The Black Madonna (The Mystique Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF Page A

adoring gaze touched my frosty heart with its sincerity; it wasn’t how I looked that attracted his admiration, but who I was.
    ‘Well,’ he said as I came closer, resigned to his fate, ‘it was nice meeting you.’ Then he delayed my finger gently. ‘Wait. Who are you really?’
    He was going to forget in a moment anyway so I decided to indulge his wish. I whispered my true name in his ear. As he gasped in astonishment, I pressed my finger on his brow and willed him to forget.
    Emmett opened his eyes and looked completely bemused. ‘What the…?’ He observed the mess on the floor.
    ‘Looking at it won’t get it cleaned up,’ I said.
    ‘Pardon?’ He looked at me, puzzled.
    ‘You promised André, remember?’ I prompted. ‘He’s going to give you a raise.’
    Emmett did have a vague memory of this and nodded. ‘It had better be a big raise,’ he said, considering the task ahead with disdain.
    ‘Later,’ I said, and headed back through the common room. I wanted to find my parents and tell them about the sale of the ringstone, but as I reached the door, Killian Labontè entered.
    ‘Wow!’ He looked me up and down and laughed. ‘Are you trying to get me arrested?’
    ‘From what I’ve read, you don’t need any help with that,’ I said, and moved past him.
    ‘Very true,’ he conceded. ‘Shall we go?’
    ‘I just need to see my mother for a second—’
    ‘Your parents are down the hole,’ he said, sounding a little put out at the delay. ‘Why don’t you call them on the mobile in my car?’
    He led me towards a brand-new Porsche Sportec Turbo in gunmetal grey.
    I shook my head. ‘It’ll keep.’ I had my own means of getting my message across to my mother that didn’t involve sharing our private affairs on the open airwaves.
    The conversation en route to the club in Bordeaux was a little stilted at first. Killian was all riled up about his parents arriving on site unannounced, and was struggling to suppress his anger so as not to bore me with it. He spoke of his wish to be anybody but who he was, and of his utter disdain for his family.
    ‘Your life appears charmed to me,’ I said, wanting him to reveal what was so detestable about his parents. Could it be that he knew what they truly were?
    ‘Looks can be deceiving.’
    I tried a more leading question. ‘Have your parents abused you in some way?’
    ‘No,’ he said, glancing at me and then back to the road. ‘But they intend to.’
    ‘How do you know that?’ Was he aware that he was destined to share the same fate as his parents—was this the pending abuse he referred to?
    He grinned at the question. ‘No offence, but I don’t know you well enough…I’d hate to scare you off.’
    ‘I don’t scare as easily as you might imagine,’ I said, but he shook his head and remained silent.
    ‘So many mysteries,’ I teased, letting him know how intrigued I was.
    ‘Not so many really.’
    ‘Well,’ I said, grinning in challenge, ‘if you won’t confide in me about your private life, perhaps you’ll tell me what you expect to find beneath Montségur?’
    ‘I expect to find some answers,’ he said, then, seeing I wasn’t satisfied, he added, ‘to an old family mystery.’
    ‘The Grail family?’
    He looked startled by my frankness.
    ‘I just co-wrote a novel on the subject,’ I said, easing his suspicion.
    ‘Then you know about the Rod of Power?’
    I nodded. ‘But I don’t think it was ever kept here for any length of time.’
    ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘but the rod is somehow connected to our mount. There are depictions of it in the labyrinth we’ve unearthed.’
    ‘But the Grail family have many amazing treasures connected to their legend—what fascinates you about the Rod of Power in particular?’
    ‘It has the power to defy the gods,’ he stated.
    Perhaps he intended to use the staff to protect himself from his formidable parents? ‘You plan to defy the gods, do you?’ I asked.
    ‘Only if provoked.’ He