She chuckled as she descended the stairs with fluid grace. “That I am. I don’t think the council likes you.”
When she slid her hand into his, he squeezed it.
“I don’t care if they like me. I intend for them to respect and obey me, and once the trials are over, they will. Now, as for Brokk staying here, that’s not going to happen. I have to know you’re safe during the trials, and having him with you will help with that.”
“But what if they take over the palace?”
“Then I’ll drive them out again.”
He looked over her head to Brokk, who nodded his agreement.
Lexi glanced around the hall. “You can’t lose this place.”
“I won’t.”
“If they decide to move into the palace, I won’t be able to keep them from it anyway,” Brokk said. “There is no king, which means the council has a right to this place. Together, they rule the realms until a new king is crowned.”
“Before my father was crowned, the council lived here for nearly a hundred years as many tried, and failed, to survive the trials,” Cole said. “He evicted them afterward, and we will too.”
Chapter Thirteen
Lexi kepther apprehension hidden as she stared at Cole and then around the room. Many tried and failed for ahundredyears before Tove ascended the throne. And she would bet every last one of them was a purebred dark fae.
The dark fae designed the trialsfora purebred dark fae. Would he be able to survive them?
She closed her eyes against the doubts churning in her mind. She couldn’t do anything to keep him from the trials, and she wouldn’t even if she could. He had to do this for himself and his father.
She would do the same.
“A hundred years without a king?” she whispered.
“That was many years ago,” Cole said. “It won’t be anywhere near that long this time.”
She hoped he was right. She couldn’t take losing him a second time.
“Now, if you’re ready, I’d like to change,” he said to her.
“Of course,” she replied.
When he offered her his arm, she slipped hers through his. He locked it against his side before clasping Brokk’s shoulder. “Thanks for having my back.”
“Always,” Brokk said.
Lexi walked with him through the double-wide doorway of the great hall and back into the main hallway. Her step faltered when she spotted the woman who sat in on the council meeting.
Her skin crawled as the woman’s black eyes surveyed her. Then a smile twisted a mouth that would have been beautiful if not for the cruelty of it.
She’d seen the way this woman looked at Cole and didn’t have to see the hostility in her eyes to know there was something between them. Lexi buried the knot of jealousy in her chest and pulled back her shoulders as the woman strode toward them.
“Cole,” the woman purred in a voice meant for seduction.
Cole was rigid as he stared at the woman with a look of disdain that probably would have deterred many; the woman never hesitated.
“Becca,” he greeted coldly.
“And who is this?” Becca asked as her eyes ran over Lexi. “I didn’t see her during the meeting.”
“That’s because she wasn’t there.”
