Ethereal Knights Read Online Free PDF Page B

comfortable with anyone before, let alone a person of the female persuasion.
    “Do you know what it is?” I ask, referring to our shared mystical talent that has the ability to land us both on the government’s sci-fi watch list if we’re not careful.
    I pull into Devil’s Peak and park by the overlook. The water sparkles like a jewel, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Skyla with her face smoothed to perfection like a porcelain doll.
    “It’s so beautiful,” she whispers as waves crash over the rocks below.
    “So are you, but you’re evading the question.” I take her hand and let it settle in my palm. Do you know why you’re like this? 
    She takes a breath and holds it.
    An image emerges. She’s thinking about an older man with a kind look in his eyes. She feels at peace when she sees of him. I’m guessing it’s her father.
    My own parents float to the forefront of my mind. The picture I have on my dresser comes to me with perfect clarity—the one of me as an infant, nestled safe in my mother’s arms while my father embraces the two of us. It was taken in that short window in my original life without the burns. That’s me in the middle. I nod into her.
    I’m sorry. Her eyes tear up instantly. What happened?
    Car accident—so I was told . My mother died trying to get me out, but I hold that part back just beyond the border of my thoughts. It’s not that hard to lock her out of my mental musings, a little trick I learned from the master himself, Gage.
    “I could do this with my dad.” She shudders at the thought of doing it at all. “My mom, my sister—they can’t.”
    “Gage can’t.” A surge of guilt pulses through me. I don’t know why I’m so quick shoot him down. He’s amazing on his own without the ability to read anybody’s mind.  “Look—I just want you to know I don’t make a habit of touching people and reading their thoughts.”
    “I’m impressed.” She twists her lips as if she’s not.
    “Are you?” I pull her hand to my mouth and touch each of her fingers to my lips. “But you don’t really know why you can do this, do you?”
    “No.” Her eyes widen like softballs. “Will you tell me?”
    I lean in and collapse my arms around her like I’ve been dying to do all night. Skyla holds the scent of the air in springtime, like fresh cut flowers releasing their sweet perfume, and I inhale until my lungs are ready to burst from the effort.
    “Yes, I’ll tell you.” I dust my cheek over her face until my mouth brushes gently against hers. “But not tonight.” I land my lips exactly where they want to be—diving over hers for an erotic eternity. Skyla and I make the stars wish they could burn through the atmosphere with such heated precision.
    There’s not a cold shower in the world that could douse the fire brewing between us.
     
     

 
    Gage
     
     
    In the morning, I hear the faint sound of whistling outside my bedroom.
    Crap.
    I pull the pillow over my head, trying to drown him out. I know damn well it’s Logan, and his whistling means he’s in an all too chipper mood from God knows what. I roll over trying to ignore the fact my bladder demands to burst.
    I dreamed of her again. It was her this time without a doubt. Skyla and I walking hand in hand along a black sandy beach. Her hair flowing in the wind, a smile locked and loaded on her lips all for me.
    A hard series of knocks explode over my door. “Rise and shine, princess.” Logan’s voice booms inside my head like the crash of an annoying cymbal. “Your mom wants you downstairs for breakfast.” His footsteps dissipate, and the tension in me reduces as he stomps away.
    I clean up and head downstairs. My senses light up with the scent of sugar and spice and all things delicious as only my mother can make.
    “Cinnamon rolls.” My favorite.
    “How was last night? Did the clothes afford you any luck with the ladies?” Dad glances up from his medical journal, the glasses ready to slide off his