Drake of Tanith (Chosen Soul) Read Online Free PDF Page A

circle – and the next.
    Someone was starting a war. Nearly every single creature in the Nine layers of Abaddon was at risk, but the risk was ten-fold for Dark Royalty.
    Such as Princess Winter Raven.
    Lord Malphas had tried very hard to shield her existence from the prying eyes of Hell. She was not like other devils. Her blood was Abaddonian, not because she’d been conceived by one, but because she’d been stolen by one while in her purest form. Her soul was devil-touched and yet remained innocent. Such a thing was supposed to be impossible, to say nothing of rare.
    She was unique from the inside out. The Dark Powers only knew what would become of her should others in Abaddon learn of her existence. She was living, breathing, untapped potential. And Hell was teeming with opportunists.
    For the past month, the princess had been sequestered within the sheltering walls of Castle Eidolon, the seat of elven power for the Fae realm. Malphas was well aware of the elven prince’s interest in his daughter and that it was the reason behind Raven’s confinement – for it could only be called such: a confinement.
    Prince Astriel had been forced to use a great deal of magic to ensure Raven’s cooperation over the last few weeks. Malphas had been keeping an eye on his only child, so he’d been privy to a firsthand view of some of the things the prince had had to do: Turn away scries, run off Raven’s twin brother, chase away a certain ork whose best friend had been sent to the Witherlands and who apparently wanted to speak with Raven for some unknown reason.
    While Malphas wasn’t excited about the idea of someone using magic on his daughter, he had to admit that the prince was only doing what he needed to do. If left to her own devices, Raven would have left the castle long ago and probably taken out a few elves in the process.
    Adonides, Malphas’s faithful servant and the devil he had entrusted with Raven’s safety a little over a month ago, had repeatedly asked for permission to go into the castle and extract her. But Malphas had denied him. The truth was, at the moment the Lord of Caina could think of no safer place for the princess to reside. As long as Raven Winter remained at Eidolon, she wasn’t out on the Terran realm or down in the Nine Hells causing trouble. Getting noticed.
    And as long as that was the case, then there was the slightest possibility that whatever trouble was brewing in Abaddon’s kitchen would stay far away from her.
    *****
    Astriel gazed unseeing into the leaping flames of Oberon’s massive hearth. Lord Oberon gave a series of orders to guards at the doors and then allowed the doors to be shut. Now Astriel was alone with his father and could feel the elf king’s powerful presence dominating the great room.
    For a while, neither of them spoke. Oberon gracefully took a seat opposite Astriel, glanced once at his son, and then turned his own attention to the dancing fire. The silence stretched between them.
    At the moment, Raven slept peacefully in Princess Zeta’s quarters.
    After she’d fallen under his father’s spell, Astriel had lifted her into his arms and had been about to take her to his own rooms where he could keep a closer eye on her and his guards were never out of ear shot. However, Zeta had intervened and insisted that Raven was already frightened and angry enough, pointing out that waking up in Astriel’s bed would almost certainly worsen the situation.
    Astriel relented and allowed Zeta and her personal guard to take Raven to Zeta’s wing where Astriel’s sister promised to watch over her.
    Astriel wasn’t overly worried; Oberon’s magic was incredibly potent and Abaddonian princess or not, Raven was going to sleep for some time. He simply felt the need to…. Where Raven was concerned, he wanted to…. Astriel’s jaw clenched and his gaze narrowed. In the massive hearth, the fire flickered strangely and its flames turned black.
    “I can see what it is about her that has