Awe parted her mouth and caused her eyebrows to rise. Cole was sure his astonishment mirrored hers, but he didn’t know what was happening. He was only a few feet away when the stone swung forward and hit the hand Lexi had lifted to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
“No!” Sahira shouted.
Cole was reaching for Lexi when a loud pop reverberated through the air, and she flew backward out of the library.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
“No!” Cole bellowed as he sprinted out the door.
Lexi had hit the wall opposite the library so hard she dented it. After the impact, her body hung in the air for a second before sliding to the ground.
Her head fell forward, and her chin rested against her chest. Her hands fell open at her sides, and the stone landed in one of her open palms. And then, she didn’t move at all.
She was so still.
Too still!
He was almost to her side when something slammed into him, knocking him off course. Arms encircled his waist as he toppled to the ground. Turning into the embrace, Cole prepared to kill whoever was keeping him from Lexi.
Fury rocked him when he spotted Brokk. His brother rolled with him, but before Cole could tear his head off, Brokk leapt to his feet and danced away.
“Don’t touch her!” Brokk shouted at him. “She’s holding the stone! If you touch her, it will kill you.”
He didn’t say kill you too, probably because he knew Cole would lose his mind if she died. And how could she be anything other than dead? The stone was cursed; they all knew that.
No one other than the immortal granted access to it was allowed to touch it. It killed anyone else who dared to try. How could she possibly be alive?
Terror buried his rage as his gaze swung to Lexi. She hadn’t purposely touched it; the thing had sought her out. And then it had fallen into her hand.
How could she be made to bear the brunt of this curse when it hadn’t been her choice to touch the stone?
He couldn’t lose her; he’d tear every one of the realms apart if he did. He would shred everyone and everything in his way. As the murderous impulses churned in his mind, the shadows lurking in the hallway crept closer.
Through his strengthening bond with them, he sensed their excitement. They would help him to destroy everyone in his way. They would welcome the blood, just as they had in his nightmare.
Cole almost pulled them closer to him, but he realized that though Lexi should be dead, he didn’t feel the loss of his mate through his mark on her.
If he did, he wouldn’t be able to keep control of what was building inside him. And the first place he would unleash it was on the crone realm. If she died, he would make the crones pay for her death.
Cole shoved himself to his feet as something vile and volatile clawed at his insides. He’d never experienced anything like it before, but it felt as if someone had turned a hundred rats loose inside him, and every one of them was trying to dig their way out.
The shadows of the hall shifted and slid toward him while the shadows residing inside him woke. They screamed for vengeance and roared to be set free, but he kept them restrained.
The only enemy here was the stone, and the shadows couldn’t destroy it. And that thing might be the only chance he had of saving her. He didn’t care what it took; the crones would break the curse.
Already at Lexi’s side, Sahira knocked Lexi’s hand to the side, and the stone tumbled out. “Lexi?” Sahira whispered as she brushed the hair back from Lexi’s face.
Clasping Lexi’s cheeks, she lifted her head to peer at her pale face and nearly bloodless lips. He’d seen dead bodies that weren’t as pale as her.
Orin and Varo hovered in the library’s doorway while Del knelt at Lexi’s other side. Brokk remained standing between him and Lexi. The look on his brother’s face, as he glanced nervously between them, said he’d prefer to crawl into a pit of vipers.
“She’s alive,” Cole stated as he stalked toward them.
For how long, he didn’t know, but he would save her.
Brokk held up his hands and backed away from him. Orin and Varo remained where they were. Varo watched with frightened eyes while Orin’s gaze went from Cole to Lexi and back again. His brother was calculating exactly how close Cole was to losing it.
“Yes,” Sahira said. When Del leaned closer to her, Sahira waved him back. “Don’t touch her. I’m not sure how the curse works now that it’s activated. If you touch her, it could spread to you.”
Sahira turned her attention to the stone. The brilliant glow was gone, but when she tried to lift it, she yelped and jerked her fingers away. She stared at it in disbelief.
“It certainly no longer welcomes my touch,” Sahira muttered.
She turned her hand over to reveal the nasty burn in the middle of her palm and two on the tips of her fingers.
“What is going on?” Del demanded.
“I don’t know,” Sahira said. “She should be dead, and because she touched it….” Her voice trailed off as she looked at Brokk.
“We’re next,” he said.
“We’re next,” she confirmed.
“Who put the curse on the stone?” Cole growled.
Sahira turned toward him, and when her gaze met his, her mouth opened, but she didn’t speak. He didn’t know what she saw on his face, but she leaned away from him.
“Cole….” Orin started, but he closed his mouth and glanced at Brokk, who shook his head in warning.
“Who controls the curse?” Cole enunciated.
“Kaylia gave us the stone.”
“Take me to her.”
“I… uh… I don’t think it’s such a good idea for you to enter the crone realm right now. I’ll go—”
“No,” Cole said. “Take me to her. Now.”
Sahira glanced nervously at the others.
“Cole, the crones won’t take kindly to you… ah… entering their realm like this,” she said. “You have to calm down.”
“I don’t give a fuck what they take kindly to. They are going to save her.”
“I’ll go with you,” Brokk offered.
“Um… yeah… ah… okay,” she whispered.
“I’ll come too,” Varo said.
“No,” Cole said harshly. “We did all of this to ensure everyone believed you were dead. Even if they know the stone was supposed to be used on you, you’re not going to waltz into the crone realm and confirm it.”
Varo glanced at Orin, whose mouth remained clamped shut.
“Let’s go,” Cole snarled.
Brokk strode toward the library doors, but Sahira hesitated as she brushed Lexi’s hair back from her face. With tender care, she adjusted Lexi to lie on the ground with the stone near her side. Then she lifted Lexi’s hands and examined them before setting them on the floor.
“Don’t let anyone touch her,” she said to Del, who nodded.
“Is she going to be okay?” he asked anxiously.
Cole didn’t miss the doubt in Sahira’s eyes when she met her brother’s eyes. He also noted that she didn’t reply.
The rage building inside him was becoming a bomb waiting to blow, and if this Kaylia didn’t agree to save Lexi, she would get the brunt of it.