Carnal Magic: The Wraith Accords, Book 1 Read Online Free PDF Page A

powerful, and if she had to guess she’d say the woman was Tuatha de Danaan, but there was something off about the scent. It reminded Isabel of the few times she’d tasted the blood of someone who was poisoned, either with disease or actual poison.
    Cairbe reached down and took hold of the braid, jerking the woman forward. Her wrists and ankles were manacled, the chains between them too short to be practical, so she toppled forward onto the tiles. She screamed as she was dragged by her hair.
    “You too,” the prince said, motioning to another tree. A second woman appeared. She too was naked. A high gold collar forced her chin up. A delicate chain led from the front of the collar to rings in her nipples. More chains hung from the peaks of her breasts, circling her back and dropping lower to disappear into her naked sex. The woman kept her eyes down though her chin was forced up. As she turned to follow the prince, Isabel saw welts covering her ass.
    The trio disappeared through an arch opposite where Isabel stood.
    When they were out of sight, Aed rose from his knee. The light in the trees winked out, and Aed touched the torch he held, brightening the glow within the globe.
    “You play a dangerous game, Lady Isabel.” Aed’s tone made Isabel think that he was both horrified and impressed by her interaction with the crown prince.
    “It is no game. The future of both our peoples rides on my time here, and I won’t be insulted.”
    Aed sighed. “I fear you may find many people who think they can speak down to you, despite your position among the Vampire.”
    “Then I will defend myself.”
    “And if that causes offense?”
    She met his gaze and said nothing.
    “Come,” he said. “We don’t want to meet anyone else. Prince Cairbe is the gentlest of them.”
    They went through a different arched doorway than the one the prince had exited.
    “Who were those women?” Isabel asked when they were well out of sight of the courtyard.
    “I did not recognize them, but they were probably Cairbe’s bed partners.”
    “They are servants?”
    “No, they are full Tuath . Possibly from one of the Lower Houses, considering how public he made his ownership.”
    “It’s acceptable that he treat them that way?” Isabel was no stranger to slavery or servitude but had not realized there was a slave class among the Tuatha de Danaan themselves.
    “It is, and it is not.”
    “Would you be so good as to explain?”
    Aed stopped, looked around, put his torch into an empty brace on the wall and then pulled her a few steps down a narrow side hallway. “Among my people, sex is about power.” There were windows at her back, and the moonlight bathed half of Aed’s face. The arousal Cairbe had caused roared to life once again. Isabel wanted to kiss Aed until that grim, serious expression turned to one of passion and desire.
    She forced herself to focus and nodded.
    “Cairbe is one of our princes and considered one of the finest lovers, and he bears a ball seirce . Because of his position and his magic, females will do anything to be with him. Many choose to give all control over to him for a chance to know him. That may mean he will use their submission to pleasure them, or it may mean he will hurt them. If he wants to make them walk naked through the halls, then he can. If he wishes to bind them and whip them, it is his right as their master.”
    “I am no stranger to pain mixed with pleasure,” Isabel said. A vivid image of Aed naked and chained to her bed popped into her head, quickly followed by one of her chained up awaiting him. It was a nice fantasy, but in reality she could not fathom the idea of willingly giving up control to that level. One did not live long as a vampire if they allowed themselves to be made a slave. She would have to discover what the ball seirce was, and what its powers were. “But one of those women was in true pain. And her blood…she smelled sick, or poisoned.”
    Aed raised his brows. “You