“More years than any of us could begin to grasp,” Alina confirmed. “But we are forbidden from killing anyone forged with arach powers.”
It took too many seconds for the implications of her words to sink in. When they did, the air left Lexi’s lungs in a rush. She felt like an idiot for not grasping the meaning behind Alina’s words the second they left the dragon’s mouth, but her mind still refused to process it fully.
Before Lexi could respond, Maverick eloquently put her question into words, “What the fuck?”
“Are you saying my increased control over the shadows came from arach magic?” Cole asked.
“Your control of the shadows came from a dark fae’s ability to manipulate them. Your ability to turn those shadows into a destructive, murderous force unlike anything the realms has seen before came from arach magic.”
CHAPTEREIGHT
Lexi couldn’t breatheas everything in her froze. Theshadows, the things she feared more than the Lord, were a part of Cole now because ofarachmagic.
Herancestors did this to Cole.Herancestors infused him with this dark energy twisting him into someone different and making him think he was becoming a monster.Theyhad given him the ability to tear the extremities from Malakai without touching him, before Cole beat him into a bloody pulp.
She’d always felt a little sorry for the arach for destroying themselves. She’d believed the realms were a better place when they held the throne because there wasn’t so much violence and because the human world was intact, instead of the bloody, chaotic ruins that now reined there.
Believed things must have been better before a madman sat on the throne and controlled the dragons.
But the arach weren’t any better!
They destroyed themselves because they couldn’t accept the love between a princess and a commoner. They tore themselves apart because some of them sought more power over the realms when it wasn’t theirs for the taking.
The arach were a race who forced magic onto a good man when he wasn’t expecting it, and hedid notdeserve to bear its curse. Theyneverhad any right to decide that for Cole.
The arach were as monstrous as the Lord… maybe more so. When they made their destructive choices, their minds weren’t rotten and corrupted by a throne that wasn’t theirs.
And then a terrifying possibility occurred to her—had the throne corrupted the arach too?
“Were the arach also insane?” she whispered.
Alina blinked at her. “Insane?”
“Like the Lord? Were they completely crazed lunatics like him?”
“Not at all.” Alina sounded astounded by the mere suggestion. “The Lord was corrupted by magic that doesn’t belong to him and power that was never his to wield.”
“Thenwhydid they destroy themselves over a forbidden love and a thirst for more power?”
“Because that is what some immortals and mortals do. Immortals seek power they shouldn’t have, and once they attain it, they thirst for more. And they will destroy anyone or anything who stands in their way of getting it.
“That is the way of the realms; it’s always been so. Before your parents really lit the spark, there were occasional uprisings and murmurs of discontent in Dragonia. It was only a matter of time before it all went up in flames.”
“How bleak,” Lexi whispered.
But it was true. She wouldn’t seek more power if she ever claimed the throne, but others would, and many would try to wrest it from her. Their battle wouldn’t end with destroying the Lord.
“If they weren’t crazy,whywould the arach create a magic that could… could….” Lexi took a deep breath to control herself as her voice started to take on a hysterical tone.
A magic that could what? Destroy Cole or the realms if the Shadow Reaver prophecy was true? And if it was real, then she was bound to die.
She glanced at Cole, who was studying her with eyes full of understanding. She yearned to drape her arms around his neck, bury her face there, and cling to him as she chased away all his shadows, but she couldn’t shut this out.
There was no hiding from this.
“Why did they do something to create the Shadow Reaver?” she inquired in a voice far stronger than she’d anticipated. “Why would theywantthe Reaver to exist?”
Alina lowered her head again until her beautiful, golden eyes met Lexi’s. The sadness in those eyes told Lexi she wouldnotlike what the dragon had to say.
