Page 48 of Shadows of Light
As Brokk read, the eyes of the others bored into her, but she kept her attention on Orin. When Brokk finished, Orin remained focused on the wall across the way before finally looking at her.
“So, there is a way for you to destroy him.”
“I have no idea what it is, and I could also save him.” Lexi looked down when tears welled in her eyes; she wiped one away before lifting her chin. “What if I accidentally do one instead of the other?”
No one had a response to that.
“We have more papers to go through; the answer could still be here… somewhere,” Kaylia said. “If we’ve found that much of this parchment, there must be more.”
Lexi’s heart thundered in her chest as she tried not to get her hopes up too high. She was too scared of having them dashed to bits around her if she did.
“What if we only uncover how to destroy him?” she asked.
“Then we burn it,” Orin said.
Varo bowed his head and rubbed at his temples. “We will require that knowledge… just in case.”
His words hung heavily in the air as Sahira and Kaylia shifted uneasily.
“You’re all a little too eager to find some way to kill my brother,” Orin said.
“That’s not what I want at all! I want himback, to save him and have him with me. I miss him so much it’s almost impossible to breathe some days, but I also have to…” Lexi’s words wavered and broke.
She steadied herself before continuing. “I also have to acknowledge that he might not be there anymore, and if there is a way for me to save him, I might never know it.”
She couldn’t imagine losing Cole and having to live with the knowledge she had some way to save him, but no idea how, every day for the rest of her life. It woulddestroyher.
She’d rather be dead than bear that burden.
“He hasn’t returned to me. The lycan and dark fae must be seeking their mate and starving, but hestillhasn’t returned.”
“Probably because the shadows told him you wouldn’t welcome him again. You did say so, and they are watching over you. Why would he come back to be rejected?” Orin said in an accusatory tone.
Lexi recoiled before stopping herself; there was a chance he was right. Maybe the shadows had whispered her words to Cole, along with every other insidious thing they could think to tell him.
“I would never reject him,” she whispered.
“You said you wouldn’t have pieces of him and wouldn’t go through that heartbreak anymore. Don’t you—”
“Enough!” her father snapped. “Not another word from you.”
“You’re such a prick,” Sahira spat. “Maybe instead of always being part of the problem, you could try to be part of thesolution. It’s obvious she doesn’t want him dead; none of us do, but we also can’t have a being in the realms who could destroyeveryoneif something happens to her. That’s worse than anything the Lord did. Now, stop attacking her!”
Orin glowered at her as he folded his arms over his chest. “I’m trying to find him; thatisthe solution.”
“And how do you plan to contain him once you find him?” Sahira demanded. “Throw a net over him? Bind him in chains like you did with the dragon? Do you think any of those things will stop him when he can tear your head off without touching you?”
“Cole wouldn’t do that.”
Sahira slapped her hand off the floor before she rose. “He’s not Cole anymore! Or at least not entirely. He’s also the Reaver and would gladly kill you to ensure his survival. We must find a way to protect ourselves, and catching him isn’t the answer. He’d kill us.”
“All except for Lexi,” Maverick said. “I have no doubt my nephew loves me, and I’m just as certain the Reaver would kill me, but he’d never do anything to her. Not only would the arach magic prevent that, but the lycan part of him wouldneverlet something happen to its mate.”
“And the dark fae side is in love and will do anything to protect her,” Brokk said.
Lexi stared at the piles of ripped paper, parchment, and scrolls still waiting to be pieced together before shifting her attention to Orin again. He was such an asshole, but it came from a place of love. Like her, he wanted Cole back; he was just a lot more vicious about it.
“Have there been any new sightings of him?” she asked.
