Cole debated this for a few seconds before he nodded to Sahira. If this woman learned too much, he could always kill her. She wasn’t entirely innocent in all of this, and if it came between her life and Lexi’s, there was no choice.
“The stone flew across the room and stopped before her,” Sahira said. “As it hovered in the air before her, it started to glow. She lifted her hand to brush back some hair, and the stone flew at her hand. The second they connected, the stone launched her off her feet and into the wall.”
Kaylia’s head tipped back, and she took in the dent in the wall. “That was the curse, but it should have killed her. The fact she’s still alive….”
Her voice trailed off as her eyes fell on Lexi again. Unlike in the crone realm, where she kept her emotions mostly hidden, her disbelief, awe, and uncertainty were evident.
“The stone shouldn’t have reacted like that. She shouldn’t be…” she hesitated before whispering, “alive.”
There was something about the words that made Cole wonder if she meant now or at all. He was beginning to suspect she knew more than she was letting on and had really meant to say Lexi shouldn’t exist.
“Don’t,” Cole warned when she stretched a hand toward Lexi.
Her fingers froze in the air, and she twisted toward Cole. “If I’m going to help her, you have to let me touch her.”
“How do I know you’re not going to make it worse?” Cole demanded.
“Because I don’t want to die, and you’re going to kill me if she dies, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he confirmed.
The only one who didn’t suck in a loud breath was Orin.
“I thought so,” Kaylia said.
She turned her attention back to Lexi. Her fingers moved toward the harrow stone but stopped when they were a few centimeters away. And then she grasped Lexi’s hands and turned them over to examine them.
“Did the stone burn her?” Kaylia asked.
“No,” Sahira said. “I checked before we went to the crone realm. She had no burn marks on her.”
Kaylia set Lexi’s hands down. As she did, Lexi’s pinky brushed the harrow stone, and a spark of light flashed inside it. Kaylia’s hand trembled as she lifted Lexi’s and turned it over once more, but no burn marred her flesh.
“Oh, Hecate,” she breathed. “Oh, it can’t be.”
Cole no longer had any doubt this woman knew what Lexi was and therefore posed a threat to her.
“Is she…?” Kaylia gulped, and her shoulders hunched up as if she could feel the weight of Cole’s stare on her back. She finished in a tremulous whisper. “Is she arach?”
When no one spoke, some of the color came back into Kaylia’s face, her shoulders went back, and she met Cole’s eyes. “If I’m going to help her, I have to know the truth. Is she arach?”
He ground his teeth together. He didn’t want to kill her if she saved Lexi, but he didn’t trust this woman. There was no way she could walk amongst the realms with her knowledge of Lexi’s heritage.
But if she didn’t have the truth, she might not be able to save Lexi.
“Yes,” he confirmed.
Her hands trembled as she rested them against Lexi’s face. “How is that possible?”
“How is anything possible?” Sahira asked. “Can you save her?”
“Yes,” Kaylia replied. “The stone protected her from the full brunt of the curse; that’s why she’s still alive. I can remove the curse from her and the stone.”
Then she turned to Sahira and Brokk. She examined them like they were alien life-forms she’d never seen before. They both frowned at her in return.
“Neither of you has asked about yourselves in this,” Kaylia said.
“We’re not the ones lying on the ground right now,” Brokk pointed out.
“No, but the curse also affects you, and you are vampires.”
“What does being a vampire have to do with anything?”
“No vampire has ever cared for anything beyond themselves.”
“Lady, you’ve got a lot to learn about vampires,” Del said.
“I know all I need to know about the monsters. Sometimes, there is a small exception to the rule, but not when it comes to vamps. Perhaps they didn’t ask because they knew it would piss him off,” she said and thrust her finger at Cole.
“This is pissing me off,” Cole said. “Can you lift the curse from all of them?”
Kaylia hesitated before replying. “I can.”
“Good, then do it.”
Kaylia turned her attention back to the stone. She leaned so close that she was almost kissing it when she whispered a few words Cole didn’t hear. When she finished, nothing happened to the stone, but she gave a satisfied nod.
“The curse has been lifted from the stone, which means the two of you will not be affected by it.” She glanced pointedly at Brokk and Sahira before turning her attention to Lexi.
Kaylia rested her fingers against Lexi’s cheeks. As she leaned closer, Cole watched the small rise and fall of Lexi’s chest. If she stopped breathing, he’d tear Kaylia’s head off before she realized he’d moved.
Kaylia released Lexi’s face and lifted her fingers over Lexi’s chest. Her hands rose and fell in a rhythmic, mesmerizing motion. He couldn’t understand the words she spoke, but he thought it might be the language of the ancients. A language he’d believed lost many centuries ago.
If it was the language of the ancients, then there was a lot of power in the words she uttered and the woman herself. The air beneath Kaylia’s fingers crackled and popped as she drew on its power. Cole tensed, and the shadows around and inside him stirred.
When he stepped closer to Kaylia, Sahira held out her hand to stop him and gave a subtle shake of her head. He scowled at her, but she didn’t back down. Kaylia said something more before bending closer to Lexi.
Her mouth hovered above Lexi’s. It was so close they nearly kissed when Kaylia inhaled deeply. From between Lexi’s barely parted lips, a tendril of black, wispy smoke rose to hover in the air between them.
Once all the smoke stopped, Kaylia leaned back a little. With a small wave of her hand, Kaylia brushed it aside, and it dissipated in the air before she kissed Lexi’s forehead.
“Awaken,” she murmured before leaning back and resting her hands on her knees.
Lexi’s eyes flew open, and her back arched off the floor as she inhaled a large, gulping breath. Cole’s heart leapt in excitement, and he pushed past Kaylia to drop beside Lexi. She coughed and wheezed as he gathered her into his arms and cradled her against his chest.
“It’s okay; you’re okay,” he assured her as he ran his hands over her silken hair.
Her fingers dug into his back as she clung to him, and her entire body shook. The sounds she emitted were ones of terror as her tears wet his neck. She tried to speak, but all that came out were more gasps for air.
“Shh, love,” he whispered as he clasped her nape. “Don’t try to talk. You’re safe now, and I’m not going to let you go. Relax and breathe slowly. In and out. In and out.”
He coaxed her through some relaxation techniques until her breathing finally became more natural and her death grip on him eased. Movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention as Kaylia edged away from them.