He jumped onto the train as the platform collapsed.
"Drive!" he shouted to Lukas.
The train sped toward the magma tunnel.
Behind them, Raven Castle collapsed into itself with a deafening roar, burying itself deep into the steep cliffs. Valerius and his Ash Army were sealed forever under tons of black glass.
(THE ROAD HOME)
As the train moved safely through the darkness of the tunnel, the inside of the carriage was quiet.
Dorian sat on the floor, his back against the wall. Both babies were asleep in his lap.
In his sleep, Atlas was holding Lyra's hand. And Lyra was resting her head on Atlas's shoulder.
Serra sat next to Dorian and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Never again," Serra said. "We will never separate them again."
"Never," Dorian said.
He pulled a small mirror he found on the train from his pocket. He looked at his face.
The burn marks had healed. But there was a new expression in his eyes. Older, more tired, but more certain.
He was no longer just an Alpha or a King.
He was the guardian of two worlds (Fire and Ice).
"No mask," Dorian said to his reflection in the mirror.
"No mask," Serra said, holding his hand.
As the train moved toward Volcan Palace, their home, a real light—not ash, but sunlight—began to appear at the end of the tunnel.