Page 17 of Whispers of Ruin
She put on her cloak and walked back about a hundred feet the way they’d come. Once there, she did what she needed and returned as Brokk started to stir. When she was a few feet away, she stopped as she realized his twitches and mutters were more than a normal waking.
Distress etched his face when he rolled over. Since she’d left, he’d gone from sleeping peacefully to dreaming of something that upset him.
Unable to stand his suffering, Kaylia stepped toward him to wake him. She froze when his eyes flew open and a snarl twisted his lips. His fangs had extended and were visible, as was the vivid red of his eyes.
CHAPTERNINETEEN
Normally,such a blatant reminder of the vampire part of him would have infuriated her, but she couldn’t find any anger as he blinked at the sky, and his face gradually eased into something more relaxed. The red faded from his eyes as he draped an arm across his forehead and stared at the trees above.
She started to ask him if he was okay, but his words stopped her.
“Do you ever dream about the war?”
Kaylia clasped her hands before her as she shifted her gaze to the beautiful hues streaking the sky. “I do.”
When he didn’t say anything, she returned her attention to him. He remained staring at the trees, his lips shut, but the outline of his fangs remained visible behind them.
“You fought in the Lord’s war, too,” she stated.
“I did.”
“It lasted much longer than the one we waged against the Lord.”
“It did.”
“You probably saw a lot of awful things, especially if you were in the human realm for any of it.”
“I was.”
His two-word answers revealed more about how the war had affected him than anything more elaborate he might have said. She could only guess at the horrors he’d witnessed while the Lord waged war against mortals, who’d lived in peaceful oblivion about the existence of immortals until he unleashed hell on them.
“How long were you there?” she asked.
“Too long.”
She waited, uncertain of what else to say.
“I fought on the Lord’s side during it,” he said.
“I know.”
“It’s not what I wanted, or my father, or any of my brothers. We believed we were doing the right thing by plotting secretly against him instead of directly standing against him like Orin, Varo, and three of my other brothers did.”
“You were.”
“Were we? We didn’t stop him.”
“No onecould have stopped him at that time. You were missing two vital pieces: the discovery of Lexi’s true heritage and Cole becoming the dark fae king. Without Cole going through the trial, he never could have become the Shadow Reaver.”
“My father had to die for that.”
Kaylia’s heart ached for him. She’d always seen Tove as a heartless bastard, but from everything she’d seen of his sons, there was a lot of love there, even when they wanted to kill each other. That had come from their father.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He didn’t speak for a few seconds before sighing. “If he’d known how everything would have worked out with Cole, he would have chosen death. I know many think he was an asshole, but he loathed the Lord and everything he stood for. He would have done everything in his power to destroy him, including die.”
It was strange to get this glimpse into a man she’d always considered heartless. There had been far more layers to Tove than she’d ever realized, but there were many layers to everyone. Peeling them away made life more fun and scarier, as there was never any way to know what lay beneath.
