Since they’d started to stay here, she’d learned to block out the inmate’s sobs, but sometimes, they slipped through and she became aware of them again. Now was one of those times.
She cringed as one of them wept while alternately pleading for someone to kill him. Then he started begging for his mother.
“Can we let them go once we destroy the Lord?” she whispered.
“We’ll destroy them then,” Cole replied.
She recoiled from his words. “We can’t do that.”
“They’re loyal to the Lord.”
“So are many inallthe realms; will we kill them too?”
She held her breath and waited for his answer, but they couldn’t slaughter all those who sided with the Lord. He didn’t reply though.
“Some are loyal to him because they have to be,” she said. “They’re afraid for their families and their lives. They don’t want to lose everything they have, so they fight for him.”
“I know.”
The briskness of his words said he knew but didn’t care. “Cole—”
“Anyone who is a threat to you will perish.”
She glanced back at Varo and Kaylia as they followed them downstairs to the kitchen below. They both wore blank expressions, but there was sadness in Varo’s white-blue eyes and a hint of apprehension in Kaylia’s pewter ones.
When they entered the kitchen, assorted immortals sat at some of the wooden tables set out around the room. Brokk, her dad, and Niall gathered at a table in the far back. Orin sat with a group of his men; he’d propped his feet on the table as he leaned back in his chair and laughed.
When her dad spotted them, he smiled and rose from the table to stride toward them. When he opened his big arms, she happily went into them, and he swept her into one of his bear hugs.
“How did it go?” he inquired.
“Not great, but not bad,” Lexi informed him. “I’ll tell you more after I get some food.”
“I’ll get you something to eat,” Cole offered as he kissed her forehead. “Go sit with your dad and relax.”
When Varo and Kaylia broke off to go with Cole, Lexi hooked her arm through her dad’s and leaned against his side as they walked over to the table together. Eyes bore into their backs as everyone in the room followed their every move.
She still wasn’t used to all the attention she got from everyone. It took time for the immortals in the prison to learn her true heritage, but they became incessantly curious about her once they did.
Those in the prison learned about her from visiting friends and family and through the grapevine full of talk about the dark fae king’s arach fiancée. Varo and Orin hadn’t told them what she was, and as much as Orin pissed her off, he wouldn’t have revealed her secret either.
They also knew Cole was the Shadow Reaver, but they weren’t as curious about him as they were her. Probably because he was a lot more intimidating.
Lexi settled on a bench at the table as Sahira and Maverick entered the room. Her aunt’s face lit up when she spotted them; she waved before hurrying over to join them. Maverick continued toward the immortals serving food and pitchers of blood from behind the cafeteria line.
Her dad sat next to her, and Sahira plopped down across from her. Though she’d expected it, Lexi inwardly groaned when Orin rose and strolled over to join them.
Grasping a chair from a nearby table, he turned it around before straddling it and sitting at the head of the table. He rested his arms on the back of the chair and propped his chin on them. “How did it go?”
Her dad shot him an irritated look as his upper lip curved enough to reveal the tip of a fang. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
“Oh, Del, there’s nowhere I’d rather be than basking in the rays of your sunny disposition. It’s giving me a tan.”
“Orin,” Brokk said in a low, warning tone.
“It went fine,” Lexi said before they could all start bickering.
“Did you learn anything new?” Orin asked.
