She’d been standing there, absorbing the sun’s rays, with the curtainopen, because she was fascinated by what was happening to her. She wasn’t doing it to put herself in danger purposely; she’d just never seen anything like it before.
Neither had he, and he couldn’t deny he’d wanted to do the same thing as her.
But if anyone saw her, the Lord would unleash hell on them. They weren’t prepared for a battle against him yet. They had to learn what she could do first and if she could bring the dragons to their side.
And no matter what, she had to be ready because he wouldnotlose her.
“No one was down there,” she whispered. “That’s why I was at the window. I was looking to see what was going on, but… I… I… got distracted.”
“Someone could have walked by and seen you.”
“No. I wasn’t there for long, and if someone had seen me,thiswould have made them stop. They would have still been there when you got to the window.”
He couldn’t argue that point because it was true.
“My arms,” she whispered as her attention shifted to her arms.
Without the sun on them, the glow was starting to fade from her fingers and the scales were vanishing.
“Your eyes,” Cole said.
Her fingers flew up to her eyes. “What about them?”
Before the gold could fade from her eyes, he clasped her elbow and hurried her into the bathroom. When he flipped on the light switch, she followed him into the room.
He clasped her shoulders and turned her toward the glass. She gasped, but as she leaned closer to peer more intently at them, they shifted back to their normal, vibrant green color.
“What’s happening to me?” she whispered as she inspected her fangs, but they remained unchanged.
“Your powers are waking up. Until you learn how to control them, and can keep these changes hidden, we’re going to have to keep you somewhere safe.”
She leaned away from the mirror and lowered her hands to her sides. “What if I can’t keep them hidden? What if, from now on, this is what happens to me every time I’m in sunlight… or moonlight? What if any kind of natural light turns me into this glowing… glowingthing?”
“I don’t know much about the arach, but I’m sureallimmortals would have heard and passed it down through the years ifeverytime an arach stepped outside, they started to glow and resembled a dragon. I think that with time, like with my ciphers, you’ll be able to control this and keep it hidden.”
“And if I can’t learn to control it? There are no other arach around to teach me how to navigate these abilities or evenwhatmy abilities are. I can’t spend the rest of my life locked away. And what exactly can I do? Glow like I’m some sort of… sort of… glowworm. That’s not helpful.”
“This is only the beginning, Lexi, and maybe it is the end of your abilities, but I doubt it. The arachdefinitelyhad a connection to the dragons; whether that will translate into something more than resembling the creatures when in sunlight, I don’t know. There is also the fire thing; I bet this time, you won’t burn if you stick your hand in a fire, and they were also supposed to be able to throw fire from their hands.
“It’s been centuries since the arach walked the realms, and they were too secretive of their powers for anyone to know everything they could do. But at one time, they could control the dragons, and there’s no reason to think you can’t.”
Taking a deep breath, she lowered her fingers from where they rested beneath her eyes. “What do we do now?”
“Now we have to get you out of here. We can’t have you out in the Gloaming if you can light up like a glowworm,” he teased as he poked the end of her nose.
His teasing didn’t lighten his mood, but it did cause her mouth to quirk in a little smile before it slid away.
“It’s time to return to the others,” he said.
“But you still have so much to handle here.”
“And I will. For now, I’ll tell Niall that I’ll meet him at the palace later. While I’m gone, stay away from the window.”
“I will,” she muttered.
But as she spoke, a wistful look crossed her face, and she glanced back at the curtains.
Chapter Fifty-Three
