They left the library behind and made theirway down the hall before crossing through the sitting room with itsdelicate antique furniture and a striking grandfather clock in thecorner. The pendulum of the clock swayed as it ticked away theseconds.
With its gray stone walls, the room housedfurniture mostly done in shades of blue, and sheer blue curtainsframed the double doors leading to the patio. They settled into thepatio chairs with their thick blue cushions.
Lexi started to rest her cup on the whitetable when she recalled why they’d stopped coming out here.
“Oh,” she murmured as she stared across thevast, once green lawn that had been bordered by a ten-foot-highprivet hedge.
Now, only charred pieces of that onceperfectly manicured hedge stood up from the ground. Half the lawnwas nothing more than blackened earth.
Beyond the charcoaled remains, humans trudgeddown what remained of the road. They skirted broken chunks ofasphalt as they walked with their shoulders hunched forward andtheir heads bent against the sun. Dirt streaked their faces andclothes, and many of them looked like they’d crawled out of a coalmine.
These people looked like this because theydidn’t have much clothing left and because the dragons destroyedmost of their homes. Lexi often felt like she’d lost everything,but she realized how lucky she was.
Despite her losses, she still had much morethan so many. She did her best to give what they could, but theydidn’t have much to spare. Normally, she didn’t come to this sideof the house, but she couldn’t hide from her reality anymore.
It was outside her home, and now, it was alsobeneath it.
“I saw Malakai,” she said as she sipped hertea.
“Oh,” Sahira said.
Lexi detected the dislike in her voice;Sahira had never been good at hiding it when it came toMalakai.
“He was out in the daytime,” she said.
“That’s not unusual if it’s overcast.”
“It was today.”
Sahira turned toward the clear blue sky andthe sun streaming down on them. Like her, Sahira could tolerate thesun because she was only half vampire.
“Ooooh,” Sahira said more slowly.
“He was wearing an amulet.”
Sahira set her cup down with a clatter andspun toward her. She looked like Lexi had told her he was dressedas a scarecrow and reciting the Wizard of Oz.
“Really?” Sahira asked.
“Yes. It was…”
“Red,” they said at the same time.
“You know what it is?” Lexi asked.
“It’s a sun medallion. At one time, therewere a lot of them in the vampire realm. They used to mine for thembeneath the mountains there. When the witches destroyed their realmand drove the vampires out, most of the medallions were destroyedor lost. The few remaining ones are all held by the Lord of theShadow Realms.”
“So the Lord gave it to him?”
“Yes.”
“Which means no one would dare try to take itfrom him.”
“Not unless they want to have the wrath ofthe Lord unleashed on them.”
Lexi shuddered at the idea of that wrathcoming down on her. “Why would the Lord give Malakai anamulet?”
“Malakai must have done something to earnit.”
