Twisted Enchantment (Unbreakable Force Book 5) Read Online Free PDF

nestled in warm furs.
    “Do you know what it is they are taking from the children? How is it killing them?” Aaric spoke softly, not wanting to wake Dahlia.
    Adaryn shook her head. “They may be magic users, but they are obviously twisting the magic. I’ve never heard of ‘extracting’ anything from anyone.” She grinned ruefully. “Though if I’d known how, I could’ve dealt with Kingsley before he became an issue.”
    Aaric patted Adaryn on the shoulder, sympathetic. Adaryn’s gaze had turned inward, thinking of her past. “It’s all right, Adaryn.” Aaric spoke in what he hoped was a soothing manner. “He’s not here.”
    Adaryn blinked and shuddered. “I know.” She took a deep, shaky breath. She fixed Aaric with a blue-eyed stare. “I think I need to go to back to Bleaksdale.”
    “What? No!” Aaric hissed. Dahlia stirred and they both paused. She snuggled closer to Adaryn and became still. “No, Adaryn,” Aaric whispered. He felt his temper rising. “Who gave you that fool notion? Fyrsil? I won’t allow it. You could be killed!”
    “No one did, calm down,” she whispered back just as fiercely. “I was just thinking about it. We came here hoping to make a new life for ourselves, but things sound just as bad here as back in Ruis. We can’t just sit back and allow this to happen. What if the Twyli come for Dahlia? It’s the safest place for her.”
    Aaric looked down at the toddler. She had only been with them for a few short days, yet she’d managed to wrap her little finger around Aaric’s heart. “We could go back,” he said. “Back over the mountains. We don’t have to go to Ruis. We can travel to Sen Altare, or settle in a village.”
    Adaryn shook her head. “We’re here, Aaric. We can’t just abandon these people. They need us.”
    Aaric clenched his fist. “You’re pregnant, Adaryn. You and the unborn child are my first concern. And Dahlia.”
    “Aaric . . .”
    Aaric recognized the tone, and immediately switched tactics. “It’s late, Adaryn, and we don’t want to wake the child. We’ll discuss this in the morning.”
    Adaryn harrumphed and rolled over to face the tent wall. Less than five minutes later, her breathing had slowed to the breath of sleep. Aaric grimaced. He wished he knew what the right thing to do was. He could see Adaryn’s point, but it was his responsibility to make sure she stayed safe, especially now that she was pregnant. Going back to Bleaksdale was crazy. He would not agree to that.
    His own breathing slowed until he fell into sleep, his dreams filled with thick fog and a voice calling him through the mist.

 
    12
    Adaryn
     
    “ S o you’ve been hired by Bleaksdale to track the Twyli?” I asked. “I heard some men in the city mention the mayor hired some people to do so.”
    “Yes,” was the brigand king’s reply. “Their weapons don’t come close to being enough to protect from the Twyli. I’m surprised they’re still around, actually.”
    Fyrsil and I were seated on the same log by the fire pit from last night. I’d woken and quietly slipped out of the tent without waking Aaric or Dahlia. I eyed him skeptically. “It seems like it’d take a fair amount of luck to be in the vicinity when the Twyli happened to strike.”
    Fyrsil shook his head. “They don’t need to call enchantment in order for me to sense them, so they’re not hard to track.”
    I nodded, well aware of his ability to sense magic, even before it was cast.
    “There’s something I want to know.” I fixed him with a stare. “It’s been bothering me ever since I discovered you were behind the brigand attacks in Sen Altare.”
    Fyrsil watched me, but remained silent, and I continued. “You were once a brigand named Fyrsil, but became a king named Matias. How?”
    Fyrsil’s blue eyes took on a faraway look as he mulled over my question, silent. When he spoke, his voice was heavy. “I never knew my father. He died before I was born. But my mother told me he