Page 83 of Shadows of Light
All their heads turned toward where Amaris lay with a lycan paw on her chest. She didn’t move as she watched Cole.
A flutter of wings sounded a second before Alina grasped the sill with her talons and stuck her head through the window. When she saw Lexi, she issued a sound of raw grief as she bowed her head.
“Our queen,” she whispered.
Cole rose and glided across the floor to Amaris. “Get away from her.”
At Cole’s command, the lycan retreated. Amaris pushed herself up and leaned against the wall as she glowered at Cole.
Cole hovered a couple of inches off the ground as he stopped before her. Sahira tried to look away; she wanted to kill the woman as badly as Cole, but she couldn’t stand watching a bloodbath.
Her stomach churned as she glanced around the room, but she was too scared to move and wouldn’t leave Lexi. Her eyes returned to Cole and Amaris as the shadows lowered him to the ground, and he bent to examine the woman.
His head tilted back and forth in an odd, creepy way that unsettled Sahira more. The shadows engulfed Amaris until they touched almost every inch of her.
CHAPTERSIXTY-THREE
“I’m not afraid of you,”Amaris stated.
Sahira could tell that wasn’t true as the woman’s fingers trembled on the ground. Sahira hated this horrible woman she’d come to consider a friend before this, but she had to give her credit for trying to act brave while death stared her in the face.
Cole moved so fast that Sahira never saw him until his claws were embedded under Amaris’s chin, and he lifted the woman. When Amaris’s mouth opened and a startled gurgling sound issued from her, the glint of Cole’s claws was visible in her mouth.
Amaris’s feet kicked against the wall as she clawed at his wrist. Blood spilled down Cole’s arm, but he showed no sign of noticing it or his torn flesh.
“Why?” the shadows demanded.
The terrifying shadows coalesced around Cole as they filled the room and remained spread across the realm. Without Lexi, there was nothing to rein those shadows in again.
Sahira closed her eyes against the possibility of the prophecy coming true. The last lighthadfallen; Lexi wasn’t dead, but if they couldn’t find the crudue vine, the shadows would grow beyond Cole’s control.
She didn’t realize she was still holding her brother’s hand until her fingers clenched around it. When she met Del’s eyes, she knew he was thinking the same thing. If Cole tore the realms down around her, it wouldn’t matter if they saved Lexi.
“Why?” Cole growled.
Amaris’s teeth clacked together as she tried to talk, but Cole’s claws had embedded her tongue to the bottom of her mouth, and only awful, gurgling sounds issued from her.
“She obviously can’t talk with your hand in her mouth,” Orin said.
Everyone in the room shot him a look, and he shrugged as if to say,what else did you expect me to do?
There were times when Sahira would love to choke the life out of him; this was one of those times. He was right, Amaris couldn’t talk with Cole’s claws in her mouth, but they were better offnothaving Cole’s attention on them right now. And hereallycould have found a better way to impart this information to Cole.
When Cole retracted his claws and jerked his hand away, Amaris hit the ground with a thud. A hand flew to her throat as she tried to stop her blood from flowing. Shadows enclosed her wrist and pulled her hand away. They pinned it to the ground, along with her other hand.
“Answer me,” Cole commanded.
For the first time, alarm flickered through Amaris’s eyes, but she still lifted her bloody chin as she glared at Cole. “Lord Andreas is the onetrueruler.”
Due to her wounded tongue, her words slurred and bloody spittle issued from her lips, but she was understandable.
“He’s dead,” the shadows said. “No one can rule from the grave.”
“And I still love him!”
Those words hung heavily in the room as the shadows tittered with cruel laughter. “You fool.”
Sahira thought those words summed this woman up perfectly.
