Three feet into the room, she found thestring for the single bulb hanging from the ceiling. Holding herbreath, she pulled it and breathed a sigh when the bulb illuminatedthe damp space.
When she left the manor, the electricity wason, but that hadn’t meant it still was. Since the war, it oftencame and went. It had been more reliable lately as the humansstarted patching pieces of their world back together.
The bulb illuminated the shelves lining thewalls. At one time, supplies packed those shelves, but barelyanything remained.
This wasn’t the best place to leave him, butshe had to. If he was a rebel and lycans were hunting him, theywould track the scent of his blood here. She slid his arm from hershoulders and let him slump against the wall.
She was halfway up the stairs before sherealized that not only was she most likely harboring a rebel, buthe could also be a murderer, a criminal, or something farworse.
Why was she doing this? What was shethinking?
Her heart hammered as she spun back towardhim. She had to get him out of here!
She couldn’t do this. She hated seeingsomeone else die, but she couldn’t put Sahira’s life in jeopardy byallowing this man to stay.
If he were a rebel, he’d stood against herfather. Then, a disturbing possibility occurred to her; hecould have been the one whokilledher father.
Running back to his side, Lexi knelt besidehim. She was reaching for him, determined to drag him out of hereand into the woods to let him fend for himself, when his eyescracked open.
“Thank you,” he croaked before passing outagain.
Her hands froze before falling to her side.Her father may have opposed him, but he would never turn away aninjured man, and he wouldnevertoss a defenseless man tothe wolves, literally.
He could be the one who killed your dad.
The possibility hit her hard; it was true,but unlikely. And she still couldn’t be responsible for his almostcertain death by turning him away.
She pushed herself away from him and fled upthe stairs before the hunters showed up while she was still sittingin the dark, debating what to do. She locked the doors and left himbehind.
CHAPTER 15
Underneath the willow tree again, Lexi kicked thebloody leaves into the lake to bury the scent of blood on the air.Lifting her knife, she sliced open her palm and let her blood driponto the earth.
Lycans, or any immortal, could detect thescent of blood on the air, but she hoped with his bloody leavesgone, her aroma would mask the dark fae’s. Pushing aside thebranches, she slipped out from beneath the limbs and scented theair as she searched for more of his blood.
She discovered more drops of it, and as shewalked, she used her foot to smear his blood into the dirt whileletting her blood fall onto his. The blood ended at the edge of thelake. Kneeling beside the water, she bent to wash her hands.
Studying the water’s pristine surface, shesearched for anyone else on the shoreline, but she didn’t seeanyone in the shadows of the trees. At least half a mile wide andjust as long, the dark fae could have entered the water anywherealong the shoreline, but she hoped it was from across the lake.
She had no idea how he could have swum so farin his condition, but entering the water would have thrown off histrackers until he arrived on her shoreline. And she could only hopeshe’d done enough to cover his scent.
Pulling her hands from the water, she wasrelieved to see the wound had already healed. Now, she had to takecare of her guest.
At one point in time, she would have run intohalf a dozen people on her way back to the manor; she encounteredno one now. But then, there was no one to run into anymore.
When her father was alive, and before thewar, a fair number of people worked the manor. Some lived there,but many fled during the war.
They were shocked to discover they worked forsomeone more than human, and many chose to be with their families.They also hoped to flee the destruction, but there was noescape.
The dragons had leveled most of the majorcities throughout the world. What the Lord of the Shadow Realmsunleashed on earth was something far worse than any of them everexpected, and now they were all suffering the consequences ofit.
The humans knew of their existence, andimmortals had gained nothing from it except more death.
Yes, the Lord had the dragons to keep themortals in line, and immortals possessed abilities and strengthsfar beyond the humans, but the humans still had weapons that couldmaim and kill them.
Most immortals could blend in with humans andstill choose to do so, but she’d heard tales of immortals whorefused to blend in anymore. After years of going incognito, theywere embracing their newfound freedom. Unfortunately, that was alsocausing problems.
After the war, the humans were petrified,broken, and resentful. They never had any warning that somethingbeyond their realm existed before the Lord smashed their reality topieces. And they hadn’t been given much time to adapt beforeimmortals started taking over.
