Shadows of Discovery by Brenda K. Davies

Chapter Nine

“Tell me everything,”Lexi said.

So, he did. And as he did, she watched the emotions playing across his face. Fury tinged his voice as he told of his imprisonment in the tower with his father. She heard his uncertainty when he stood in the Lord’s hall and finally his distress as he spoke of his father’s murder.

Her heart broke for him. Then her concern for him grew as he revealed what he did to the dragon and the helot who once worked in his palace. A chill crept down her spine when he told her what the Lord commanded him to do.

The Lord expected Cole to be the next king of the dark fae. That meant Cole would have to survive the trials. She had no idea what those trials were, but before she could ask, he rubbed his face and lifted his beautiful blue eyes to her.

“I couldn’t get my father’s blood or the smell of it out of my beard,” he said. “That’s why I shaved it.”

Those words and his sorrow-filled voice broke something inside her. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she leaned across the distance separating them and wrapped her arms around him.

With tender care, he pulled her onto his lap and cradled her against him with such desperation it made her tears come faster. This big, powerful, magnificent man was looking to her to help ease his suffering, and she would not let him down.

They cleaved to each other while she tried to ease his grief. She knew what he was going through, knew what it was like to lose a father who was loved and cherished. She could never take that loss away, but she would do her best to help get him through this.

As she nestled the back of his head in the hollow of her shoulder, she recalled the time he told her that his father would tease him because he always got lost in the palace. At the time, she was stunned to learn the dark fae king teased anyone, but he’d loved his children. And Cole loved him.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Her anger with him was gone. He hadn’t abandoned her for other women or decided to return for a booty call. He’d been imprisoned with his father before watching him die.

And she’d been here, mad at him and trying to bury her heartbreak. Because of that, she’d taken in his fugitive brother and a bunch of refugees, who now resided in the tunnels beneath her manor.

No, not because of that.

Lexi hadn’t aided Orin because of her anger at Cole; she did it because she couldn’t turn away those suffering people and immortals and because she was taking a stance in this war. One that put her in direct opposition of Cole.

But there was no way Cole could still be on the Lord’s side after the homicidal maniac slaughtered his father. She should talk to him about it and maybe tell him about Orin, but now wasn’t exactly the time.

* * *

Cole heldLexi in his arms as he stared out the window. Outside, the birds were singing the last of their songs for the day.

He’d spent the past hour regaling her with stories of his father. With her head against his chest and her hand absently stroking his stomach, she listened and laughed with him. She also cried some more.

He hated her tears as he wiped them away, but those tears were because she understood his loss and cared for him. It was that caring that touched him most.

He’d come back for her because she was his mate and he cared for her, but as she cried and laughed, he realized how much she cared for him too. That knowledge warmed his heart at a time when he never would have believed such a thing possible.

When he finished speaking, they fell into a companionable silence as the setting sun’s rays bounced off the walls and lit the room with a rainbow of colors. If they were in one of the realms, pixies might be dancing through those rays, but the pixies didn’t often come to the human realm.

“I’m sorry about your father,” she said after a while.

“Thank you. He was a good man.”

“He raised an amazing son.”

Cole smoothed back her hair and kissed the top of her head. Little had gone right since the war between the immortals started and the Lord unleashed his dragons on Earth, but she was one thing that had gone so right.

And he wasn’t letting her go again.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get word to you sooner,” he said.

She lifted her head and frowned at him. Some of the swelling had come out of her nose, but the bruising was worse. “Don’t apologize; I understand why you didn’t.”

“But I bet you were cursing me,” he said with a small, teasing smile.

“Never,” she teased back.

He laughed and kissed her forehead. “I wish I could say that I’m going to stay, but I can’t. I have to get back to the Gloaming and state my intentions to endure the trials.”

Her beautiful eyes darkened. “How bad are the trials?”

“Not much is known about them, but few have survived, and all who did were named king of the dark fae afterward.”

“I don’t want to lose you.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

She tried to suppress it, but he felt her shudder.

“I will survive the trials,” he said.

“What are they?”

“I don’t know. There could be two of them or hundreds. What each of them entails is a mystery; my father never revealed what he endured. They’re probably designed to test my dark fae powers.”

“But you’re only half dark fae.”

“And stronger than the rest of them.”

“Yes, but even if you survive the trials, will the dark fae accept you as king?”

“They’ll have no choice. Whoever survives the trials claims the throne.”

“What if someone is already on the throne when someone else decides to go through the trials? Or what if another dark fae decides to do the trials too?”

“As far as I know, the first has never happened, but there can only be one king. If two fae survive the trials, a fight to the death will ensue, and the survivor would wear the crown.”

“That sounds horrible and brutal.”

It most certainly would be, but he kept that to himself. Lexi stifled a yawn, and her lashes fluttered against his chest as her eyes closed before opening again.

“You should rest,” he said as he ran her hair through his fingers.

“I will, but I’m not ready yet.”

“I’m not going back yet. I’ll be here when you wake.”

“I’m still not ready,” she said around another yawn.

He decided not to push her on it. Soon exhaustion would win out over her stubbornness.

“How many times has Malakai been here since I left?” he asked.

“Today was the first time. You both returned on the same day.”

“If I have my way, it will also be the last time.”

“Good,” she murmured before her eyes drifted closed and didn’t open again.