The Cherished One Read Online Free PDF

challenge more so than he had much of anything in a very long while.
    Max insisted on escorting her into her family’s compound, and he didn’t so much as flinch when Dain and his men met him head on, bristling with protective instincts as soon as he saw who was with his younger stepsister.
    “Don’t worry,” Fawna said, patting him on the shoulder as she passed, “he was just leaving.”
    Although he knew she wouldn’t see it, Max executed a deep bow to her, then turned and did exactly that, his pace measured despite the fact he was presenting her brother with his back, and he knew the younger man was advancing towards him, silver sword raised menacingly.
    “Dain!  We’ve have enough bloodshed in this family over the years.  I’ll have as little more as possible before I depart this world,” his stepmother, the dowager Queen, decreed from the door with enough royal oomph to call the headstrong King into line, however reluctantly.
    “Why did you bring him here?” Dain hissed under his breath.
    “I wasn’t given a choice,” Fawna ground back at him, sticking out her tongue at his disappearing back.
     
     
     

Chapter Three
     
     
    Her mother caught her shoulder and spun her around into a huge, warm hug, then immediately took a step back and looked her directly in the eye.  “What’s wrong?”  Lilliana might not have been of the Faeries herself, but she was as close to an empathic as humanity got.
    Besides, a Momma never missed anything about her little girl.
    She found herself wrapped in her Mother’s arms on the comfy sofa in the perpetually cozy family room, deep within the warren-like palace.  “Now, tell your Momma all about it.”  Lilli brushed the errant baby hair away from her daughter’s face.
    “He’s gone,” she barely whispered, unable to stem the tide of tears that welled painfully into her throat at the words.
    “Who’s gone?”  Her mother was the best person she knew – now that Dag was gone – but – guided by her emotions as she was, she wasn’t necessarily the quickest on the uptake.
    “Dag.”
    “No, Dag would never leave you.  You must be mistaken.”  It was somewhat strange to hear how staunchly her mother was defending Dag.  A few hours ago, she would have responded in exactly the same way.  The very idea of Dag leaving, especially without a word, was ridiculous.  Impossible.  Unthinkable.
    There were very few things that could set off Fawna’s temper, but not being believed was one of them.  She levered herself stiffly away from the succor of her mother’s arms.  “He’s gone.  I can’t even feel him within me anymore.  He’s... he’s completely—” She stumbled, but steeled herself and recovered.  “He’s completely separated himself from me.  I don’t even know if he’s alive or dead.”
    “Oh, my poor baby,” her mother dragged her back into her arms, and Fawna finally let go completely, knowing she was entirely safe at last.
    Fawna completely ignored it when she heard Dain come into the room and clear his throat loudly, and Lilliana, she knew just by the way her mother stiffened, gave him such a glare that she heard him sigh loudly and close the door behind him. 
    He wanted to convene a family meeting, and he couldn’t do it without two thirds of the family.  They both knew he bore a slight resentment that he had to include the two of them at all – more Lil than Fawna, but either of them, really – since Fawna was barely a half breed and Lilli was a no breed, no account human – although he would never say that to her face.
    Her Mom hugged her tight.  “We’ll do everything we can to find him, Fawna.”
    She drew back and took the tissue her Mother offered, dabbing ineffectually at her eyes.  “No.  Definitely not.”  Fawna caught her mother’s eye and said it again, more forcefully.  “No.  You are not to make any inquiries or ask anyone to keep a lookout for him on my behalf.  If he doesn’t want to be with