Regret (Lady of Toryn Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF Page B

anyone challenged Skye
Damien.
    A soldier fell right in front of
her, and Ashlyn tamped down her disgust and crouched to pull off his torn,
blood-stained tunic, wrapping it around herself and tying it loosely with the
green leather belt. She tried to pull his boots off, but the pain in her chest
had her gasping before she could even get a good grip.
    “Drake!” Skye called, cutting
down two soldiers with one cleave, then stepping back to block another one who
tried to duck into the crevice with Ashlyn. He flung the soldier backward,
simultaneously using a lightning stane
to electrocute the ninja before the man even hit the ground.
    The pounding of hooves signaled
Drake’s arrival, and Ashlyn looked up mutely, seeing the vampire riding one
horse and leading another.
    Skye turned to her, yanked her
out of the crevice and picked her up to hand her off to Drake. Ashlyn bit back
a cry of pain as she he scrambled into Drake’s lap on top of the horse. She
held on tightly to her shuriken and knapsack, wrapping her other arm around the
vampire to keep herself from falling off.
    “I’ll lead them off,” Skye said,
vaulting up onto his own horse. He yanked the reins, and the horse turned away
just as the cliff behind the army began to shake from the power of Skye’s earth stane. “Get her out of here!” the blond
yelled over his shoulder.
    Ashlyn was too busy sobbing into
Drake’s shoulder to protest, and the agony began anew when Drake spurred his
horse forward and they galloped away, weaving among the tents as they headed
for the forest.
    It occurred to her later that
under any other circumstances, straddling Drake’s lap on horseback with her
chest pressed against his and her legs wrapped around his waist, especially considering her lack of
decent clothing, would have been both mortifying and titillating- like a
horribly wonderful nightmare come true. But at that moment, outside of the
extreme pain and as the world began to spin, all she was thinking was, Please don’t let me throw up all over Drake Lockhart.
I promise, Drago, if you help me out right now I will never ask for anything
again.

Chapter 3
    Free Will

    When Ashlyn finally opened her
eyes, she expected to be exhausted. After a moment, though, she blinked. She
wasn’t tired at all. Her ribs weren’t hurting, either.
    She inhaled tentatively, testing
her limits. No pain.
    Drake’s face entered her line of
vision as he crouched beside her. “How do you feel?” he asked gently, his
fingers resting briefly against her forehead.
    “I feel…fine,” Ashlyn said,
perplexed. “Can I get up?”
    He offered his hand, and she took
it, using her other hand to brace herself as she sat upright. Ashlyn looked
down, and put a hand to her chest. There were no bandages beneath her tunic.
    “You fixed my ribs with heal? ” Ashlyn said, looking up at Drake
in disbelief. He nodded, and Ashlyn’s jaw dropped.
    “Are you serious? Do you know how
hard it is to fix broken bones with magic? It’s almost impossible. The magic
doesn’t pick and choose. It makes a whole big calcified mess. People are
killed. They die horrible agonizing
deaths from it.” She paused, and took another blessedly painless breath,
hardly able to believe it.
    Drake glanced down at their
joined hands, looking strangely unsure of himself. “I wouldn’t have risked it
if it weren’t absolutely necessary,” he said.
    “But you did it! ” she exclaimed, too much in awe to consider thanking him.
“How did you do it? I wasn’t even going to risk it, I mean, if a broken bone
had been anywhere near my heart, I can’t even imagine-“
    “You may not agree with my
methods,” he admitted. “It wasn’t only the heal magic.”
    “Well, whatever it was-” she
started to say, and stopped, realizing suddenly that he was still holding her
hand.
    There was a pause as they both stared
at their clasped fingers, Drake’s bandaged hand rough against her palm.
    After a moment, she gingerly
extracted her