Rakshasa Book I, Part #3: Tigerheart Read Online Free PDF

played me. Played all of us. We’d got Katelyn back, but now both covens risked losing everything. The trap had been sprung, we’d deliberately walked right into it and hoped for the best, but it hadn’t turned out.
    This was all my fault.
    We ran, climbing up the first of the mountains, taking a shortcut over the Federal Highway and up the side of the mountain that ran beside it. Fortunately no cars were present at this hour. I had no idea what they might think of the sight if there were.
    “Asena, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…”
    “Keep running,” she instructed as we crested the hill, “Katelyn’s badly injured. Save your breath.”
    “Go on without me,” I said, “I can’t help much in a fight, and you have to get there before the cops get there…”
    Asena shook her head. I could tell she was slowing herself to keep pace with me. Katelyn was heavy, and I was sprinting as fast as I could go. My chest ached and my breath came in ragged gasps.
    “We run together,” Vriko said, and I stared at him. “But what about the Garden? I can catch up…”
    “The net snags both ways,” he said cryptically, then slowly stopped his run. “I think we’re far enough away now.” The others followed suit and I, confused, stopped as well.
    “What’s going on? Katelyn’s hurt, and the Garden—”
    “The Garden’s just fine,” said Asena.
    I stared at her. “But how?”
    She coughed, clearing her throat, then pulled out her phone. “Hello, triple-oh, state your emergency,” she said, in a heavy, male voice. “What’s that? You say there’s a pack of what living in the mountains?”
    I stared in bewilderment as she snapped the phone shut. “But how did you route his call to your phone?”
    “My husband works in dispatch,” she explained, “which has come in handy more than once.”
    “But… The Champawat—uhh, Jacques, Eclipse, whatever—he used to be part of our coven, wouldn’t he know that?”
    Asena smiled gently. “Eclipse is a skilled hunter, but when it comes to things he doesn’t intend to butcher he can be remarkably unobservant. I doubt he even remembers our names.”
    “Won’t the Rewa be mad?”
    “I told Ishan my plan. I’m sure Hailstone didn’t like it, and I thought for a while he wouldn’t show up, but it appears he was willing to play along to help us out.”
    I couldn’t help but frown, slightly. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “I… it was your friend,” she said, “we needed you to fall for his trap. We needed you to believe it.” She held up a hand, as though making a pledge. “We’ll tell you next time, though.”
    I shifted Katelyn in my arms. “What about Katelyn? She’s really hurt.”
    “I didn’t think she’d be this bad,” Asena admitted, “but she’ll live. Lay her out on the grass… Ishan should be here with the medkits soon.”
    I did so, and sure enough, Ishan arrived moments later. I pulled him aside once the supplies were opened.
    “You knew about this?” I asked, trying to keep my tone even as Vriko and Susi began bandaging Katelyn’s wounds. Vriko wound a bandage around her head and Susi ran her fingers along Katelyn’s body, looking for bruises and broken bones.
    “Asena told me this morning, after Eclipse called her. Otherwise I would have.”
    I frowned a little. “Only this morning? She waited that long to tell you?”
    He smiled, slightly, raising a hand to cup my cheek. “I suspect that if she had told me her plan earlier, I would have told it to you in our dream, completely defeating the purpose of it all.”
    I tilted my head, rubbing my cheek against his hand, feeling the sting of what had happened slowly fade. I was touched that Ishan was willing to genuinely walk into the trap with me, even without Asena’s plan, and that made it a little easier to forgive him. “Okay,” I said, “but… I’m going to spank you for this one.”
    “Promises,” he quipped, giving a soft smile. I genuinely felt hurt about the way