The Forlorn Read Online Free PDF

subject.
    Mara had stopped asking. What did it matter? She and Skylar and Shiloh would never be a real part of these people.
    Or their father’s.  If they knew little about their mother’s people at least there was a chance to learn—with their father’s, they had nothing to go on. Not even a pack name, which she had learned was customary.
    They had nothing.
    She looked away from the dark gold eyes looking at her, and down at the rest of him. He wore white, something she knew meant he was important. Only those with standing in this city, in these Dardaptoans, were allowed to wear that color. Her mother had made that very clear the first time Mara had tried to wear a white shirt out of the house.
    It was the first time Raejel had forbidden Mara to wear anything. Shock alone had had Mara complying. Later, her mother had apologized, had explained that white was a significant color and to wear it without thought would only bring Mara trouble.
    The tunic she wore now was white. And embroidered with the same turquoise that was tied around the man’s waist. What did it mean?
    “I’m sorry…I just…can’t think right now.” She tried to lift her left hand to wipe her eyes, but the bandaging was too heavy. And it burned.
    She looked back up at him. Why did her attention immediately go to him and not the other woman or even the male doctor who’d said very little? There was worry on his face—for her? Why? “I…who are you? I’m sorry, I don’t know you.”

    Chapter Eleven
     
    Never had anything hurt him as much as those words and the confusion on her face. “I am your…”
    He stopped. If she didn’t know, should he really tell her? Maybe she did know but for some reason did not want to acknowledge it? Or was she just confused from her injuries and what had to have been extremely frightening to her? “I am Clarion Adrastos, dhar of the Adrastos House. Well, one of the Adrastos Houses, there are apparently quite a few. My family calls me Rion.”
    She had eyes almost brown in color, very unusual for a Dardaptoan. Her Lupoiux blood, perhaps? Still, whatever it was, the distrust and fear in them had him wanting nothing more than to scoop her up in his arms and vow to her that he would never leave her to face any fear alone again.
    But he knew that would frighten her, too. “I followed you into the library. I knew there was a good reason to avoid such a place.”
    “There was an earthquake, wasn’t there?”
    Rion had forgotten that. Barlaam shook his head. “There were no quakes that I know of. Lana?”
    Rion looked at his sister-in-law. She was particularly sensitive to such things. But she was shaking her head in the negative, as well. “There were no quakes. Just that piercing cry of those beasts coming from wherever it was they originated.”
    “When we came out of the library, we were immediately surrounded. Where did they come from?”
    “I will be finding out,” Marcos said. He was the closest brother in age to Rion, and though they had been separated for several hundreds of years, Rion still felt the bonds between them strongly. He was only closer to one other sibling, and that was his little Nora.
    “Of Nora? I need to see that she is safe.” Guilt was strong. His responsibility to the sister he had raised from early teenhood was strong. Only his responsibility to his Rajni could overshadow it.
    “Nora is well,” Barlaam said. “She is with Jade and Mallory. Aodhan secured them all before heading to Center Thrun City.”
    Rion thought for a moment. “Was the attack widespread? Or just surrounding the library?”
    “Focused on that area,” Marcos said. “And while there were certainly a fair number of the creatures, they were relatively easy to dispatch.”
    Rion hadn’t counted exactly, but he knew he had faced more than two dozen of the winged beasts with just his sword hand. He had not let go of his Mara. Not even for a moment.
    She was watching them all, confusion in her eyes.
    Rion