She didn’t know where it had come from, butshe sensed its power and suspected it somehow allowed him to walkabout in the day. She didn’t understand how anything could bepowerful enough to accomplish that. However, it had to be theamulet as she’d never seen him in the daytime before the war, yethe wasn’t catching on fire now.
With his shoulders back, pride and contemptemanated from Malakai as he surveyed the crowd. Then his brown eyeslanded on Cole before sliding to her. Surprise widened them for thebriefest of seconds, but they hardened when he spotted Cole’s handwrapped protectively around her arm.
A smug smile curved his lips as he stopped infront of them. He was about five inches shorter than Cole, and hedidn’t emanate power like the fae prince, but his eyes shimmeredwith malice when they shifted from Cole’s grip on her arm to herface.
“Elexiandra,” he greeted in a voice that sentchills down her spine.
“Malakai,” she replied.
CHAPTER 18
“What is the meaning of this?” Cole demanded.
As he surveyed the lycan gathered aroundMalakai, he recognized all of them, but they weren’t part of hisuncle’s pack, and he didn’t trust any of them. They all fought onthe same side during the war, but for completely differentreasons.
“We’re hunting a traitor,” Malakaireplied.
Cole resisted smashing the arrogant grin offMalakai’s face as he glanced at Lexi again. The intensity of hisreaction startled him.
Despite his lycan blood, Cole was colder andmore calculating like the dark fae than impulsive and explosivelike the lycan. However, the look in Malakai’s eyes as he stared atLexi had him imagining tearing the vamp’s heart out and shoving itdown his throat.
There was more than anger in the vamp’sstare; there was also a lust that made Cole feel more murderousthan he had during the entire war. He’d never liked Malakai, butthe wolf part of him marked the vamp for death.
“Perhapsyou’veseen the traitor,”Malakai said to Cole.
“Who is it?” Cole asked, and the questioncame out as more of a growl.
“Your brother. Orin. Some of the boys” —hewaved a hand at the lycan surrounding him— “almost had him, but hemanaged to get away.”
“We fucked him up real bad,” one of thelycans bragged.
Cole managed to keep his face impassive as aknife of dread lodged in his heart and twisted deep. They werehuntingOrin,and his brother was injured. Was it so bad hewouldn’t be able to hide?
“I haven’t seen Orin in a couple of years,”Cole replied with an indifference he didn’t feel.
He couldn’t lose another brother.
“Hmm.” Malakai rubbed his chin while hestudied Cole. “That’s too bad. You could always help us look forhim.”
“You can’t handle it yourself, Malakai?”
“Of course I can, but you know him betterthan any of us. You know how he thinks. Maybe it’s you who can’thandle watching your traitor of a brother die.”
A seething tempest boiled inside Cole untilhe felt like a volcano about to blow, but he smiled at Malakai. “Mybrother’s been dead to me for years.”
It wasn’t true. He would always love Orin.Out of all his brothers, the two of them butted heads the most, butOrin would forever be his brother. Orin was the second of hisfather’s children, and only thirty-five years separated them.
They hadn’t grown up together, but Cole hadwatched him grow from a babe to a child to a stubborn adult with apowerful will. And once Orin was old enough, they trained together,laughed and drank together, and developed a bond that came withblood and shared experiences.
And now Orin would be hunted as long as theLord of the Shadow Realms remained on the throne.
•••
Lexi was extremely glad Malakai and Cole werefocused on each other as the blood drained from her face and herstomach plummeted into her toes.
Malakai, herfreakingneighbor,was looking for a traitor. A traitor who was attacked by lycan andCole’sbrother. A dark fae who was sitting inhertunnels.
She had to get away from these two and Orinaway from her home. What was shethinkingby helpinghim?
