A Dark Guardian Read Online Free PDF

her mare turned and cantered through the opened gate. She was a little taken aback to find the men surround her as they rode. She was used to being alone.
    Always.

    The ride to the ruins was pleasant. Had the circumstances been different, Mina could almost believe she was a beautiful lady being escorted by her faithful knights.
    Almost. She wasn’t foolish enough to actually believe in dreams anymore. She was who she was. Nothing would change that.

    The ruins came into view as they crested a hill, and she slowed the mare to a walk. Hugh stayed on her right and Darrick on her left. When she would have continued on, Hugh grabbed her reins.

    “Hold a moment,” he said and then motioned with his hand.

    She watched as Gabriel rode to the ruins and looked around. It was just a few moments later that they heard him whistle.

    “Lead on, my lady,” Hugh said and released her reins.

    She cleared her throat and nudged the mare, but the closer they came to the ruins the harder the mare fought to turn around.

    “I don’t know what is wrong with her,” she said in exasperation. Sasha had never acted like this when they had come.

    It wasn’t until she allowed the mare to turn away from the ruins that she quieted, but she still trembled. Mina dismounted and rubbed the mare’s neck.

    “Leave the mare,” Hugh said.

    “Sasha never acted like this.”

    “That is because Sasha was used to this place. I doubt this mare has ever been here before.”

    She raised an eyebrow at him. “Then why aren’t your mounts acting up?”

    “They are used to the smell of evil,” Cole said as he dismounted and dropped his horse’s reins.

    She watched Cole walk toward the ruins and found it difficult to swallow.
    “Evil?” she asked and turned toward Hugh. “There is evil here?”

    “Can’t you tell?”

    She looked over the ruins. “I’ve come here many times over the years. Only once was I frightened, and that was the day the creature came.”

    “Show me,” he urged her.

    She left the mare with their horses and walked toward the ruins. There wasn’t much left of them. Just a few rocks standing as tall as the trees while others had been knocked over and laid on top of each other.

    “A child’s imagination made these ruins into a castle of her own,” Mina said as she reached the first stone.

    Hugh watched as she touched the standing stone gently. There was reverence in her touch, but that wasn’t what surprised him. It was the fact that the evil didn’t penetrate her.

    To him and his men, the evil was so strong they smelled it not long after leaving the castle. There was more to these ruins than what the surface held.

    He followed Mina through the stones that had once been an entrance. They found Cole staring at something on the ground.

    “You found it,” Mina said.

    Cole’s gaze jerked to his, and Hugh knew he had indeed found something.

    “This is where the earth opened up and the creature came from,” Mina said when they reached Cole.

    Hugh stared at the burnt patch of earth that was about two strides in width.
    Around it in a perfect circle were flawlessly smooth bright blue stones. Those stones gave him pause. He stared at one of the oval stones.

    “Mina, did you put those stones there?”

    She shook her head, wisps of blonde hair with a hint of red gathered around her face. “Those stones were scattered throughout the ruins, and I took one back to the castle with me once, but it soon disappeared. I think someone took it.”

    “You have no idea who?”

    “Nay, I’m sorry.” She looked down at the burnt earth again and wrung her hands.
    “Are Bernard and Theresa correct? Did I unleash that creature?”

    “I don’t know,” Hugh answered as he stared at the ground.

    “Hugh,” Roderick called out.

    “Stay here,” Hugh told her and Cole as he hurried to Roderick.

    Instead of walking around the huge stone, he jumped from stone to stone and landed beside Roderick. “What is