Chapter 6 Lennox
LENNOX
“I’ll leave you two alone, it appears you have much to catch up on.”
The door slammed shut behind Adreona, leaving me alone with my brother.
“You’re not real. There’s no way you’re real. You died. You’re supposed to be dead,” I rambled, my mind swimming as I tried to take in the figure in front of me. I had seen his body, destroyed, left in nothing but ribbons of flesh. But here he was—my brother, Nol. Wholly here in the flesh.
Alive.
“It’s me, Lennox.” He took a tentative step forward. “I didn’t die that night. The Vanir didn’t kill me, they took me, but made it look like I had died, for this purpose exactly.”
I wrapped my arms around myself. This wasn’t real, it couldn’t be real. Adreona had done something to fuck with my mind.
Nol was dead.
He had been dead for three years.
My brother was dead.
“It’s really me, Lennox.” He took another step toward me.
“How do I know it’s really you?” I whispered.
He came closer, he was only a step away now. He placed a thin, pale hand on my arm. “Until the stars turn to dust,” he whispered.
A sob heaved from my throat as I threw my arms around my brother. “It’s you, it’s really you. You’re alive.” He wrapped his arms around me in turn, squeezing me tight. He was thin. So thin. What had they done to him?
“I can’t believe you’re here, Lennox.” His tears soaked into my hair. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
I let go of him, allowing myself to look at my brother fully. I had mourned him. For three years, I had thought him dead, yet here was my brother standing before me. Too many emotions crashed beneath the surface.
Nol was alive.
I shoved him back with a hand to his chest, causing a crease to form between his brows.
“You left me,” I said, unable to keep my voice from trembling.
“You promised me you’d never leave me, that you’d always be there for me, but you did,” I choked out.
I knew I was being irrational, he didn’t choose to leave me, but it had felt that way.
Part of it had always felt like a betrayal, the one person who was always looking out for me was gone.
But now he was back. He was standing in front of me.
Nol’s face fell. “I missed you, you stupid bastard, but I’m also so fucking mad at you for leaving me. I thought you were dead.”
He reached for me, but I swatted him away as I tried to get my head and heart to sync. But Nol pulled me against his chest anyways. “I’m sorry, Lennox. I didn’t choose to leave you.”
“I know, I just—”
“I know.” He sighed. “I missed you too.” I wrapped my arms around my brother.
Nol was alive. Alive.
“How?” I asked finally.
“Let’s sit.” He let me go and motioned to the bed, “It’s a long story.”
I winced as I sat against the wall, my tender back rubbing against the stone.
Nol’s brows pinched. “What happened to your back?”
“Adreona happened.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I tried to strangle her with my magic and she didn’t care for it.”
Nol scoffed. “You haven’t changed a bit have you?”
A pressure settled on my chest. “That’s not true. I haven’t been the same since that night.”
Silence stretched between us. So much had changed since I’d last laid eyes on Nol. I didn’t even know where to start.
“How did you end up here?” That felt like the place to start.
Nol took a deep breath. “When the vampires started attacking that night, Father woke me. He barged into my room, pulling me with him to his study. Somehow, he knew there were vampires invading, and—" He took a deep breath. “Father and I were working on something together before the attack.”
“I know,” I interjected. “I know all about the supposed cure to vampirism and your marriage scheme. About the Vanir. We’ve been cleaning up the mess you left.”
Nol winced but continued. “Father didn’t want the vampires getting the information we had collected.
He knew he was walking a thin line keeping it from them in the first place.
There had been murmurs about a supposed cure for vampires starting up in the months leading up to that night, which is why Father proposed the marriage.
We had to speed up the process if we wanted to be the ones to hold all the cards. ”
“Mother was attempting to hide the documents with a spell when the vampires found us. They killed her on the spot.” He shuttered.
“Wait? Mother knew about this too?”
Nol nodded. Kara and I truly had been the only ones left in the dark.
“After they killed Mother, Father and I fought back, but there were too many of them. I had taken a blade to the side, I was losing a lot of blood, and my sword had disappeared in the darkness. I was defenseless when two vampires came toward me—fangs bared. When they leapt toward me, a burst of magic rushed out of me—witch magic, Lennox.”
I snapped my head in his direction. “I don’t know how, but somehow I managed to possess witch magic.
It felt like this side of myself that had been laying doormat my entire life sparked to life in that moment.
I could feel the magic, magic different than my elemental magic come to life inside me.
