Key Of Valor Read Online Free PDF

rude?”
    â€œMaybe.” Knowing she had been brought heat to her cheeks. “But I didn’t mean to be. I’m not used to anybody—”
    â€œHelping you?” he prompted. “Caring about you? About Simon?”
    There was a bite in his voice, but there was something both careless and cool about it that made her feel small. She countered it by shifting and looking him dead in the eyes. “That’s right, I’m not. Nobody helped me raise him, or feed him, or love him. Nobody helped me put a roof over his head. I’ve done it myself, and I’ve done a decent job of it.”
    â€œYou haven’t done a decent job of it,” he corrected. “You’ve done an extraordinary job of it. So what? That means you have to slap away every helping hand?”
    â€œNo. No, it doesn’t. You get me so mixed up.”
    â€œWell, that’s a start.” He took her hand, and had it to his lips before she could protest. “For luck.”
    â€œOh. Thanks.” She got quickly to her feet when Rowena came back into the room.
    â€œIf everyone’s ready, we’d like to continue the tradition of beginning the quest in the next room.”
    Brad kept his attention on Zoe. She was a little pale, but she was holding her own. Still, as they started down the wide hallway, he noted how Malory and Dana moved in to flank her.
    They’d become a team, a triad, even a family over the last two months. He didn’t think anything would change that now. They would need that unity through what was coming.
    His heart took a bump when he stepped into the next room and looked up at the portrait that dominated it.
    The Daughters of Glass, moments before their souls were stolen, gathered close. Just as the three women who shared the faces of those tragic demigoddesses now gathered close.
    Venora, with Malory’s vivid blue eyes, sat with a lap harp in her hands and a smile just blooming across her face. Niniane, with Dana’s strong features and dense brown hair, sat beside her on a marble bench and held a scroll and quill.
    Standing, a sword at her side and a small puppy in the crook of her arm, Kyna looked back at him. Her hair was a long fall of inky black rather that the short, sharp, sexy style Zoe wore. But the eyes, those long, topaz eyes, were the same.
    They pulled at him, as if they’d dug hooks into his heart.
    The three daughters radiated beauty, joy, innocence, in a world sumptuous with color and light. Yet, a closer look showed the hints of darkness to come.
    In the thick green forest was the shadowy shape of a man. Just slithering onto the bright tiles was the sinuous figure of a snake.
    In the corner, the sky was bruised with a brewing storm that the daughters were yet unaware of. And the lovers who embraced in the background were too wrapped up in each other to sense the danger edging close to their charges.
    To look closer yet was to see the three keys worked cleverly into the painting. One, disguised in the shape of a bird, seemed to fly through the cerulean sky. Another hid itself within the lush green leaves of the forest. And the third reflected deep in the pool behind the daughters who were sharing their last moment of peace and innocence.
    He’d seen how they’d looked after the spell. White and still as death in the crystal coffins as Rowena had painted them.
    He’d bought that painting, titled After the Spell , months before he’d even come back to the Valley or known of this guest and these women. Been compelled to buy it, he thought now, as he’d fallen in love, or into fascination or obsession—he wished to God he knew—with Zoe’s face.
    â€œTwo keys are found,” Rowena began. “Two locks are opened. Now there is but one.” She moved to stand under the portrait as she spoke, with the fire snapping gold and red flames behind her.
    â€œYou agreed to this quest because you were curious, and you were