“Circe and Talon were at the ball too. I’msure they realize that this time, if they plan to stand against theLord, it will have to be in open rebellion of him. There will be nomore coalition, no more secret planning; it’s outright war ornothing,” Cole said.
Varo finally looked away from the wall tofocus on them. “Do you think they’ll go for that?”
“I’m not sure,” Cole admitted. “They’reagainst the Lord and everything he’s done. However, we’re in aworse position against him now than we were before, and we couldn’tstop him then. If they do decide to stand against him, they’ll havefighters too.”
“It’s still not enough,” Kaylia said.
“We also have the surprise of Del, Orin, andVaro being alive,” Sahira reminded them. “He doesn’t know aboutthem.”
“That’s not much of an advantage,” Brokksaid. “That’s more likely to piss him off when he learns we trickedhim.”
“It’s still something,” Lexi said.
“I hope I’m there when he discovers thetruth,” Cole stated.
Lexi hoped he wasn’t, and then a thoughtoccurred to her.
“I still have the harrow stone!” she blurted.“I can make duplicates of immortals, so it looks like we have anarmy.”
“That could help,” Kaylia said. “Even if theydon’t move, they’ll be a distraction.”
“I could open a portal into the palace andkill him,” Lexi said.
“First, you don’t know where he is at anygiven moment in the palace and you can only open a portal to placesyou know,” Cole said. “Second, he’ll keep himself surrounded bydragons and fighters now. Even if the dragon at the manor seemedrepentant about breathing fire at you, that doesn’t mean they won’ttry to kill you.”
“And as a warlock, he’ll put up spells andsafeguards to keep himself safe from such a thing happening,”Kaylia said.
Lexi propped her chin on her hand and settledher elbow on the table. “Oh.”
“We need fighters,” Brokk reminded them.
“And we don’t have nearly as many as theLord,” her dad said.
“We can find more,” Cole said. “It might takeus a while, but there are many who will be willing to stand againsthim. We just don’t know about them yet because they’re too afraidto come forward.”
“You risk us coming into contact with peoplewho will betray us if we start openly recruiting fighters,” Varosaid. “Not to mention, I’m sure we all have a bounty on our heads…or at least those of us the Lord knows are alive.”
“Kaylia might be the only one who couldreturn to her realm without any repercussions,” Niall said.
“The crones will help,” Kaylia said. “Theymay have retired from the rat race of the realms, but they’ll helpinthis. It’s time that monster is taken down; it’s time thedeath stops, and it’s beyond time an arach takes their rightfulplace on the throne again. From what I know of Lexi, the realmswill be a far kinder place with her there. That’s something weallwant.”
Lexi shifted uncomfortably when all eyesturned toward her. They all expected so much from her, yet shestill considered herself little more than a simple country girl wholoved nothing more than spending time with her horses andfamily.
She was aware she had no other options andbelieved shecouldmaster her powers with more training andtime, but the idea of failing was like an albatross around herneck.
However, failure wasnotanoption.
They just had to figure out how to raise anarmy to win.
CHAPTER 79
“I think recruitment is the way to go,” herdad said.
Lexi’s eyebrows shot into her hairline.“Really?”
His jaw clenched, and his nostrils flared;then he took a sip of his blood, wiped his mouth, and set thegoblet down again. “Yes. We’ll start with the members of thecoalition, see if they have any interest in going public with theirbattle, and then spread out from there.”
“What are you thinking?” Cole asked.
