Sovereign Read Online Free PDF

doesn’t mean there is no path. Jonathan didn’t die in vain—you, the one he loved the most, should know that. See to it that you don’t mock the blood in your own veins, Jordin. He chose you. Have you forgotten so easily?”
    “He chose us all….”
    Rom’s voice held a slight tremor. “
I
found him,
I
chose him,
I
served him and fought for him. But he chose you. And one dayJonathan will come to you and reveal himself in a way only you will understand.”
    His words washed over Jordin like warm water, quieting her heart…. and then filled her with shame and regret for her doubt.
    And yet, even now she couldn’t dismiss that doubt entirely. Third-hand rumors of strange happenings had filtered in from the wastelands for years. Storms where there should be none; a mysterious figure wandering the desert like a ghost, bringing food and water to starving Corpses. If such a ghost existed, it seemed to have no interest in the cause of saving Sovereigns.
    Jonathan, my love, where have you gone?
Tears filled her eyes.
Why did you leave us?
    There was an urgent knock on the ancient door. Word had no doubt reached the rest of the council—or what remained of it. A month ago they’d been seven. With the Book’s passing, only six. Now, absent Triphon, only three remained alongside Rom and Jordin, and only two of those had known Jonathan before his death.
    Gamil, made Sovereign in the days immediately following Jonathan’s death, had once been a Nomad like Jordin, living under Roland’s authority. He was one of the precious few Nomads who’d chosen this new life over loyalty to the Immortal Prince. Though not an alchemist, he was well trained in the ways of patching wounds and addressing illness, and so he had acted these years as their physician.
    Adah had once been Rom’s servant and cook. She now oversaw all matters related to their food and housing. She ruled the underground like a mother hen, with wisdom that extended far beyond her domestic duties.
    And then there was Mattius, an alchemist recruited and turned Sovereign by the Book himself two years earlier. The eldest among them at fifty-nine, he was the only council member to not have known Jonathan. But his ardent loyalty to the blood that had brought him life along with his deep alchemy—in ways that surpassed eventhe Book, the Keeper had claimed—had made him a valuable addition to the leadership.
    “Come,” Rom said.
    They entered like three ships making harbor, gliding in long robes that had once been white, stoic in the way of Sovereign leaders, their expressions quieted of whatever emotion stirred beneath. Having faced so much death, there would be no display of grief or anguish, even over Triphon.
    She had accepted—even adopted, to an extent—the detached demeanor of their ways. Of this new, contemplative life as it should have been. But more often of late, it had only served to remind her of her own dead life before Jonathan’s blood had awakened them to the full, rampant emotion of Mortality. Tonight, would Roland’s Immortals celebrate as they all had once with Jonathan, dancing and chanting into the night around their fires? While intuition told her she had something
more
now than in those wild days, a part of her wondered if she had not also lost something.
    “Thank you for coming so quickly,” Rom said, stepping past her.
    Adah glanced around the chamber. “Where’s Triphon?” Her gaze came to rest on Jordin. “Please tell me you brought the rice.”
    They didn’t know.
    She found herself glancing in the direction of the altar but didn’t allow herself to look at the bloody amulet on it. “We ran into Dark Bloods,” she said, turning back. “Triphon is dead. If not for Jonathan’s intervention, I would be as well.” She could feel Rom’s eyes on her, though she did not meet them.
    For several breaths no one spoke. Scant years ago, the news might have caused them to fall to their knees and weep. But now…. what was death, but