It was happy to be in her possession. It wasincredibly weird to think of a stone as happy, but it was.
All of this was so strange. She couldn’tbelieve this was her life now, but it was, and she would doeverything she could to reclaim the realm her ancestors lost intheir mission to destroy each other.
When a loud knock on the front doorreverberated down the hallway, she jumped and spun toward the door.She stared at it as the banging faded away. Cole pushed away fromthe wall as he met her gaze.
When the stone warmed in her hand, theoverwhelming urge to protect it gripped her. There wasnoway a knock at her door was good news, not anymore.
Then she reminded herself it could be George,the man they’d hired to take care of the horses since her lifeflipped upside down. Still, she couldn’t have the harrow stone outin the open when she had no idea who was out there.
When another reverberating bang echoedthroughout the manor, she ran across the kitchen. Lexi skidded to ahalt in front of the safe. If it were George, he wouldn’t be soinsistent unless something was wrong.
Lexi placed the stone in the back of thesafe, behind Sahira’s two books of shadows. Her mother had givenher one of the books, and the other was Sahira’s compilation ofspells, herbs, and crystals, as well as other things she founduseful or informative.
When she was a girl, Sahira never let herflip through the book her mother gave her, but she’d spent hoursturning the thick pages of Sahira’s. She’d been fascinated by thebeautiful script and the pictures her aunt sketched throughout. Thebook was beautiful, old, and full of secrets.
Tucked inside with the books were rare stonesand herbs. The herbs filled the air with their potent scent, butthe safe was only half full. Hit by the sudden urge to reclaim thestone, Lexi almost snatched it back.
Instead, she closed the door and spun thedial before shutting the wall section next. When she turned back tothe room, she discovered Sahira had returned to the kitchendoorway.
Sahira’s familiar, a black cat named Shade,had his piercing gold eyes focused on her as he sat on the counter.She didn’t need the wave of Shade’s tail, or the next boomingknock, to know something was wrong.
CHAPTER 9
Lexi hurried to stand beside Sahira as thefinal, echoing boom of the knock faded away. Cole’s focus was onthe library, but she couldn’t see what was happening in there… withthe three immortals who were supposed to bedead.
When Lexi stepped into the hallway, Colestrode toward the front door. Lexi jogged to catch up with him. Shehad no idea who was out there, but a growing knot of anxiety wasbuilding in her stomach.
“Who is it?” she whispered to Cole when hestopped next to the door.
“Malakai,” Cole growled.
The blood drained from Lexi’s face. He couldprobably smell the bastard; lycans were renowned for theirheightened senses, especially their ability to scent things.
This wasfarworse than she’dexpected. She glanced into the library at her father, Orin, andVaro standing near the fireplace before looking at the clock.
She should have checked the time when Kayliaand Brokk left. At least five minutes had to have passed,right?
But they still had at least another tenminutes, and that wasifKaylia returned on time. She didn’tstrike Lexi as the type of woman who took orders well, but then,neither did she.
However, it would be much better if Brokk washere,now.
The last time Cole and Malakai encounteredeach other was when Malakai attacked her in the barn. If he hadn’tteleported out of there, Cole would have killed him.
She had no doubt he still intended to killMalakai, but if Cole killed him now, the Lord would be pissed. TheLord favored Malakai.
He’d given the vampire a sun medallion toallow him to walk about in the day, and he’d made it clear hewouldn’t tolerate Cole and Malakai fighting. If he killed Malakai,the Lord would make Cole pay, and they’d just gotten that monsteroff their backs by giving him the fake bodies of Orin and Varo.
“Lexi, come here,” her dad said.
His face was full of strain, his jaw taut,and his eyes a vibrant shade of red. She hadn’t told him about whathappened between her and Malakai, there hadn’t been time, butsomeone had… most likely, Sahira.
Varo’s nearly white-blue eyes darted betweenthe hall and the curtained front windows. Orin, for once, did notlook amused as he stood with a hand on the hilt of his sword. Theydidn’t need the three of them provoked into a fight.
“No,” Lexi replied, and her dad’s eyeswidened.
She couldn’t leave Cole to face Malakaialone. She was the only one who could keep him calm if this allwent to shit, and she had a feeling that was exactly what the Lordwas after.
He may favor Malakai, but he was looking toprovoke Cole into doing something that would give him an excuse tomake him suffer. And Malakai was the number one way to get Cole tolose his temper.
