“I’ve been this way since I stopped aging at twenty-eight. I’ve always had the ciphers you’ve seen, but when I reached maturity, more revealed themselves. It’s how I knew I’d settled into my maturity. I have always kept them all hidden.Noone else has ever seen all of them, not even my father. You’re the only one who knows.”
Lexi’s hand went to her throat as she realized the depth of what he’d revealed here today. He trusted her with this secret and with something that could make the other dark fae and the Lord want to kill him even more.
They all respected power, but they didn’t want that power turned on them. And they craved all the power for themselves; they wouldn’t like the possibility that Cole could take many of them down.
She’d always known he was powerful, but seeing this, she realized she didn’t have a clue as to how deep it ran. For the first time, she questioned ifheknew.
“I’ll never tell anyone,” she vowed.
And she never would. She would take this secret to her grave.
“Has anyone ever possessed this many ciphers before?” she asked.
As Cole shrugged, she realized the ciphers were fading from view as swiftly as they appeared.
“I’ll never know,” he said. “If they did, they never revealed them, so it’s not in our history.”
“No fae has this many now, though,” she said.
“No, they don’t. I don’t have to see their ciphers to know that; I simply know it’s true.”
And she had no doubt he was right. He would know if there was someone as powerful as him in the Gloaming.
No wonder he’d been so certain he would survive the trials.
“Do you think this is why you came back different after the trials? Why the shadows came out of you like they did with Orin?” she asked.
He stared over her head; his brow furrowed as he pondered this. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I might never know.”
Lexi was aware that never knowing was a possibility, but she didn’t like it. The way those shadows came out of him in her kitchen, the way they attacked Orin and inflicted pain on him…
It wasn’t normal, and she didn’t like it. But this was Cole, and if anyone was strong enough to keep those shadows suppressed, it was him, especially after what he just revealed to her.
“But you can stop worrying about me so much,” Cole said. “I’m stronger than I look.”
“You look pretty strong to me,” she muttered. “And as long as you keep putting yourself in danger, I’m going to worry about you.”
“Then I will try to stop doing so.”
“That’s impossible with the Lord around.”
He didn’t argue, and as he moved toward her, the ciphers he’d revealed vanished until only the ones she’d always seen remained. With the markings gone, she could focus on his injuries again.
They looked better, but they still weren’t as healed as she would like.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“I needto go back and see if Sahira has returned and can make more healing potions,” Lexi said. “Your wounds do look better, but I’ll be happier when they’re gone.”
“You’re not going alone.”
She shot him an irritated look as he settled onto the bed beside her. “Yes, because you should be traipsing around again. It worked so well for you yesterday.”
He smiled as he clasped her hand and lifted it to kiss her knuckles. “It’s only a trip through a portal, my love, and I’d prefer if you didn’t go alone.”
“I’d prefer if you weren’t walking around, and I’ve already gone back once by myself.”
“Only because I was too injured to stop you. Anyway, I doubt they’re back,” Cole continued. “If they were, Brokk would have come here to check on things by now.”
