Page 40 of Shadows of Light
“They’re all dead.”
“Good.”
They probably could have questioned some of them and tried to get answers as to who was behind this, but she doubted there would be any. She focused on her dad, Brokk, Orin, and Maverick.
“I’m going to clean up and get dressed. I’ll meet you in the witches’ room in half an hour. Hopefully, Sahira and Kaylia are still there.”
It was where they spent a good deal of their time now, but the battle had probably pulled them away.
“If not, I’ll find them,” Brokk offered.
“Thank you.”
“This can wait until morning,” her dad said.
Oh, how she wished it could. Maybe, by some miracle, her exhausted body would finally get a decent night of rest after all this, but… “No, it can’t.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-THREE
“There’snothing we can do to track Cole,” her aunt said.
Sahira stirred her cauldron over the fire in the hearth. Her familiar, a black cat named Shade, sat at her feet. She and Kaylia were the only two witches in what Lexi had dubbed the “magic room,” as that’s what it had become.
The battle had drawn their attention and pulled them from the room, but once they learned there weren’t any injured to tend to, they returned to bolster their supply of healing potions. They didn’t require them now, but they would in the future.
“Believe me, we’ve tried, even after we said we couldn’t do anything.” Kaylia tossed some lavender into the pot. “We knew it was a long shot, but we gathered a coven and tried to track him through scrying and throwing bones. We didn’t detect him anywhere or come up with a lead.”
“How come you didn’t tell me this?” Lexi asked.
“We were afraid to get your hopes up and then dashed,” Sahira said. “If it worked, great. If it didn’t, then no harm done.”
“I’m tired of everyone keeping things from me. I’m not going to break. I’ve made it this far without falling apart, and I’ll make it further.”
Sahira squeezed Lexi’s shoulder. “We all know that, but we didn’t think it was necessary to tell you when you already have so much to deal with.”
“It wasn’t. I’m done with all of the secrets and unknowns.”
She shot a look at Orin, who purposefully ignored her.
“We can’t do a tracking spell because we needhimfor it, and we can’t do a locator spell because it’s just not working,” Sahira said as she returned to stirring.
Kaylia tossed some more herbs into the cauldron. “We think the shadows are somehow blocking it or, more likely, the arach magic is too powerful and is blocking ours.”
Despite how horrible all this was, Lexi couldn’t help but smile as she watched the two of them working together. When they first met Kaylia, she wanted nothing to do with Sahira or Brokk.
Their half vampire status had put them on her hate list, but she’d learned to work with them, and somewhere along the way, she and Sahira became friends. The other witches still weren’t thrilled about having to work with a vampire, even one who was half witch.
Sahira’s witch mother left Dragonia shortly after the war and refused to return. That only made Lexi despise the stupid, stubborn, hateful woman more, but she kept it hidden from her aunt. Sahira had enough animosity toward her absentee mother without Lexi fueling the fire.
Despite all that, the women had gone from reluctant allies to friends. It warmed Lexi’s heart to see her aunt with someone she could trust, who wasn’t related to her.
Kaylia plucked a feather from the phoenix perched on her shoulder. It gave her a disgruntled look and ruffled its feathers before settling back into place. A puff of smoke billowed from the cauldron when the feather landed in the brew.
“We’re assuming the shadows or, more likely, the arach magic that created the Shadow Reaver is blocking ours,” Kaylia said.
Lexi frowned as she clasped her hands together and gazed around the large, airy room the witches had filled with potions, cauldrons, and other assorted magical supplies. Located on the first floor, Lexi understood why they’d claimed this room as its French doors opened onto beautiful rolling hills. Its floor-to-ceiling windows flooded the room with light.
Dainty red couches, a white marble floor, and barren walls made up the room, but the witches filled it with their things. If any arach items once decorated the room, the Lord destroyed them because that’s what he did best.
