He shook his head, his dark hair falling across his forehead. “I should feel ashamed I’m not fighting alongside you all, but if I’m being honest, Lennox, I’m relieved. So fucking relieved.”
He let out a huff. “I know it makes me selfish, but I just got my life back, I’d like the chance to live it.”
“I’d like you to live it too.” All of it, I wanted him to have all of it. Whatever future he wanted.
I threw my arms around him. “Which is why I’m going to win this fucking war for you, Nol.”
“Can you promise me two things, Len? Make it back from this war—you and Kara—I want to live my life with my sisters. And two, when you kill Adreona, make sure you make it hurt. Make that bitch pay.”
56
LUCIANA
I would never admit it, but I was kind of glad Declan sent me to meet with my mother. The weather in the Star Court was much milder than in the South with the rest of the army.
I was naturally cold-blooded, but I was getting sick of the fucking snow.
I preferred to stay inside, curled up next to the fire with a book looking at the snow—not to be out in it.
Which is exactly what I was doing tonight before we left and started making our way toward Cel Nox from Alethens.
“Did you settle in well?” My mother dusted her fingers over my shoulder as she moved to sit in the armchair next to mine.
“Not really, we’re leaving in the morning, not much use in settling in.”
She pressed her lips into a thin line. We had spoken only briefly this morning when I arrived. She fussed over Nol before we all set out on our tasks that needed to be completed before my mother and I would leave.
“It’s strange to be here without them.” I drew my gaze to where my mothers was fixed on the framed portrait abovethe fireplace. It was the most up-to-date portrait of the Adair family in the palace, I assumed it had been painted the year Brahm and Elena were killed. Kara and Lennox still looked the same, but there was a certain air of lightness that illuminated their features. None of the shadows that now haunted their faces were to be seen. Nol—Nol, on the other hand, almost looked like a different person.
“Not just without Lennox and Kara, but Elena and Brahm.” Her tone was somber. “This must have been what they felt like when they came to Arcadia.” She shuttered. “I can feel them everywhere. Even though I was never here often, it still feels wrong to be here without Elena.”
“I miss them too.” I stared at the portrait. Elena’s green eyes looked so similar to her daughters—even in a portrait—how that was possible?
“I can’t wait to get the fuck out of here.”
“I have this idea. I need you to tell me if it’s crazy or not,” I said into the mirror.
We had been on the road for almost a week now, and staying clear of my mother had become my new full-time job. I locked myself in my tent and threw myself into my research at every spare moment.
“Knowing you, it’s at least partially crazy.” Lennox’s figure was muddled through the mirror, her face clouded and her features twisted slightly. The mirror had clearly seen better days.
“Well…I’ve been digging deeper into Ichor magic.”
Lennox’s lips thinned. “Okay.”
“My goal is to find something—some kind of spell to help us in this war if it comes to it.”
“And did you? Find something?” Luka’s face filled the mirror.
“Potentially. I was looking deeper into the spell I used to disable magic for your escape. Trying to find my own way to truly disable magic—and I think I’ve come up with one that would work.”
“You could disable magic?”
“Yes, but there’s a catch. The spell needs a boundary, and it would disable anyone in the boundary, including our forces.”
“Okay.” Lennox chewed on her bottom lip.
“But if Adreona somehow figures out how to cure vampirism—we could stop it, but it would mean giving up our own magic.”
