Cole buried his irritation over her disbelief. He knew the reputation of the dark fae—it was well-deserved and earned, but that wasn’t who he was.
But wasn’t it? It’s who he’d always been, who he’d always planned to be… until she walked into his life.
It wasn’t who he was anymore, and he hated her doubt in him.
However, when he saw the uncertainty in her gaze, his annoyance faded. She wasn’t asking him these things because she wanted him to leave. She was asking because she was afraid.
“What are you afraid of, Lexi?” he asked.
Her mouth parted, and her eyes darted away from him. “I’m not… I’m not sure what you want from me.”
“I want you. I thought I’d made that pretty clear.”
“But for how long?”
Her words were like a punch to his gut. He wasn’t going to leave her, and he needed to make that clear. But before he could respond, a knock rattled the doors.
“Lexi!” Sahira called in a voice tinged with panic. “Lexi, are you in there?”
“Yes,” she said.
An oof of air escaped him when she planted her hand on his stomach and pushed herself up.
“Sorry,” she muttered as she scrambled out of his lap.
He almost pulled her back as he missed holding her, but she’d already scurried away from him. Cole rose as Lexi hastily tugged on her clothes.
He hated this interruption, but he started to dress too. Something about Sahira’s tone didn’t sit well with him. He was pulling on his jeans when a thunderous boom shook the earth.
Lexi released a startled cry and staggered to the side when the boom quaked the house. He caught her hand and steadied her before she toppled over the chair. Her eyes flew to his as a growl swelled within him.
He didn’t know what was going on, but he would destroy it if it threatened her.
He tugged his jeans on but ignored his shirt as he stalked toward the doors. He glanced back to make sure Lexi was dressed before he unlocked and opened the doors. Sahira took a startled step back as her gaze roamed over his chest.
There was no doubt about what transpired between them inside that room, and he was glad of that. Sahira didn’t want him to be a part of Lexi’s life, but she didn’t have a choice, and she would learn that.
He turned back to Lexi as she hurried toward them, straightening her shirt. She kept her eyes averted from Sahira’s as her cheeks burned. He stretched a hand back to her as another boom quaked the house.
When a sound like the earth being torn apart reverberated through the air, he grabbed Lexi’s arm and pulled her against his side. The blush vanished from her face, and her skin paled when she looked at him.
“What is going on?” he demanded of Sahira as he embraced Lexi protectively against him.
Sahira’s shocked expression vanished as she gave him a steely look. Beneath her fury, he saw a flash of unease before she covered it up.
“Dragons,” she said.
An uneasy feeling coiled in his stomach as another boom rattled the windows, and from somewhere in the manor, glass shattered. Sahira turned and strode toward the front door as the shrieking bellow of a dragon rent the air.
“Shit,” he snarled.
He wanted to push Lexi back into the library and shelter her from whatever was happening, but he wouldn’t part from her. Instead, he kept her tucked against him as they followed Sahira outside.
The sun beat down on them, the sky was a crystalline blue, and the serenity of the day was broken only by the birds filling the sky. Another bellow drown out the cries of those birds.
He didn’t see any of the monstrous creatures until they turned the corner of the manor and one of the beasts soared into view. It swept low over the land with its fifty-foot wings spread wide, its head extended, and its tail out behind it.
The sun glinted off its red scales as a plume of fire erupted from its mouth and it rained destruction on the land. Chunks of earth flew up as it plowed a ditch into the fire-scorched ground. Pieces of wood shot into the air as trees and the marketplace's ramshackle buildings toppled beneath its onslaught.
When its fire went out, the dragon soared high into the sky. The sun created a glow around its wings as it hovered in the air.
Then it roared and dove toward the earth. Another wave of fire erupted from it. The marketplace was half a mile away, but Cole’s position allowed him to see that nothing remained of it.
“No!” Lexi gasped.
She jerked free of his arms and lunged forward. She ran toward the road as Sahira started after her. Cole caught her before she made it ten feet. He pressed her against his chest as she struggled in his grasp.
“There’s nothing you can do,” he told her.
“But… but… they didn’t do anything!” she protested as tears shone in her eyes. “It’s killing them, and they didn’t do anything!”
He despised her tears and the heaving breaths shaking her slender frame, but he couldn’t do anything to stop this. Not yet, anyway. But one day, he would end this.
He cradled her while the smoke rising from the burning remains choked out the sun. He didn’t care about the mortals and immortals at the market, he was tired of senseless violence, but their lives weren’t important.
What he cared about was what would happen if the Lord continued to unleash such destruction on Earth. Eventually, he would run out of things to destroy and turn his insanity on the Shadow Realms, including the Gloaming.
And Cole did care about immortals there. He’d already lost most of his family; he would not lose any more of them.
He also had Lexi to protect now. And no matter what he had to do, he would keep her safe.
“It doesn’t matter if they did something or not,” he said.
And that was completely true. It didn’t matter if the humans and immortals at the marketplace were innocent; if the Lord deemed them a threat, he would destroy them.
“Holy shit,” Brokk breathed as he arrived beside him. “What is going on?”
No one answered him; there was no reason to reply. He could see what was happening with his own two eyes.
The dragon released another roar before turning and swooping toward them. Cole held Lexi against his chest, but there wasn’t enough time to turn and flee with her. If the dragon decided to unleash its wrath on them, they couldn’t stop it.
• • •
Lexi ducked a little as the gigantic beast soared toward them. The beat of its wings kicked dirt up from the ground and fanned the flames of the marketplace fire as the screams of the wounded and dying filled the air.
So many wounded and dying. So many faces she knew. And they were burning.
She tried not to vomit as the scent of burning flesh mingled with the burning wood and earth stench. Her heart thumped a little faster, her mouth went dry, and she gripped Cole’s arms as she tried not to cower.
If it unleashed a wave of fire on them, they’d be crisp fried as soon as it hit them. And then the dragon soared over the top of them.
Despite its formidable power and the death it just unleashed, something was captivating about the ruthless beast. When it twisted to the side, the sun's angle turned its scales the color of blood.
She tried not to be awed by the thing, but she couldn’t stop her mouth from parting as she gazed at its underbelly. It was huge! It blocked the sky until it was all she could see.
When it flapped its wings, the wind it created blew her hair back from her face and plastered her clothes to her. Dirt swirled around them until the cascade of particles briefly blocked out the underbelly of the beast.
By the time the dust settled, the dragon was past them. She turned to track its movements as from one second to the next it vanished.
“Where did it go?” she breathed.
“It returned to Dragonia,” Sahira said.
Lexi stared at where it had vanished before shifting her attention back to the ravaged marketplace. People and immortals crowded the road as they fled the destruction, but there were a lot less of them than there should have been.
“We have to help them,” she said.