Gideon's Promise (Sons of Judgment Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

shoulders slumped inward in defeat. “I shouldn’t have run. I should have stayed and helped...”
    “You did the right thing coming here, Imogen,” his mom told her gently. “Whoever did this wouldn’t have let you live.”
    Imogen looked down at her hands and the tight knit of her fingers. “What good does living do me? My family is dead. I’m completely alone.”
    “Oh, darling, no.” His mom hugged her, tucking Imogen’s ashen face into the crook of her shoulder. “You are welcome to stay with us for as long as you want. We’ll keep you safe.”
    Looking on the verge of tears, Imogen pulled out of the other woman’s embrace and rose to her feet.
    “Can I lie down for a few minutes? I just ... I don’t feel very good.”
    With a sympathetic arm around her shoulders, his mom showed Imogen from the room. Everyone else remained seated, lost in their own thoughts. It was Magnus who leaped to his feet, determination a rigid ruler forced across his shoulders.
    “I’m going to the market,” he announced. “Someone down there’s bound to know who would be after a family of banshees.”
    While their father nodded and rose, Gideon studied the thin cracks in the worn curve of his boots. He’d been meaning to get new ones. But the old ones were just so comfortable. Nevertheless, footwear wasn’t the thing on his mind.
    “What if it was humans?” he blurted without thinking.
    The conversation between his brother and father instantly halted. All eyes turned to him.
    “What do you mean, Gideon?” his father pressed.
    Gideon raised his head and fixed each face with a look before speaking. “Think about it. Demons don’t attack veil creatures—”
    “Unless provoked,” Octavian reminded him. “We still don’t know if the father had anything to do with this.”
    “Yes...” Gideon pushed up to his full height. “But why? These were clearly beings that lived simple, had simple means and only wanted to be left alone. I don’t think they’d go making deals with demons in the cloak of darkness.”
    “What are you getting at, Gid?” Magnus demanded, visibly getting agitated by the useless chatter when action needed to be taken.
    “Well, if demons didn’t do this and we didn’t do this and the strigoi are forbidden to—”
    “It could have been an inanimis,” Reggie interrupted, tickling Gideon’s impatience.
    “Why?” he shouted. “Inanimis need human blood. Killing demons, or veil creatures, is just a waste of their time.”
    “The strigoi aren’t forbidden to harm other creatures like us,” his father said quietly. “They are well in their right to attack anyone they wish, so long as no human is harmed. It could have very well been one of the five covens.”
    It still didn’t make sense to Gideon. The act was too brutal, too calculated. It was a message, not an execution. He just didn’t know how to convey his assumptions into words. His family was right. The variables were just too many.
    “See what you can find at the market,” their father told Magnus.
    “Need company?” Reggie took a step forward.
    Magnus hesitated and Gideon knew why. Magnus hated going to the market on a good day, having his baby brother tagalong probably wasn’t what he wanted. But he gave a jerk of his head that could have passed for a nod and stomped from the room with Reggie on his heels.
    Octavian rose off the armrest, but kept a hand on Riley’s shoulder as he spoke. “I told Mom I would go over a few of the applications before the doors open.”
    Their father nodded. “Show Riley how. I’m sure your mother will appreciate a second set of eyes when you boys aren’t around.”
    Riley’s eyes grew to the size of saucers. “Really? I can help? I’ve been wanting to ask, but I thought maybe it was a gatekeeper thing and, you know, hush-hush.”
    His father grinned fondly at her.
    It was no secret to anyone that his parents thought the world of Riley. She was the daughter they were never blessed with