“You are about one sentence away from losing yourtongue! Do not test me!” Cole roared.
Lexi flinched at the rage in his tone. The surge of his power against her skin sent an electric current racing up and down her arm and caused her hair to stand on end as the air between them crackled.
When Cole looked down at her, she knew he felt it too. He slid his fingers into hers, and she held him as his eyes burned a beautiful silver that touched her soul. This handsome, powerful man washers,and while he would die to keep her safe, he wouldn’t stand in her way when it came to any of this.
Instead, he would walk by her side. And together, they would find a way to right all the wrongs the Lord had created… if they didn’t die first.
When she looked to the others again, Orin was staring at them with his mouth firmly closed. She could practically see the wheels in his mind churning as his gaze fell to their joined hands. Her father watched them with a mixture of awe and sadness while Sahira stared at them with raised eyebrows, and Brokk studied the wall behind their heads.
“There is a lot of power between the two of you,” Sahira murmured.
“Get Varo, and if we’re not back by then, start the spell,” Cole said.
“I’ll gather everything I’ll need for the spell while they’re gone,” Sahira said.
“Do you have any more healing potions?” Lexi asked her.
“I’ll make some more before you go,” Sahira said. “It won’t take long.”
* * *
Shade was sittingon the counter, tail twitching as he watched Sahira stirring the pot on the stove. Lexi hovered in the doorway while her aunt worked. Different bottles, ingredients, and a mishmash of stones and plants she’d seen countless times over the years covered the counter.
“Would you like me to make you a new birth control?” Sahira asked.
“No,” Lexi said.
“I wouldn’t put the suppressing potion in it again.”
“Is that what it’s called? A suppressing potion?”
“Suppressing, binding, quenching, smothering, stifling; it has lots of different names from different people, but they all mean the same thing.”
Lexi stared at the wall behind her aunt’s head as she tried not to lose her temper. She understood why her dad and Sahira did what they did, but she couldn’t deny the pain and anger festering inside her.
However, she couldn’t keep beating them up about it; she loved them too much to lose them. She couldn’t ignore the knife twisting into her chest either.
“When I revealed to you that I was hiding Orin in the tunnels, I promised there would be no more secrets between us,” Lexi said. “But you had thisbigone.”
“I did, and I’m sorry about that, but I did what I believed was best,” Sahira said. “As did your father.”
“I know.” But it still hurt.
“You need birth control.”
“Cole is on it.”
“You can’t trust a man to take care of you in that way.”
“Maybe I couldn’t trust another man, but I trust Cole. He’ll keep me safe no matter what.”
Sahira stopped stirring and lifted her head to meet Lexi’s eyes for the first time. “You can’t stay mad at me forever.”
“I’m not mad… or at least, I don’t think I am. Not anymore anyway.”
“Then what are you?”
“Hurt, betrayed, lost, confused about everything I thought I knew, and terrified of a future I never imagined,” she said honestly. “I understand why you both kept it from me, I do, but you should have told me. I’m not a child anymore, even if you both still see me that way.”
