Page 42 of Grounded (Convergence #1)

The rumbling of the barrier sliding open faded into the sound of pulsers being pulled from holsters.

“Stand down!” Liria shouted as she slowed the vehicle and paused in the tunnel.

The Aethari posted before the barrier lowered their pulsers as they gaped at her.

“Let her through!” the Speaker of Icara roared.

“Do it!” Commander Havers landed in front of the Aethari soldiers and shoved them back. “Hurry, Drask!”

Liria drove through the opening, jumped out of the vehicle, and turned to shut the barrier. But someone was a step ahead of her. The gate rumbled back into place. As the noise echoed into silence, she thought she heard a man shouting.

And then a man did shout. It was the Speaker. “Thaxvarien!” He ran for the trav.

The makeshift trav had Thax caged. Liria hadn't bothered to converge a door for him.

No problem. That amplified convergence energy still zinged through her.

With a motion at the vehicle, Liria altered it and opened it from the top.

The metal peeled back like a flower to reveal Thax lying on his belly, his wings nothing but bones.

Weeping openly, the Speaker lifted his son from the metal contraption and cradled him like a child.

His dark wings curved around them even as the bones of Thax's wings disintegrated and drifted down to the pit floor like black snow.

When the last of them fell, whole skin was revealed, as if he had never had wings. As if Thax had been born a Medean.

“Speaker, we've got to get him to medical,” the Commander said.

Thax's father continued to weep.

“Stop that this instant!” Liria snarled.

The Speaker looked up at her.

“I brought him back. I faced an entire city of Nethren to get him here. Now, you need to be strong. You need . . .” Liria stumbled.

As if he could sense her need, Thax suddenly shoved himself out of his father's arms, dropped onto his feet, and caught Liria.

He didn't have the strength to keep them upright, so they crumpled to the ground together.

But even as they fell, they wrapped their arms around each other.

When they settled upon the rocky ground, Thaxvarien sighed as if he had landed on the softest bed.

With her ear pressed to his chest and the sound of his heartbeat in her ear, Liria sighed as well and joined Thax in oblivion.