The only problem was, it would recall where it filled its belly. The residents of Underhill were not prepared to defend themselves against dragons. This was a peaceful village; a dragon would tear it apart.
He would have to send men here, at least for a little while. It was not the best option so soon after the attack on the palace, but he couldn’t leave Underhill unprotected.
Right now, he had to get Lexi a room and some sleep.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Shadows slithered across the ground and crept across the sky until they blanketed out the day. The sun blackened and shriveled until it resembled nothing more than a desiccated heart in the sky. And while the sun never pulsed like a real heart, it always had a rhythm and life all its own.
That rhythm was gone. An incessant screaming rose from the shadows until the sound encompassed the land they’d claimed. And then Cole realized it was not the shadows screaming…
The screams were coming from those trapped within the shadows.
Those lost souls being devoured by the shadows emitted sounds he knew well from his time spent on countless battlefields. They were the sounds of the dying and the damned. They wailed incessantly until those wails cut off, but silence never descended.
As soon as one scream cut off, new ones rose as the shadows moved across the land, eating everything in their way.
And then the shadows found him.
They rose from the ground like cobras preparing to strike as they hovered over him. He’d never expected the Grim Reaper to dance or sway, but this one did in such a rhythmic, beautiful way that he found himself fascinated by the thing about to destroy him.
But no, they wouldn’t destroy him. They wanted something more from him than death.
He didn’t try to fight them or flee as the striking shadows latched onto his skin, pierced through his flesh, and crept into his veins.
They coiled around his heart and filled his body until they replaced the air filling his lungs. He jerked as they seeped into his soul. While all around him, screams ruled the unnatural night, he didn’t scream as the shadows consumed him.
A small thud pulled Lexi from her sleep. She blinked against the darkness as she tried to recall where she was. In the dim light of the lantern on the bedside table, she studied the unfamiliar room until her groggy brain fit the pieces together.
She was at the inn, and Cole was…
When she rolled over, she expected to discover Cole where she last saw him, lying beside her on the bed. She recalled the warmth and strength of his arms enveloping her while she drifted to sleep.
But, of course, he wasn’t still there; she should have known better.
Edging closer to the edge of the bed, she looked down to discover him on the floor. The stubborn fool hadn’t even taken one of the blankets; he’d left her with them.
While she understood his fear that he would attack her while he slept, she was so tired of it. He should not be sleeping on a cold, hard floor while she had this big bed to herself. He was scared he’d hurt her, but she was positive he wouldn’t.
He’d removed his pants and tunic last night, so the corded muscles in his arms and thighs stood starkly out, and the contours of his chiseled body were visible. His wounds from the battle had completely healed; she couldn’t see any mark on him from them anymore.
Last night, she was too exhausted to appreciate how amazing he was. But today, with the early light of dawn starting to brighten the night, she couldn’t stop herself from admiring him as she tried to ascertain what was happening.
She was pretty sure he was having a nightmare as his hands clenched and his body tensed, but he wasn’t moving or thrashing like the other times she saw him having one. She knew better than to try to wake him during a nightmare, but she couldn’t let him suffer either.
Slipping from the bed, she padded closer to him. The tunic she wore when they left the palace brushed against her thighs as she walked.
Before they left the palace, Amaris brought her the emerald-green tunic with silver piping and a pair of formfitting, brown pants. The pants were the most comfortable pair of riding pants she’d ever worn.
She’d meant to take the tunic off before climbing into bed, but she must have forgotten. Most of the night was an exhausted blur. She recalled the door to this room opening and stumbling toward the welcoming, queen-sized bed with all the fluffy pillows on top of it.
After that, she only remembered Cole holding her, and then… nothing. Despite not getting much sleep, she felt a lot more rested.
Kneeling beside Cole, she didn’t bother trying to wake him. He would only react violently if she did.
Instead, she lay beside him, rested her head on his shoulder and her hand on his chest. Beneath her palm, his heart raced, but as she lay there, its wild beat slowed and his body steadily relaxed.
She smiled when his breathing returned to normal and the horror haunting him faded away.
The shadows poured from his mouth, out of his nose, and filled the air around him. They were everywhere; not a single piece of him, or the world, was spared their coldness and wrath.
But through the icy tendrils of their grasp, a trickle of warmth started to fill a heart he hadn’t realized had gone cold. The beams of light piercing the darkness reminded him of the sun peeking through the black clouds of a thunderstorm.
Little shafts of light danced across the ground, chasing away the shadows there. The shadows hissed as they recoiled from those rays. The blackened ground turned green once more, and when he tipped his face toward the light, the heat melted the icy chill encompassing him.
The warmth spreading out from his heart pulsed through his veins with every beat. It seeped into his arms and legs as it pushed the shadows out from his veins. When the light forced the shadows to retreat, the sun became exposed once more.
It was still black, but brilliant gold light illuminated its shriveled edges.
Cole flexed his fingers as he gazed at the field spread around him. The shadows retreated, and life was returning to the land, but the dead didn’t rise. Their bodies remained strewn across the rolling green fields.
The sight of them was as unnerving as the realization that, though warmth flowed through him once more, a small ball of coldness remained deep inside his soul.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Cole woke to discover he wasn’t in a land filled with darkness and death but one of warmth and temptation. A lush body, one he would have recognized anywhere, pressed against his side.
A strawberry aroma teased his senses, and though the strangeness of his all-too-realistic dream lingered, his cock stirred. But then, he could plunge into an icy lake, and Lexi would still entice him. She always would.
“What are you doing here?” he asked as he ran his fingers down her arm to her hip. He loved seeing her in the clothes of the dark fae. The color of the tunic brought out the emerald flecks in her hunter green eyes and hugged her body in all the right ways. “I left you in bed.”
“That’s funny because that’s where I left you too.”
“There’s a reason for that,” he reminded her.
“I think it’s beyond time we both moved past that reason. I helped pull you off that battlefield; I’m not the weak half human we believed me to be, and I’m sick of waking up to find you on the floor or in a chair. We can’t spend the rest of our lives sleeping like this; I won’t allow it.”