Fields of Blood (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

sleep. Is that okay?”
    “Of course, Father. You can sleep.”
    “All right. Goodbye, then.”
    He left the room at a slow shuffle, casting a single uneasy glance at Reun before he moved through the door and vanished somewhere into the hotel.
    “Are you satisfied?” Taeral spat. He spun on a heel, stalked to the table and grabbed the open bottle, draining a third of it in one swallow. “As I mentioned, you’ve wasted your time. And ours. Now get out, before I decide to turn you over to the Duchenes after all.”
    But Reun didn’t leave. He staggered to the wall, leaned against it and slid down, a look of horror stamped on his face. “What have they done to him?”
    “Do you really mean to tell me you don’t know?” Teeth bared in a snarl, Taeral whipped the bottle across the room. It shattered against the far wall, spraying broken glass and foaming amber liquid everywhere. He moved toward Reun with fury in his eyes. “Twenty-six years they held him, in a room with cold iron walls. They tortured him, broke him down to nothing. Programmed him to—” He stopped, his fists clenched and shaking. “Get out of my father’s castle , Seelie. You are not welcome here.”
    “Cold iron walls,” he repeated numbly, struggling to his feet. Then he held a hand out. “Taeral, son of Daoin. I offer you a boon—”
    “I do not accept it!” Taeral screamed, batting his arm away.
    After a long pause, he said carefully, “You’ve not heard my offer.”
    “I do not care what you offer.” Taeral grabbed his shirt and smashed him against the wall, hard enough to crack the plaster. “Leave this house. Now . ” He let go with a rough shove, turned away and strode from the room.

    Silence settled in thickly. After a minute, Reun straightened and fussed with his shirt, his gaze glued to the floor. Eventually he looked up with a quick frown and started toward me, hand extended. “Gideon, son of Daoin. I offer—”
    “Oh, no.” I put my arms up and backed away fast, like he was holding a gun. He might as well be. Brother or not, Taeral would kill me if I agreed to whatever he’d refused. “Leave me out of this,” I said. “I don’t know what’s going on, and I’m not sure I want to.”
    Sadie came over to stand next to me and glare at Reun. “Look, you’d better go,” she said tightly. “Because if Taeral doesn’t kill you, I will. You think I don’t remember what you did to me?”
    “I am truly sorry. I’d not meant…I never intended for things to go as they did. I’d have saved you all, once they…” He broke off with a heavy sigh. “But I must make this right. I must serve Daoin.”
    “What the hell’s your obsession with him, anyway?” I said. “And what’s he got to do with you killing your wife?”
    “He killed his wife?” Sadie’s eyes narrowed. “Okay. Now I really hate you.”
    “Please. Allow me to explain,” he said, his voice shaking. “It was not my intention to kill her. I’d only meant to stop her from casting the curse.”
    I folded my arms. “Good for you. But what does this have to do with Daoin?”
    “She loved him,” Reun said in strangled tones. “She was having an affair with him. With an Unseelie lord, the captain of the Queen’s Guard. It is unspeakable, a Seelie noble on intimate terms with—” He broke off hard. “It is not done.”
    “Wait a minute,” I said. “When did this happen?”
    “Not so long ago. Perhaps four decades.”
    I stared at him. “Forty years is not so long?”
    “Of course not.” He gave me a strange look. “Are you not Fae?”
    “Well, sort of. I’m half.”
    Reun blinked. “You are a halfling?”
    “I guess. That’s what Taeral says.”
    “Hey. Seelie,” Sadie cut in. “You’d better finish explaining yourself fast, because I’m not convinced I shouldn’t kill you.”
    “Yes, I suppose I should,” he said, and drew a slow breath. “When Aeshara confronted me about her affair, I was furious, heartbroken. Completely