AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Then your father died. Before the vote.”
She smirked. “Smart girl.”
“And Kol believed it to be something other than a heart attack.”
She nodded. “Though only the eldest by a few minutes, Kol should’ve taken Father’s place on the Senate, but he renounced his position. However, Kieren wanted his place in government. As the son next in line, it was his right. Kol forbid Kieren from taking it.” She flipped her hair over one shoulder. “You can imagine that didn’t go over very well. So the two idiots got into a scuffle, which escalated into maiming one another.”
“I can’t believe it,” I said, glancing at the family portrait and the two happy brothers.
“Believe it. Men are fools. Morgon men are worse.” She hopped off the bed, hands on hips, looking at the portrait on her vanity. “Unfortunately, I happen to love those damn fools. I just wish they’d forgive and forget. Move on.” She led me toward the door. “I will say that since Kol has been investigating the disappearance of the Gladium girls, he’s talked to Kieren more in a month than he normally does in a year.”
We walked through the kitchen to meet with Bowen and Kieren, both seated in the living area. The gas lanterns were lit around the room, covers removed from the furniture. The cabin was truly charming. I wanted to see it by sunlight, the windows uncovered, the open sky through the skylights. They quieted when we walked in, masculine eyes travelling over me.
Looking quite different than I did in my baggy jeans and borrowed trench, my hair still in braids twined with gold falling halfway down my back, I wasn’t so naïve to not know how I looked to the opposite sex. I crossed my arms and sunk into a chair, trying to steer attention away from me.
“Hey. Boys. Stop thinking whatever it is you’re thinking,” snapped Valla.
Heat crawled up my cheeks. Bowen stood swiftly. “I’ll watch for them outside.”
“Them?” I asked, wanting, needing to change the subject.
Kieren stood, crossing his arms. “Kol was already en route to Cloven, having gotten a tip from someone in Cloven that Gaius was spotted flying toward the east bank with a large bundle strapped to him.”
“So you talked to him?” I asked.
A stiff nod. “I relayed all of the information Gaius had given us. And of course, I told him that you are safe.”
“Sit,” said Valla. “Relax. I’ll get us some tea.”
Sit. Relax. No way in hell could I relax, my stomach flipping somersaults. Still, I sat, wringing my hands, and waited.
Valla returned a few minutes later with hot tea in a saucer, a pattern I recognized from Gladium.
“This is a Bridewell pattern, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” She smiled. “The set was an anniversary gift from my father to my mother.”
“How beautiful.” I admired the teacup, not so much for the twining-vines pattern, but because it reflected the love of Kol’s parents.
“Remember those merchants I mentioned earlier?”
I nodded.
“The Bridewells were one of the human families my father fought to allow to trade in Cloven.”
I took another sip. The alarm at the door sounded. My teacup clattered in the saucer. I set it on a side table, hands shaking.
Standing, we all faced the door, waiting to see if it was Bowen or?—
A snap of wings folding, seven feet of fierce Morgon man barreled through the entrance, pure dragon eyes blazing silver. The Morgon honed in on me in a millisecond, my heart leaping into my throat.
“Kol.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
He stood in the entrance, still as death, an electric charge rolling off his body, filling the room with his broad frame and larger-than-life presence. I’d stopped breathing the second I saw him. With predatory gait, he came for me. Scowl deep, jaw clenched, scar taut against the hard angle of his face, I trembled, watching him storm closer. Not from fear. From agonizing anticipation of his touch. The need a visceral torture.
With five long strides, blue-black wings half-extended, he gripped me in a vise, molding my body against his, fisting my hair, sucking the breath right out of my lungs as he crushed his mouth over mine. I slid my hands over his shoulders, around his neck, nothing but tight, flexed muscle beneath. Ignoring our audience, I tried to pull him closer.
