The Dragon King's Heart

She placed them in Marius' hands. 

"Take these to Dante. It will speed up his recovery."

Marius nodded, carefully placing them into his personal spatial storage for safekeeping.

"One more thing. Can you relay a message for me to Dante?" she asked. 

"Of course."

Laina smiled, "Tell him I'll see him soon and I'm sorry."

With that, Marius returned to the Celestial Realm. Laina's words echoed in his mind, giving him a sense of unease. There had to be something hidden in between Laina's words. 

What did she have to apologize to Dante for?

As soon as Marius left, Laina lost consciousness, falling asleep due to extreme fatigue. Thorne carried her to bed and remained by her side to care for her while the others busied themselves. 

Margaret called for all geodes with an affinity to the Sun to be brought to Laina's room at once. She had them set up in every corner of the room while watching over Laina. 

As the dawn of a new day peeked beyond the horizon, they finally had time to take a breather. Florin retreated back to his room, leaving Kol and the others to tend to Laina for the time being. 

Everything was a mess. 

Just like Marius, the words Laina said to him echoed in Margaret's mind. Deep down, she had an inkling of what it meant, but she was not ready to face the truth. Kol, on the other hand, did not know all the details. All he knew was that Laina's body weakened greatly. 

He worried for her. He felt helpless. There was nothing he could do to help her. As he leaned his back against the wall, looking over at Laina as she slept, he let out a sigh. As he turned his head to the right to scan the room, he noticed something odd.

"Isn't this the statue the Stone Maniac gave to Laina?" he asked as he walked over to the display shelf where the statue had been placed. 

Thorne glanced over to see what Kol was referring to, "Yes, that's right."

Kol furrowed his eyebrows as he examined it from left to right. He took it off the shelf to take a closer look. Margaret, seeing that he had taken an interest in it, grew curious too. 

"What's wrong?" she asked. 

From the look on his face, she knew something was up. 

"The statue did not cry when Laina got it," he explained as he held it out for all of them to see.

To their surprise, the carving of the woman had blood tear tracks on her face. From her closed eyes, all the way down to the base of her neck. It was eerie looking. Kol was there when Maximus explained what the statue supposedly contained. 

Crystalised blood tears from the Sun Goddess. 

Kol took a closer look at the statue. At that moment, he made another startling discovery. The statue's mouth was opening slowly. Kol did not throw it away in surprise. Instead, he waited to see what happened next. 

He widened his eyes in surprise as he heard a low whisper coming from the mouth of the statue. 

The Sun Goddess shed her tears of blood.

Mourning the loss close to her heart.

Six drops of tears rolled down her cheeks.

Six drops of power one shall wield.

The statue continued to repeat these words until its mouth was wide open. Kol looked down at the palms of the statue, surprised to see something shiny. He picked it up carefully, mesmerized by its sparkle. It was warm to the touch too. 

"What.., what is that?" Margaret asked as she looked at Kol in confusion. 

"I don't know," he replied. 

Thorne turned over to see what they were talking about. When he saw what was in Kol's hand, he went over to his side to take a closer look. 

"It can't be," he looked at it in disbelief. 

"What can't it be?" Kol asked.

Thorne did not say anything else. He took it from Kol's hand and fed it to Laina at once. 

"Thorne! What do you think you're doing? We don't even know if..." before Margaret could finish chiding him, she saw a look of amazement on Thorne's face. 

When she looked down at Laina, she could see a warm glow surrounding her body. Her once pale complexion was no more, color was returning to her skin. Her breathing was no longer shallow, it was almost back to normal. Though there was no difference in Laina's hand, she looked a lot better than before. 

"Laina, Laina!" Margaret called out to her when she noticed her eyes moving beneath her eyelids. 

Slowly, Laina opened her eyes. Margaret was by her side, holding her hand. She tried to speak but her throat was parched. Margaret quickly brought her a glass of water which she chugged down in a matter of seconds.

"How long was I out for?" Laina asked as she slowly sat up in bed. 

Thorne placed his hand on her forehead to check her body temperature. It was just the right temperature. Laina shuddered a little when she felt Thorne's hand on her forehead. His skin was ice cold. 

"You look much better now than you did before for sure," he remarked. 

"You were out for half a day," Margaret replied her.

From the look on Laina's face, she was certain she was confused as to what transpired after she fainted. So she quickly caught her up on what had happened. 

"Kol found these mysterious teardrop gemstones from the statue you brought back and Thorne fed them to you and now you're awake looking so so much better than before."

"Statue? Mysterious teardrop... Kol, how did you get it open?" Laina turned to ask in shock. 

Ever since she received it from Maximus, she had been trying to get it open. She was curious to see these mysterious gems. However, no matter what she tried, nothing worked. 

"I didn't," Kol confessed, "I just noticed blood tears trickling down the statue..."

He explained his discovery, the mysterious whispers from the statue, and how he found the teardrop-shaped gemstone. As he finished his part of the story, Laina diverted the attention to Thorne.. She wanted to know how he knew what to do with them.