Child of Darkness-L-D-2 Read Online Free PDF

to find her. Why he’d been in the tunnels with no guards. “You were here on your own business.”
    “Of a sort,” he admitted sourly. They reached the intersection and he started off in the wrong direction.
    She yanked him the right way, preferring to glare at him rather than argue, and tucked the knife into her belt. “And what business could you possibly have in the Darkworld, oh shining beacon of loyalty?”
    “My own,” he snapped. “This is not the right way.”
    “I was unaware that you were so knowledgeable about the Darkworld.” She pulled free from his grasp. “I will be sure to tell my mother about your expertise.”
    “Your mother already knows.” He followed her; she heard his boots splash through a puddle, and a curse. That made her smile.
    “You could tell your mother about how I found you.” He sounded no less angry, but it seemed as though he tried to mask his wrath. “Or I could tell her about how I found you.”
    “And you would be admitting to your own guilt,” she reminded him, turning a corner. He was not expecting the bend, and she heard a loud exclamation as he collided with the wall.
    “Which is why,” he seethed through his teeth, “I suggest we reach an agreement. I will tell her I found you on the Strip, and you will not contradict me. The consequences of that accidental meeting will be far less than the ones attached to the truth.”
    “She will still wonder why you left the Lightworld,” Cerridwen pointed out, feeling very satisfied to have the advantage.
    But the advantage disappeared as he muttered, “Your mother will be aware of my reasons.”
    It was cryptic. Cerridwen did not like cryptic responses. But ahead loomed the path to the Strip.
    “Do we have an agreement?” he asked her, no urgency in his voice, no pleading. She crossed her arms, pretending to consider. But this manipulation failed, as well, for Cedric said nothing, made no further offers.
    “We do,” she said with a sigh. It would have been so sweet to catch her mother’s favorite in a useful web, but he was right. The punishment her mother meted out to her would be far less severe if she’d been caught somewhere else.
    They proceeded to the Lightworld and passed the borders without further speech, but when they approached the Palace, he stopped her.
    “When we enter, go straight to your chambers. Wash all of that off your face, and change into something respectable before you are presented to your mother.” He would not look at her. She tilted her chin up, trying to look confident when now all she felt like was a child. “How do I know you will not simply run to her and break our agreement?”
    “I will not. With more reason than you know.” With that, he turned and stalked through the Palace gates.

    “We have some reason to suspect that she has left the Lightworld.”
    The words froze Ayla, the way she imagined a prey animal would cower before a beast. She’d long since retired from the party, but it continued, the noise thrumming like the workings of some great machine throughout the Palace. The dull pounding of drums, punctuated by the sharp staccato of voices raised in laughter, served to cover the startled thump of the blood in her veins. “Where is Malachi?”
    “He has organized a few discreet guards into a search formation.” The captain of her guard bowed. “We are keeping this secret, Your Majesty.”
    “As well you should,” she said, amazed to find her voice working under its own power. “You may go, now, Captain. Keep me informed of your progress. And bring her to me the moment you find her.”
    The guard bowed as he left, but she did not acknowledge him. Instead, she waited, seated on the edge of her bed, staring at nothing. Waited for the guilt to come crashing over her, as it always did. The questions that she would torment herself with: How could she have let this happen? Hadn’t she been a good enough mother to Cerridwen? Of course, she had not. She had been too