Sahira looked at him and patted the space beside her. Brokk almost asked her if she was nuts. He’d rather play chicken with a dragon than sit cross-legged in this lodge with a witch who would gladly skewer them.
“Sit,” Kaylia commanded.
Brokk bristled over the tone and the words, but the apprehension on Sahira’s face silenced his response. Reluctantly, Brokk settled beside Sahira on the thick, fur rug. He remained on his knees with his toes tucked into the rug so he could jump up quickly if necessary.
Unable to look at them, Kaylia stared over their heads and at the canvas wall. For a second, her casual demeanor vanished as her nostrils flared. When she looked at them again, hatred simmered in her gray eyes.
Brokk kept his face impassive as he stared back at her, but it took everything he had not to give her the finger. He knew witches hated vampires, and he supposed they had a reason, but her hatred was a bit over the top and… annoying.
“Why are you here?” Kaylia asked.
He looked to Sahira and gave her a subtle nod. She was as much of a vampire as he was, but these were her people. Well, at the very least, she was half witch, but this woman made it clear she didnotconsider Sahira one of them.
It made him dislike Kaylia more. Despite the history between witches and vamps, Sahira had a kind heart, and the witches refused to see it because of her vamp blood.
If they weren’t here to help save his brothers, he would have told Kaylia to go fuck herself and dragged Sahira from this realm. But they needed the harrow stone, and they couldn’t make the crones an enemy of Cole, so he remained sitting.
“We need the harrow stone,” Sahira stated. “It might help us to take down the Lord by saving some of his greatest enemies.”
Some of Kaylia’s loathing vanished as her eyebrows rose. She studied them before speaking. “Continue.”
Sahira proceeded to fill her in on why they were here for the stone and how they intended to use it to clone his brothers. They planned to make the Lord believe Varo and Orin were dead so they could use their contacts to destroy the Lord while also getting the twisted prick to stop breathing down Cole’s neck.
When Sahira finished, Kaylia stared at the wall. As he watched the emotions playing over Kaylia’s face, Brokk worried Sahira had revealed too much about his brothers and Cole working together against the Lord.
He told himself to trust Sahira’s instincts in this, but she put a lot of faith in a woman who clearly hated them.
“And how do you plan to destroy the Lord after that?” Kaylia asked.
“We’re still working on that,” Sahira said. “But we need time to form a plan, and the harrow stone is the best way to buy us this. If Cole doesn’t hand his brothers over soon, the Lord will make him, and the Gloaming, pay.”
“I have little care for what happens to the dark fae.”
Shit, she’s a heartless bitch. Brokk couldn’t decide if he admired that trait or not.
“He won’t stop at the Gloaming, and you know it,” Sahira countered. “If the dark fae fall or if he seizes control of their realm, he’ll go for the witches or the lycan next. And he’ll continue to take them all down until he’s destroyed us all.”
Kaylia didn’t reply again for a while. “Why doesn’t Cole just hand his brothers over? It’s not like they haven’t fought against each other throughout the war.”
“They are still our brothers,” Brokk said.
Kaylia didn’t bother to look at him.
“Orin has followers who could help bring down the Lord if we all work together. We need his help,” Sahira said.
“They’re not vampires,” Brokk said.
When she turned those pewter eyes on him, the chill in them could have iced the dead. She didn’t bother to reply before focusing on the wall again.
“Why didn’t they all work together in the first place? Why has Cole decided to go against the Lord now?” Kaylia asked.
Sahira gave Brokk a pointed look. “Tell her everything.”
“I don’t trust her,” Brokk replied honestly.
“You don’t have a choice.”
Kaylia looked bored as she stifled a yawn and stared at the wall. He didn’t want to give anything to this woman, but Orin and Varo—perhapsallof them—were screwed without that stone.
