She’d seenhimas blue flashed through his eyes. That vanished when the Lord ran.
Once again, only coldness emanated from him as the shadows rose like Medusa’s snakes around him. A spine-chilling hiss filled the air.
The shadows moved so rapidly across the room that they blurred, shifted, and blended before separating while hunting their prey. The Lord screamed when the shadows wrapped around his ankles and ripped him off his feet.
His shriek abruptly cut off when his chin smacked off the floor, but he twisted and kicked until he flipped himself onto his back. With a few intricate waves of his hands and a wiggle of his fingers, a wall of air shot out from him.
If it wasn’t for the ripple it created as it moved across the room, blowing smoke out of its way and causing the fires to dance, Lexi wouldn’t have seen it coming. Spreading her legs apart, she braced herself for impact, but it knocked her back three feet before she righted herself.
Flames from one of the dwindling fires shot up and rolled toward Cole. Cole deflected the fire with a flick of his wrist. He started toward the Lord as the madman sent another wave of air toward them.
Planting his feet, Cole lifted his arms and crossed them before him. He used his ability to manipulate the elements to push back against the air. Caught between the warlock and the dark fae, the air pulsated against the walls.
Pressure built in her ears until it gave way with a loud pop. The air wall shot upward as the Lord returned to kicking and screaming for the dragons.
Dragons descended into the room. The Lord was finally calling them, but after they landed, they remained unmoving amid the carnage.
“They won’t harm us,” Cole said in those awful voices.
Out of tricks to stop the shadows from taking him, the Lord’s body thudded down the steps while the shadows dragged him onward. He flipped himself over and clawed at the steps to gain purchase on them.
His brutalized fingers left a streak of blood across the surface as his nails tore free. Lexi tried to look away but couldn’t.
This was it. Seeingthisman dethroned was what they’d all fought for. No matter how violent and awful this was, she couldn’t look away.
The Lord’s chin bounced off the floor when he came off the last step. The shadows surged and bobbed around him as he thrashed and scrambled to get a better purchase on the stone floor.
The awful, squealing sounds he issued were those of a pig trying to escape the slaughter, but she felt no sympathy for him. He’d killed far too many for her to have any compassion, and if he lived, he would gladly see them all dead.
There was no room for sympathy, but she wished it was over.
When Cole started across the floor toward the Lord, she remained behind. This wasn’t her kill to make… it was Cole’s. And he’d been looking forward to this since his father’s murder.
But then, she realized something.
If he gave way and letherdo this, then maybe there was a chance she could save him from the shadows. If a part of him had reached for her earlier, then something of the man she desperately loved remained inside that darkness. Maybe she could get him back if he let her finish this.
“Let me do it!” she blurted as Cole closed in on the Lord.
The shadows twisted toward her, but Cole didn’t look back. Nausea over the idea of killing the squirming, squealing man churned in her belly, but Lexi ran forward.
With care, she tried to place her bare feet somewhere without blood or body parts, but that was impossible. She sprinted past a dragon who looked curiously on but made no move to intervene.
She was almost to them when her foot slipped in some blood, and she nearly fell. Skidding on the floor, she righted herself and stopped behind Cole. He didn’t acknowledge her.
“Cole—”
“This isourjob,” the shadows hissed at her.
She ignored them and grasped Cole’s arm. When he turned toward her, the vulnerability she glimpsed earlier in his eyes was gone. Steel shone back at her from those silver depths as shadows wiggled through his flesh and passed across his irises.
No, no, no, no…she inwardly wept as the word echoed through her mind, but no tears spilled down her face.
That moment when he reached for her was nothing more than a fluke; Cole was gone. What remained in his place was something cold and distant and so very different than the passionate, loving man she knew. Her soul sobbed as her hand went to her mouth and everything in her shattered.
She stepped back and closed her eyes against the tears trying to break free.
* * *