Before I even knew what I was doing a spell started spilling from my lips, one I had taught Luciana, killing half of the vampires in the room in an instant before someone was able to stop me.
When they realized the magic I was using they decided I was worth more to them alive than dead.
They knocked me out, and when I woke up, I was in one of their compounds. ”
“But how—” I shook my head at the memory—remembering the magic coursing through my body as the Dunami took place—transferring the title of High Queen to me after I thought they had all died. “How did I become High Queen if you didn’t die?”
Nol shook his head. “That’s something I could never figure out, that none of us could ever figure out.
I thought at first that’s why they took me—they kidnapped the High King and were going to use me as a bargaining chip for something—but then I heard the whispers—you were High Queen.
The magic had transferred to you, not me.
” He shook his head, his long hair swaying.
“You have no idea how relieved I was to hear that.”
“Even if it meant you being locked up with them?”
He nodded. “Knowing Lethenia’s future was safe—that it was in your hands. That was more important than my own life.”
I closed my eyes and took several breaths. He hadn’t changed. Always so fucking selfless like our mother.
“The only thing I could ever think of was mother did something before she died that ensured the title would go to you. Or maybe my own magic did it. The words that were coming out of my mouth—it was like the magic took over and I had no control.”
None of that made sense, for as long as there had been a High King or Queen the power had been transferred to the next in line for the crown, never once was there a record of it going to someone else. My mother or Nol couldn’t alter ancient magic, could they?
“What happened after?” I asked, I couldn’t think about that now. I needed to know the rest.
“The Vanir knew the Panateia were in need of a witch, so they traded me, for lack of a better word. An alliance formed between the two groups.”
“The Vanir and Panateia are working together?”
Nol nodded. “In a sense, they still operate as two separate entities, but they don’t fight against one another like they used to.”
“The Panateia tried to use me, as I’m assuming they’re trying to use you, to complete the spell to destroy vampires.”
I nodded in confirmation. “But I didn’t know how to access my witch magic, it always came out sporadically.
I’m not like you and Kara—I don’t know how to access my witch side.
I never was able to as a child and it only came out during a life or death situation.
When they’d try to force me to use it, it almost felt like my magic recoiled in on itself.
” Nol ran his hand through his hair. “Eventually, they stopped trying. Left me in my room to rot. Waiting for the perfect moment to bring me out again.”
“Like to get me to cooperate.” Had they really planned this far in advance? Kept Nol to use against me when the opportunity presented itself?
“How did you end up here?” His questions caused my chest to pinch.
“I traded myself for Kara. They had kidnapped her. I came to get her back. They were going to kill her, Adreona held a knife to her throat—” My voice trembled.
“So I left them all behind. Kara and Luka, Luciana, my friends, Nico and Declan, and—” Their faces flashed before me, Luka’s limp body hanging between Nico and Declan.
“Tell me, what else has happened since I’ve been gone? Something good.”
I cleared my throat. “I got married.” I could feel Nol’s gaze on me, but I kept staring at my hands as I wrung them in my lap.
“It was an arranged marriage, one I had to fulfill because you died. He’s a vampire.
I hated him at first. He enraged me. But he pushed me when no one else would.
I was so lost in myself after that night, he was the one who finally brought me back to life.
” I traced my finger over the swirling marks across my palm.
“It took me a long time to finally give in to him, but he never gave up on me. He waited for me. For months, he waited for me. He asked me to marry him in a private ceremony before our formal one. Just us and our friends. It was perfect.” He’s perfect.
“I wish I could have been there,” he murmured.
“Me too.”
“What’s his name?”
“Luka.” I couldn’t hold back the smile that curved up my lips. “His name is Luka.”
I rubbed my thumb over the mark on the center of my palm. “He’s my mate.” I held up my palm, letting the glimmering ink shimmer in the dim light. “This showed up after I arrived here, over my marriage mark. Adreona said the bond must have snapped into place during the events that landed me here.”
“Do you love him?”
I blinked back the tears forming in my eyes as I nodded.
“Yeah, I love him.” I had gone over every detail of that night over and over again, trying to figure out what had triggered the mark.
It had to have been when I admitted I loved him.
Even if he didn’t get to hear it—that had to have been what triggered the bond.
“I do. I love him with my whole fucking heart.” I brushed away a stray tear with the back of my hand. “I just wish I would have gotten the chance to tell him.”
Nol took his hand in mine. “Then we better get you back to him.”