Shades of Avalon Read Online Free PDF Page A

he left.
    As soon as he was gone, Triona’s heart began to race, and she reached up to snatch my hand. Her face scrunched up, and the tears she’d been holding back began to flow down her cheeks. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Amanda leading Carmel and Lewis from the room. Carmel’s hand pressed to her mouth, and Lewis had to practically push her across the threshold.
    “Just hold it together another few minutes, and then we can get you released,” I pleaded with her. I hoped my words were getting through, while at the same time I experienced an irrefutable sense of pride in my sister. So far she was proving herself stronger than I’d given her credit for. I just hoped her strength endured.
    Annice left the other side of the bed, no doubt to rejoin Samuel and await the arrival of Joshua, Caleb’s brother.
    Triona grasped my hand and attempted to draw me closer although she didn’t speak. Her eyes looked haunted, pleading.
    “What is it?”
    She yanked at me again, and I eventually realized that she didn’t want to speak out loud. She didn’t want anyone else to hear. She reached up and grabbed the collar of my sweater, tugging it sharply and pulling me down.
    “I can’t feel him,” she whispered in a voice betraying every emotion simmering beneath her surface.
    “Huh?” My face tightened, my eyebrows pulling together.
    Her voice was so low I was positive she didn’t want to share with anyone besides me. “I can’t sense Caleb. I can always feel him near, and I can’t now.”
    Her emerald eyes grew wide and desperate, searching for some hope, her eyelashes damp from tears. The golden skin of her face paled, but I didn’t know what to tell her. With a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I realized what she meant and why she didn’t intend Samuel and Annice to know. The connection between soul mates was so strong it bound them and made them complete. It was something the individual didn’t know they were missing until they experienced it. Some even sensed their mate near before they knew them—almost as if they shared their life force. There was emptiness without it.
    That pretty much described how I felt the day Amanda was taken to the Otherworld—such an intense loneliness even surrounded by people—that I imagined my heart bleeding.
    I gripped Triona’s hand so tight I discerned the bones beneath her skin. I wanted to say something…anything, but words totally failed me. One of the reasons Triona never let go of Caleb when we thought he had died was because his presence always surrounded her. I hated to think what it meant that she couldn’t feel him now.
    When he’d left before, it was after he had made sure Triona was safe. It looked more likely by the moment that my assumptions were way off base and that someone had taken Caleb against his will.
    A nurse swept into the room before I could say anything else. Words were pointless anyway. Only finding Caleb would make any difference now.

Chapter 3
    Chasing Shadows
    “I T HINK I S HOULD L EAVE ,” Eila, Joshua’s mate, suggested. In fairness to her, she had complete awareness of her presence making us all a little jumpy, being a life-sized lie detector. She stood up and skimmed long elegant fingers over Joshua’s shoulder to indicate he should remain behind.
    “No,” Triona said, holding her hand up, palm out in front of her.
    Eila halted immediately. Her head tilted, and her golden eyes widened ever so slightly at Triona’s forceful request. It was a first for Triona to want Eila to remain near longer than necessary. A tiny crescent formed on each side on Eila’s full lips, and curiosity sparkled in her eyes. Her white blond hair hung in blunt, straight sheets of gossamer to her chin. Of all of us, Eila was by far the most ethereal. Her tiniest movement seemed as fluid as pouring cream. Despite her contemporary clothing, a long cashmere sweater over soft, fitted jeans, Eila appeared most like what I imagined the old Sídhe to