“Go inside,” he told her. “The Lord’s menwere just here and could still be watching us. He’ll find itsuspicious if he learns you’re here.”
“Why did he do this for you?” shepractically shrieked.
“Because I made the mistake of letting myconscience get the best of me. I won’t let it happen again.”
“That’s not—”
Cole cut her off before she could continue.“I killed a pixie he was torturing in his solar. She was beyondsaving, so I ended a dying creature’s suffering. He’s repaying mystupidact of kindness with one of cruelty. I should haveseen it coming, but I wasn’t expecting something this insane, and Ibelieved I wasalone.”
And he would live with the death of theseinnocent creatures on his conscience just like so many otherthings. He didn’t want to look any closer, but he inspected thebroken bodies surrounding him.
They looked like someone crushed them. Heimagined their captors reaching into the nets, or whatever theyused to gather this many pixies, and squeezing the tiny creaturesto death.
He had no doubt Malakai enjoyed it.
“Now getinsidebefore you destroy usall,” he snarled.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, and the wordsstunned him almost as much as the Lord’s gruesome gift.
He didn’t have to look back as she ascendedthe steps. When the door closed, he shut his eyes and focused onthe shifting currents of air around him.
Drawing on the air currents, he pushed thebodies together until they clustered in the center of the yard.Brokk and Sahira remained nearby while he worked.
CHAPTER 13
It was nightfall when they finished buryingall the pixies in the woods on the other side of the lake. None ofthe Lord’s guards were there, so at least he didn’t have to worryabout one of them reporting a strange woman at the manor.
The Lord would probably recognize Kaylia ifhe saw her, but he doubted any of his men would. Still, a report ofa strange woman at the manor wouldn’t go over well.
They kept the bodies away from the graves ofLexi’s birth parents and took them deeper into the woods. Shecouldn’t have this reminder when she visited them.
He wiped the sweat from his brow as he staredat the hundreds of new graves surrounding him. It would have beenfaster to bury them all in a mass grave, but every one of themdeserved their own place to lie. He wished he’d known theirnames.
He shifted his attention to the manor. Fromwhat he could tell, the electricity hadn’t come back as the glow ofthe lanterns flickered against the closed curtains. Moonlight shonedown on the earth and reflected off the serene surface of the lakeas crickets sang and the tree frogs chirped.
It was all so peaceful, but a churning stormsimmered beneath his surface. The shadows were awake inside him,and they wereseething. This impotent fury only made himmadder as he had no one to take it out on.
One day, he would make all those who had ahand in this pay for it, but how many more innocents would diebefore the Lord and his followers were destroyed? And how muchlonger could he continue to play this cruel game?
Not much longer. He wasn’t a pawn, and he wasfar too powerful to continue to stand by and allow the Lord to pushhim around and destroy innocents.
This had to stop, but first, Lexi had tolearn about and come into her powers. He would play the game untilshe was better able to defend herself. Because once he stoppedplaying, the Lord was going to come after them with everything hehad.
“It’s done,” Sahira said as she stuck the tipof her shovel in the ground.
Cole had told her many times to go backinside, so she didn’t have to do this; each time, she refused.Often, with tears streaming down her face, she resolutely remainedas they gathered and buried the bodies.
Now, dirt streaked her pretty face, hermahogany hair had slid free of its customary bun, and red rimmedher amber eyes, but no tears shone in them. Like his and Brokk’s,dirt and sweat streaked her clothes.
“I need a shower,” Sahira murmured.
So did he, but he wasn’t ready to return tothe manor. He’d caused this with his reckless action. He shouldn’thave killed the pixie, but his conscience and the creature’s crieshad driven him to react instead of thinking it through.
Since meeting Lexi, the lycan part of him hadmade itself more known and often took over the more rational darkfae side. And he wanted to claim it was the lycan part of him thatreacted so foolishly, but the sensible, dark fae part couldn’t haveleft the defenseless creature to suffer either.
And now, he would have to look at Lexi againwhile knowing the blood ofthesebrutalized pixies restedsolely on his shoulders.
“You both should go back inside; I’m going totour the perimeter and make sure no one is nearby,” he toldthem.
