As Kaylia surveyed the three of them, the only reaction she showed to Cole was a slight widening of her pewter-gray eyes before she focused on Sahira.
However, she couldn’t completely conceal the fact Cole alarmed her. Her face remained impassive, but her shoulders tensed while she spoke.
“You’re back,” Kaylia stated. “Did the spell work?”
“Yes,” Sahira replied.
Kaylia held her palm out to Sahira. “Good. I’ll take the stone.”
“We had to leave it behind,” Sahara said. Her eyes also darted to Cole before settling on Kaylia again. “There was an incident with it.”
“What do you mean there was anincident? Where is the stone?”
“Someone touched it,” Sahira said.
“So why would that make it so you couldn’t return the stone to me? They’re already dead, you’ll die soon, and it will be your fault for allowing such a thing to happen.”
Brokk winced when the darkness spread around Cole until it obscured parts of Kaylia’s lodge. The crone had to realize she was playing with fire, and if she didn’t, she was an idiot.
And while she was an abrasive, unlikeable ass, he didn’t take her for an idiot.
“We did notallowsuch a thing to happen,” Cole snarled. “She didn’t touch thefuckingthing willingly.”
Kaylia’s face remained blank as she studied Cole. Brokk shifted uneasily when the crone’s face remained impassive.Choose your words wisely.
“Did you force it into her hand?” Kaylia asked Sahira.
“I would never do such a thing!” Sahira retorted. “And she’s not dead.”
It took Kaylia a few seconds to cover her shock. “Not dead?”
“No.”
“Then she will be soon. I don’t see what the problem is here.”
So much for choosing your words wisely,Brokk thought with a sigh.
The woman knew something wasn’t right with Cole, but she was too stubborn to walk on eggshells in her realm. If he wasn’t afraid Lexi might die and his brother would lose his shit, he might respect and admire Kaylia for her courage.
Instead, he considered shaking some sense into the infuriating creature.
“The problem is,” Cole grated, “she isnotgoing to die. Andyouare going to save her.”
Brokk barely recognized Cole’s voice anymore as what came out of his brother was a strange mixture of something guttural and inhuman. And he swore it was also a mixture ofdifferentvoices, but that wasn’t possible.
“When they took the stone, I told them what would happen if another touched it. They will also reap the consequences of this,” Kaylia said. “I will not interfere in the curse.”
Cole stepped closer to Kaylia, and Brokk felt a fracturing inside his brother as something cracked across the air. He started to reach for Cole, but his hand froze as more blackness seeped out of him.
Chapter Seventy
“Didyou set up the stone to kill innocents?” Cole hissed in that strange, inhuman voice.
“Of course not,” Kaylia retorted. “A witch would never do that. If they did, they would suffer the consequences of it, and weneverhurt innocents. If she sought to use the stone’s power when it wasn’t given to her—”
“She didn’t seek anything of the sort.”
Brokk had known Cole his whole life; they’d fought together, played together, killed for each other, and been the best of companions, but his brother’s voice wasn’t justalmostunrecognizable anymore… he didn’t recognize itat all.
