Assassin's Kiss Read Online Free Page B

demise, replacing the sensation of loathing from the looks Scorpio had given her.
    It was his fault that she was forced to help the enemy.
    And his fault that she would soon join their ranks forever.

C HAPTER 3
     
     
    S CORPIO AWOKE TO A TICKLE in his nose and he sneezed, displacing a warm, purring bundle from his chest. Tiny claws pricked through his torn T-shirt as the cat scrambled off his pecs. Cool air rushed over him and he pushed up to a sitting position.
    Sunlight streamed down in the clearing. Beyond the bars of his cage, witches talked in groups or walked from one building to another. At one side of the pentagram stood a guard.
    One? Scorpio concealed his surprise. One guard, despite the spell, was a small obstacle. The bigger hurdle was the blue-eyed witch who’d knocked him unconscious.
    Softness pushed at his calf and he glanced down at the cat. Why the thing had taken a shine to him, he had no idea—
    Her.
    It was hers.
    He scooped the cat into his arms, where it settled against him and started licking his wrist with its tiny sandpaper tongue. The fuzz ball belonged to her. Even now, her scent wafted from the animal’s fur.
    What in the fucking hell had happened?
    He’d never seen her. But he knew without a doubt that she was his other half. And that made no sense. Mates had to get to know each other, fall in love, and then the bond would begin to form, crystallizing if the female accepted it.
    A chill slithered through his stomach. Only if she accepted it.
    And from the look on her face, acceptance was the last thing on her mind. Not to mention the burning blast of witchfire she’d lobbed at him.
    He stared absently at the trees as blue jays shrieked and fought over choice perches. Had he come into contact with her at some point in his work for Dalamos or his Watcher duties?
    No, he reasoned. He’d never forget someone so beautiful. Every feature looking like she was carved from marble. Every inch perfect.
    He’d spent time around witches. They lived all over the realms. Some in village covens like this, or some alone within encrypted locales. Some even worked for Arawn at Watcher HQ, creating wards and amulets for the fighters, even coming along on the occasional operation to cast a curse…
    Wait. No fucking way.
    Denial and anger speared his heart like twin pokers as a hundred-year-old memory rocketed through his psyche. He leaped to his feet and paced the small space, eliciting a narrow-eyed glance from the guard. Scorpio tightened his hold on the cat as words spoken a lifetime ago taunted his mind, along with the image of a one-eyed female. The witch from the Winter Realm.
    He’d forgotten the curse, filing it away as ridiculous. The strength and reliability of the spell depended on the witch who’d cast it.
    Now her ominous intonation came back like a taunting arrow, each word piercing him full of dread. She will despise you for the monster you are.
    My spells…always come to fruition.
    No! He shook his head in disbelief. He had a life to lead. He’d escaped from the hell of working for Dalamos, had gotten his siblings out of there, and had risen in the Lash Watchers ranks to be in the inner circle, where the blood on his hands had been admitted, acknowledged and understood. His fellow fighters didn’t judge him for what he’d done when Raff and Kira had been used as pawns.
    Your past doesn’t define you, his wise comrade Ria had told him.
    Yet here in Bronwy, hurt and anger had blasted a hole in any semblance of reason.
    A mate wasn’t on his agenda.
    Except that his body had decided that yes, indeed, it was. And that female belonged to him.
    He dropped his head back. The cat looked up at him with wise yellow eyes.
    “I don’t suppose you have any influence with your mistress,” Scorpio muttered. “What’d she call you? Jinx?”
    The cat wiggled and he let it go, where it landed on all four paws and darted out into the trees. Scorpio scrubbed a hand over his jaw, rough with a