“I believe it was to protect you,” Alina replied. “Or I should say to protect the arach, but since you are the last one, then it is foryou.”
Lexi’s lungs constricted like all the oxygen was sucked out of the air. She almost looked down to make sure the ground hadn’t plummeted from under her, but she couldn’t move her head.
The lump in her throat became a boulder; it would have choked her if there was any oxygen to breathe. Her hands clenched on Cole, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at him again.
Shewas the reason he was battling this demon. Out of all the many things she could have imagined Alina saying, this appalling possibility hadn’t occurred to her, and she would give anything not to have heard it.
“No!” she blurted as the air suddenly rushed back into her. “No! I don’t need that kind of protection. Tell me how to fix it.”
“AndIdon’t want it fixed.”
Cole’s lethal tone caused the hair on her nape to rise. Gulping, she turned her head to look up at him. The shadows around him emphasized the coldness in his silver eyes.
“Cole—”
“I’ll do whatever I can to protect you and use whatever means necessary.”
“Even if it destroys you?” she cried.
“I won’t allow that to happen, and neither will you.”
Oh, how she wished it were so simple, but they both knew it was nowhere near that easy. She’d witnessed his recent unraveling after killing Malakai and the Lord’s men. She’d stood on the balcony with him as he struggled against the shadows trying to take him over.
She’d stopped him from unraveling, but as his powers grew and the shadows corrupted him more, it wouldn’t get easier for him. And it would become more difficult for her to pull him away from the shadows’ enticing grip.
“Idon’t want this,” she said.
“That doesn’t matter; it is done,” Alina said. “If I knew a way to change it, I wouldn’t allow it, and neither would the Reaver. He exists to protectyou. He exists because of the arach.”
Lexi bit her lip against blurtingfuck you, but it wouldn’t stop Alina from calling herchildif she started acting like one. And it wasn’t the dragon’s fault; she’d asked the question. Alina simply answered it.
Instead, Lexi worked to steady herself as she tried to piece together the scattered remnants of her chaotic thoughts.
CHAPTERNINE
“I don’t understand.How did the arach know they should create the magic for the Shadow Reaver? And why hasn’t there been a Reaver before Cole? The dark fae trials to crown their king or queen have been going on for…?” Kaylia’s question trailed off.
“At least fifty thousand years,” Cole said. “Not much is known before then.”
“History has a way of being lost when there is so much of it,” Varo said.
“Too true,” Alina murmured.
“Could the arach see the future?” Kaylia inquired as she brushed back a strand of silvery blonde hair. Her pewter gray eyes were intent on Alina.
Good question. Lexi shifted her attention to Alina as she awaited the answer.
“And who are you?” Alina inquired.
“I am Kaylia, a crone.”
“So, you are also old and have some power.”
“I do.”
“She’s also a friend,” Lexi said. “A good one who has been helping me try to learn my powers.”
“And have you learned your powers?” Alina asked.
