Enchanter's Echo Read Online Free PDF Page A

A one-man cavalry. He wasn’t surprised. Vincent had surely sensed his pain from the fissure and was coming to check on him. In welcome, Edmund pushed the door open with his vibes.
    Vin gave him a chin-up nod as he entered. He inspected his surroundings then marched to the nearest window. Edmund glared at the landline once more before returning to his spot at the other front window.
    Outside, a car pulled into the gates. Two flags waved on the sides of its hood.
    “She’s home. ETA three minutes.” Vin stared out, motionless, straight. Always at attention. “Talk quick.”
    Edmund stuck his hands in his pockets. “You’re disturbing my nap,” he drawled.
    “Sleeping on your feet, were you?”
    “With a rocking dream.” She’d rocked a number of his dreams over the last months. He hated waking up from them. She disappeared all over again.
    Their mother’s driver pulled up in front of the house. A sentry, clad in the dark gray of Rallis with a scarlet sash, exited the passenger seat and opened her door. She stepped out, one high heel at a time and looked up at the attic windows, her gaze targeted him like a tracking spell though even she couldn’t see through the spelled glass. Could she?
    “Two minutes.”
    It’d be nice to confide in his brother. But he’d just vowed silence to something. The only way to find out was to try and see which words strangled him. He took a breath. “Aurora...”
    He let the rest of that breath go. His luscious girl wasn’t the secret.
    “Aurora?” Vincent prompted.
    With another inhale, he prepared to explain, but stopped. He wanted her to himself for a little longer. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and thought fast. “The aurora borealis can’t be seen from here except on very rare occasions.”
    Vincent blinked. “I used to think highly of your bullshit skills. Not anymore.”
    Edmund ignored the taunt. It wasn’t like that would be hard to earn back. With another breath, he tried the next topic. “A fi—” The word cut off, his air stopped as if a hand shoved down his throat to block his vocal cords. He grabbed his neck as if he might dislodge the energetic grip, but his hands couldn’t touch the vow. There’d be no telling anyone about the fissure after all. Why the hell had the High C done this? The senator needed to know the territory was facing a serious threat.
    “Are you choking?” Vincent’s alarm took a moment to penetrate Edmund’s oxygen deprived brain. He spun around, giving his back to his brother, not wanting a witness to this, but Vin didn’t cooperate. Edmund shoved away the hand on his shoulder, but a backwards hug came next, along with a serious thrust of Vin’s fist into his diaphragm. Vibing hells, his brother was giving him the Heimlich. Edmund might have laughed. Unfortunately, this vow was going to kill him before he had the chance to share the joke.
    Another thrust. Consort of the goddess, that vibing hurt.
    “What is going on in here?” His mother busted into the room. The door banged against the wall.
    As the threat of his words disappeared, the silence vow finally released its chokehold. He took an enormous gulp of air. It resounded around the room.
    “Vincent Burr Rallis, were you strangling your brother?” Their mother had no qualms at reprimanding the commander of the Republic’s army.
    Vin lifted his hands, palms facing his body in an innocent mage’s pose. “My arms weren’t around his throat. He was—”
    “He was practicing his Heimlich, Mother,” Edmund rasped.
    The lady of the land’s nose flared. “Oh, for goddess’s sake, Edmund, is that all you can come up with?”
    He cleared his throat. “Apparently I’m not the bullshitter everyone thinks I am.”
    “And neither are you well-mannered.”
    He tried to break it to her gently. “Manners are just a façade men put on for the women in their lives.”
    She puffed up. “They certainly are not. Manners are the foundation of civil society. They keep a people