“What did you do to it?”Kaylia demanded as she cradled her hand and glowered at Sahira.
“Nothing,” Sahira said. “It worked great for the spell, and it was perfectly normal when we were getting ready to bring it back to you. But that abruptly changed. I was holding it when it suddenly burnt my hand. When I released it, it nearly hit the floor before it stopped and flew across the room to Lexi.”
Kaylia blinked at her. “That’s impossible.”
“It’s what happened!” Cole snapped. “It must be part of your curse.”
“That’s impossible. Nothing like that haseverhappened before. The few times the stone has gone out, it has always returned to us the same, and it hasneverflown across the room at someone.”
Then her attention shifted back to Lexi, and the look on her face was one of disbelief. She gawked for a few seconds before shaking her head as if she were trying to clear it.
“What happened when it flew across the room to her. Did it hit her? Did it hit the ground and bounce into her? Did she try to smack it away out of instinct? Tell me everything,” Kaylia said.
Sahira looked at Cole as if she were unsure if she should say anything more, and no one else spoke. Cole wasn’t sure how much to reveal to this woman. They needed her to save Lexi, but they also had to keep Lexi’s heritage a secret.
“I can’t help you, orher, if you don’t tell meeverythingthat happened,” Kaylia said.
Cole debated this for a few seconds before he nodded to Sahira. If this woman learned too much, he could always kill her. She wasn’t entirely innocent in all of this, and if it came between her life and Lexi’s, there was no choice.
“The stone flew across the room and stopped before her,” Sahira said. “As it hovered in the air before her, it started to glow. She lifted her hand to brush back some hair, and the stone flew at her hand. The second they connected, the stone launched her off her feet and into the wall.”
Kaylia’s head tipped back, and she took in the dent in the wall. “Thatwas the curse, but it should have killed her. The fact she’s still alive….”
Her voice trailed off as her eyes fell on Lexi again. Unlike in the crone realm, where she kept her emotions mostly hidden, her disbelief, awe, and uncertainty were evident.
“The stone shouldn’t have reacted like that. Sheshouldn’tbe…” she hesitated before whispering, “alive.”
There was something about the words that made Cole wonder if she meantnowor at all. He was beginning to suspect she knew more than she was letting on and had really meant to say Lexi shouldn’t exist.
“Don’t,” Cole warned when she stretched a hand toward Lexi.
Her fingers froze in the air, and she twisted toward Cole. “If I’m going to help her, you have to let me touch her.”
“How do I know you’re not going to make it worse?” Cole demanded.
“Because I don’t want to die, and you’re going to kill me ifshedies, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he confirmed.
The only one who didn’t suck in a loud breath was Orin.
“I thought so,” Kaylia said.
She turned her attention back to Lexi. Her fingers moved toward the harrow stone but stopped when they were a few centimeters away. And then she grasped Lexi’s hands and turned them over to examine them.
“Did the stone burnher?” Kaylia asked.
“No,” Sahira said. “I checked before we went to the crone realm. She had no burn marks on her.”
Kaylia set Lexi’s hands down. As she did, Lexi’s pinky brushed the harrow stone, and a spark of light flashed inside it. Kaylia’s hand trembled as she lifted Lexi’s and turned it over once more, but no burn marred her flesh.
“Oh, Hecate,” she breathed. “Oh, it can’t be.”
Cole no longer had any doubt this woman knew what Lexi was and therefore posed a threat to her.
“Is she…?” Kaylia gulped, and her shoulders hunched up as if she could feel the weight of Cole’s stare on her back. She finished in a tremulous whisper. “Is she arach?”
When no one spoke, some of the color came back into Kaylia’s face, her shoulders went back, and she met Cole’s eyes. “If I’m going to help her, I have to know the truth.Isshearach?”
