“Lexi,” Cole said.
“We’ll be back before then,” Brokk said before Lexi could argue with him. “If the remaining witches were all fleeing by the time Cole left, then the dragons and Lord’s men are probably gone. There’s nothing there for them anymore. We need a portal.”
“And you shall have one,” Sahira said.
Lexi’s heart lodged in her throat as her aunt opened a portal into Verdan. Much like the portal she, Cole, and Kaylia entered earlier, there was no sign of the danger lurking beyond. But she’d become very aware of how deceiving looks were.
Sahira squeezed the woman’s shoulder before releasing her. The woman lifted her head to look at Sahira before shifting her attention back to her child.
“Good luck,” Lexi whispered as she held the blanket closer.
“We don’t need it,” Maverick replied. “We’ll kill whoever gets in our way.”
His words were chilling, but she liked his attitude. And then, they vanished into the portal.
Lexi opened her mouth to tell the others she was going to get dressed but whispered words froze hers.
“What did you do?”
Lexi’s attention shifted to the grieving mother gazing at her in disbelief.
“What. Did. You. Do?”
Did the woman thinkshe’ddone this to her daughter? But that couldn’t be possible; she saw the warlock stab her child.
CHAPTERFORTY-ONE
Brokk was expectingit to be bad, but the total devastation of the village of Gramarye made his steps falter as they emerged from the portal. Beside him, Maverick stiffened, and Sahira froze. Smoke spiraled into the air, but the fires, running out of things to consume, were dying.
“Oh, Hecate,” Sahira whispered.
Everywhere Brokk looked was nothing but charred embers, smoldering remains, and the dead. And there weresomanydead. The bodies littering the ground seemed as numerous as blades of grass on a field.
And some of those bodies… Brokk shuddered at the brutalized remains and the different parts scattered across the charred earth.
The dragons hadn’t done that; they would have eaten those remains. He’d never seen any other immortals do anything like this in war, not even the lycan or berserkers who were sometimes known to lose complete control.
He didn’t have to witness the killings to know what did this; it was the shadows. His brother and thosethingsresiding in and around him had unleashed this brutality on the enemy.
It wasn’t something he’d ever considered Cole capable of doing, but he wasn’t fool enough to tell himself it wouldn’t get any worse. As much as he hated to admit it, this was only the beginning.
Brokk searched the sky but didn’t see any dragons; if one appeared, they’d have no choice but to leave. There was no way for them to avoid or hide from the monsters. There was nothing left to hide behind or anywhere to take cover in this burned-out shell of a land.
Sahira closed the portal as Brokk moved forward. It was almost impossible to step over one crisp-fried body without nearly stepping on another.
“What the fuck?” Maverick muttered as he stepped over the remains of a lycan caught in mid shift.
Brokk assumed some of the other men were warlocks; how many of those men fought for the witches and how many against was impossible to decipher. He’d survived the Lord’s war, done things he’d never forget and would always regret, but he couldn’t look at the smaller bodies scattered amid the remains.
“He’s a monster,” Sahira whispered.
It was stating the obvious, but the Lord was unraveling faster with every passing day.
“They didn’t deserve this,” Sahira whispered.
“He’s going after anyone he thinks might stand in his way,” Brokk said. “Maybe even those he believesmightturn against him. We should warn them all.”
“We will,” Maverick said.
