Shadows of Discovery by Brenda K. Davies

Chapter Twenty-Two

Lexi heldher breath as she crept down the stairs. When one of the steps creaked, she winced and stopped with her other foot still in the air. From below, the grandfather clock ticked away the seconds as she waited for someone to leap out and demand to know what she was doing.

But no one emerged to ask her why she was sneaking downstairs in the middle of the night. When she was certain no one was going to tackle her, she carefully put her foot down and snuck the rest of the way down the stairs.

Once on the first floor, she scurried like a mouse hunting for cheese into the library. With her heart pounding, she leaned against one of the open doors resting against the wall.

She bit her lip as she contemplated closing the doors, but that would only draw more questions if someone woke to discover them locked. If she wasn’t here to open the doors and answer those questions, it would be worse.

And she couldn’t leave the manor to enter the tunnels from one of the other locations. If Sahira or Brokk saw her sneaking across the lawn, they might try to follow her, and she couldn’t have that.

At least now she knew they weren’t aware of her being up and moving around the manor. She had to enter the tunnels through the library; she could always stroll back across the grounds later. If someone saw her then, she would tell them she couldn’t sleep and went for a walk… in the middle of the night.

It was perfectly normal.

Even if it wasn’t perfectly normal, and even if they would be mad at her for taking such a risk after what happened with Malakai, she didn’t have any other options. She had to tell Orin that Brokk was here, and though she dreaded being the one to do it, he should know about his father.

Leaning around the wall, she glanced toward the stairs, but no one was coming after her. She pushed herself away from the open door and hurried across the room to the gray, stone fireplace.

It took her less than a second to find the stone that opened the entrance to the tunnel. She glanced back to make sure she remained alone before slipping inside and closing it again.

The tension eased from her shoulders as she lifted the flashlight hanging near the entrance and clicked it on. The dim glow barely chased away the shadows, and it did nothing to chase away the damp, mildew scent of the earth hanging heavily on the air.

Despite her relief over making it into the passageway undetected, a growing sense of dread escalated inside her with every step she took. Maybe Orin already knew his father was dead.

He didn’t stay locked up in the tunnels because he needed to search for more refugees and bring food back for them. Although, he would have to be a lot more careful about his travels now. He couldn’t let Brokk catch him.

She had to be the one to tell Cole about Orin being here. If Brokk discovered him first, she would never get the chance. She couldn’t imagine the betrayal they would feel if they uncovered her secret before she revealed it.

She shoved aside the ugly possibility as she descended further beneath the ground. Between the trials, Malakai, Orin, and the refugees, she already had enough to worry about without heaping something that may never happen onto her plate.

She made her way deeper into the tunnels and toward where the others normally slept. Over the past couple of weeks, Orin had gathered more refugees seeking asylum from the Lord and his lackeys.

She knew where they all were. However, Orin could be anywhere down here. Unlike the others, he liked to wander.

After he came to her with the refugees, she allowed Orin more access to the tunnels in case they needed to flee. She’d told him to stay away from the entrance into the manor unless it was absolutely necessary, and to her amazement, he’d listened to her… so far.

A minuscule flicker in the shadows alerted her to Orin’s presence a second before he emerged like a ghost from a wall. The first dozen or so times he did this to her, she jumped, squeaked like a rat, and nearly pissed herself.

She’d gotten so she could almost always see the slight shift before he emerged. He still occasionally startled her, but it wasn’t as often as in the beginning. He enjoyed scaring her, and when he did, she had to resist trying to kick him in the nuts.

However, it wouldn’t go over well if she did rearrange his privates as badly as she would like to. As much as he exasperated her, she wasn’t looking to fight with him. They were reluctant allies in this, and fighting would only make it worse.

His eyes and hair were as black as the shadows surrounding him and created a strange illusion as they blended into the dark while his skin and clothes remained visible.

“What are you doing here at this time of night, Kitten?” he asked.

Her teeth clenched as he called her the nickname he started using before Cole returned. She’d made the mistake of revealing how much she disliked it in the beginning.

“I’m not a kitten!” she’d retorted, and he laughed.

Now, she tried to act indifferent every time he said it, but the amused gleam in his eyes told her that she’d failed.

“How do you know what time of night it is when you’re down here?” she retorted.

“I know all,” he murmured in that smug way he had.

She restrained herself from rolling her eyes; even if he didn’t know it yet, his father was dead.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“We have to talk.”

His eyes flicked to the shadows behind her. She spun to play the flashlight over the walls behind her. For a second, she feared someone followed her, but the glow didn’t reveal anyone standing there.

“What about?” Orin asked, drawing her attention back to him.

She twirled her fingers as she tried to think of where to start and what to say. They were in this together, but they weren’t friends, and they certainly weren’t close. No one wanted to hear about the death of a loved one from a stranger.

And then she realized it didn’t matter who delivered the news; loved one or stranger, nothing made the blow any easier.

“Brokk’s in the manor,” she said.

She might as well tell him this first; he probably wouldn’t be in the mood to talk after he learned of his dad’s death, and he had to know to be more careful while coming and going from the tunnels.

“Why?” Orin demanded.

“Cole asked him to stay here.”

Orin’s eyebrows drew sharply together over the bridge of his hawkish nose. “You’ve seen my brother again?”

“Yes.”

Surprise crossed his features before he covered it. “And why would Cole ask Brokk to stay here?”

“He thinks I need protection.”

“Do you?”

She shrugged. “There was an incident, but I’m fine.”

Orin’s eyes coldly surveyed her. When they lingered on the barely visible bruises on her neck, she lifted her chin.

“Who attacked you?” he asked.

“That’s none of your business.”

He released a small snort of laughter. “Okay then, tell me why Cole cares about any incident involving you… or why he cares about you?” he asked.

Cole didn’t want anyone to know she was his mate because they would use it against him, and she would not give Orin that weapon. He was Cole’s brother, but they were as close as the north and south poles.

“I guess I’m a really good lay,” she replied with a casual indifference she didn’t feel.

“There are plenty of those in the world, and he’s had many of them. He wouldn’t protect a single one of them. So, why you?”

Lexi somehow managed to keep herself from wincing over his words, but she didn’t keep her reaction completely hidden from him. This conversation wasn’t going how she’d planned, but then, she hadn’t planned any of this. She had no idea what she was going to say or do when she came here tonight.

“And if Cole is so concerned about you, where is he that he can’t protect you himself?”

Lexi gulped; she would have to tell him about his father now. “He’s going through the trials.”