Page 73 of Shadows of Light
“They’ve come to you,” he said.
“Hmm,” Lexi murmured as she nestled closer against his side.
Cole stared at the sky while he listened to absolutelynothing. It was so quiet for the first time in a month that it was nearly as maddening as the shadows’ incessant whispers.
The quiet let him think about all he’d done and how out of control he’d been.
It allowed him to recall the horrible thoughts that constantly ran through his mind, his constant craving for blood, and how he’d sated it. But he would adjust to the quiet; he never would have adjusted to the endless chatter of the shadows.
The shadows were still there, slithering inside him and imbuing him with their strength, but they didn’t whisper to him anymore. They didn’t tell him that she would destroy him and that enemies lurked around every corner.
For the first time, they were nearly as at peace as the lycan and dark fae who had stopped warring against each other.Finally, the two parts of himself that were in complete opposition for six-hundred and seventy-two years were at peace with each other, and the shadows had calmed.
But for how long?
He ran his fingers through Lexi’s silken hair as his eyes closed and he waited for the whispers to return, but they remained silent. It felt like some of them entered Lexi, but that couldn’t be possible, could it?
Terror propelled him upright as he looked down at her. She smiled as she stretched languidly before him, showing off every inch of her splendid body.
“Are you okay?” he demanded.
Her fingers found his bicep and closed around it. He’d forgotten about his burns until her touch warmed him and the sting eased from them. Before, he didn’t want her to take away the pain because it helped him think, but the easing of his discomfort didn’t cause his mind to cloud again.
When she finished healing him, Lexi caressed his arm. “I’m fine. Areyouokay?”
“The shadows….” He leaned closer to inspect her eyes, but they looked the same as always.
“Are gone. I don’t know how to explain it.” She bit her bottom lip as her attention shifted back to the dragons. “It’s like I absorbed some of them, and they just… dissipated. It was the strangest thing ever. I felt them inside me, and then they were gone.”
“Your light chased them away.”
She rested her palm against his bearded cheek. “But they’re still in you.”
“They are. However, they’re not in control anymore. You absorbed some of them and eased their presence inside me.”
Lexi’s attention shifted back to the dragons as her brow furrowed. “The arachs created the Shadow Reaver, and there is a way to control it, but I don’t know what it is... or at least I didn’t. We might have stumbled across it.”
Lexi filled him in on what little they discovered from the arach archives; when she finished, his attention also went to the dragons again. They studied the sky while the sun sank lower.
“The shadows reported some of it to me,” he told her. “They believed you were plotting against me.”
When she rested her hand on his cheek, his attention returned to her. “Everything we did was to save you, but….”
Tears brimmed in her eyes, and she looked away. He grasped her chin before kissing her and gently stroking her face.
“I know,” he said. “I understand.”
“I thought there might come a time when I had to destroy you, or we would destroy each other.”
“I know.”
“I never wanted to do such a thing, but—”
“I know, Lexi, and it’s okay. I understand. Some things can’t be allowed to exist, and an out-of-control Shadow Reaver is one of them.”
“But you’re in control now.”
“I am.”
