Unable to look at them, Kaylia stared over their heads and at the canvas wall. For a second, her casual demeanor vanished as her nostrils flared. When she looked at them again, hatred simmered in her gray eyes.
Brokk kept his face impassive as he stared back at her, but it took everything he had not to give her the finger. He knew witches hated vampires, and he supposed they had a reason, but her hatred was a bit over the top and… annoying.
“Why are you here?” Kaylia asked.
He looked to Sahira and gave her a subtle nod. She was as much of a vampire as he was, but these were her people. Well, at the very least, she was half witch, but this woman made it clear she did not consider Sahira one of them.
It made him dislike Kaylia more. Despite the history between witches and vamps, Sahira had a kind heart, and the witches refused to see it because of her vamp blood.
If they weren’t here to help save his brothers, he would have told Kaylia to go fuck herself and dragged Sahira from this realm. But they needed the harrow stone, and they couldn’t make the crones an enemy of Cole, so he remained sitting.
“We need the harrow stone,” Sahira stated. “It might help us to take down the Lord by saving some of his greatest enemies.”
Some of Kaylia’s loathing vanished as her eyebrows rose. She studied them before speaking. “Continue.”
Sahira proceeded to fill her in on why they were here for the stone and how they intended to use it to clone his brothers. They planned to make the Lord believe Varo and Orin were dead so they could use their contacts to destroy the Lord while also getting the twisted prick to stop breathing down Cole’s neck.
When Sahira finished, Kaylia stared at the wall. As he watched the emotions playing over Kaylia’s face, Brokk worried Sahira had revealed too much about his brothers and Cole working together against the Lord.
He told himself to trust Sahira’s instincts in this, but she put a lot of faith in a woman who clearly hated them.
“And how do you plan to destroy the Lord after that?” Kaylia asked.
“We’re still working on that,” Sahira said. “But we need time to form a plan, and the harrow stone is the best way to buy us this. If Cole doesn’t hand his brothers over soon, the Lord will make him, and the Gloaming, pay.”
“I have little care for what happens to the dark fae.”
Shit, she’s a heartless bitch. Brokk couldn’t decide if he admired that trait or not.
“He won’t stop at the Gloaming, and you know it,” Sahira countered. “If the dark fae fall or if he seizes control of their realm, he’ll go for the witches or the lycan next. And he’ll continue to take them all down until he’s destroyed us all.”
Kaylia didn’t reply again for a while. “Why doesn’t Cole just hand his brothers over? It’s not like they haven’t fought against each other throughout the war.”
“They are still our brothers,” Brokk said.
Kaylia didn’t bother to look at him.
“Orin has followers who could help bring down the Lord if we all work together. We need his help,” Sahira said.
“They’re not vampires,” Brokk said.
When she turned those pewter eyes on him, the chill in them could have iced the dead. She didn’t bother to reply before focusing on the wall again.
“Why didn’t they all work together in the first place? Why has Cole decided to go against the Lord now?” Kaylia asked.
Sahira gave Brokk a pointed look. “Tell her everything.”
“I don’t trust her,” Brokk replied honestly.
“You don’t have a choice.”
Kaylia looked bored as she stifled a yawn and stared at the wall. He didn’t want to give anything to this woman, but Orin and Varo—perhaps all of them—were screwed without that stone.
So, he told the miserable crone about how they’d secretly worked against the Lord the whole time. He didn’t name any of the others on the Coalition, but he still felt like a traitor.
“And you think things will be different this time, if you all work together?” Kaylia asked.
“We don’t have any other options. We tried to undermine him and failed the first time. Orin tried to lead a rebellion against him and failed. All we can do now is hope to combine forces to go after him again.”
“But many lives were lost during the war, and many armies were wiped out.”
“Which is why he’ll destroy all the realms one at a time, starting with the Gloaming. We need to join forces with all the realms and those who stand against the Lord, and we require Orin’s help and resources to do so. We’ll have to move slowly in the beginning, and this can give us time to do that.”
She was quiet for so long that Brokk started to question if she’d fallen asleep with her eyes open. Finally, she blinked.
“I will think on it. Get out,” she commanded.
Sahira rose, but Brokk remained where he was. That was all she had to say after all they’d revealed?
“If the Lord isn’t stopped, he will kill thousands if not millions more, including witches,” Brokk said.
Kaylia’s eyes flicked over him before she turned away, lifted a flap in the back of the lodge, and started to duck out. “Do not leave this realm and get out of my home.”
And then, she was gone.
Brokk looked to Sahira, who sighed before rising.
“Do you know her personally?” Brokk demanded.
“No,” Sahira said. “I only know of her reputation and that she is the oldest living witch. I’ve only traveled into a witch realm a few times before, and I was not welcome to stay long.”
That wasn’t exactly the answer he was hoping to hear. “Then why did you trust her enough to reveal so much to her?”
Sahira gazed at the still-waving back flap as she replied. “Because the witches respect life and nature, all the things the Lord has no respect for. They hate the vampires—”
“She wasn’t overly fond of the dark fae either.”
“I sometimes think that when one lives for so many years, they lose track of what matters, and they harbor resentments they should let go. She will see reason and realize the Lord will destroy those she loves and cares about, including all the living creatures in this realm and beyond, and she will help us.”
“You have a lot of faith in someone who threw us out on our asses when we first arrived.”
“She didn’t try to kill us.”
“Are you sure?”
“Kaylia is old and powerful; we’d know it if she tried to kill us. She most likely would have succeeded.”
“Wonderful,” Brokk muttered.
“Is she going to tell anyone else what we revealed to her?”
“I don’t know,” Sahira admitted. “I prefer to think she’ll keep it to herself, but I can’t say for sure. If Kaylia gives us the harrow stone, she’ll be as culpable in this as we are, so I think, for now, she’ll keep it to herself or to those she trusts the most.”
“So, if she gives us the stone, we’ll know she’ll keep our secrets. If she doesn’t, then we know we might have condemned us all to life on the run from the Lord.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s hope we get that stone.”