Betrayal Read Online Free

tears or pain.  How could I feel this much pain?  Just days ago we were laughing at silly girls and the men in our books.  I showed her how to make coffee so she could surprise Pike and the others with it brewing for the next meeting day.  When she did, the boys had simultaneously spit it out.  She’d only put half the amount of beans in the grinder.
    My eyes blurred but I could see the white of Pike’s eyes amid the blood on his face and wondered if it was all his.  “Why didn’t you save her?”  I choked out.
    He dropped to his knees.  “I did.”  His sword fell beneath him, a huge gash in his side.
    No, he didn't.
    Ian swooped me up and yanked. I held on to Lorah until I couldn’t see straight.  “Grace!”  I heard Ian call my name.  “Grace.”  I didn’t feel my feet touch the ground as Ian sat me in the garden himself covered in blood.  “I told you to stay inside.”
    Pike stood over me, holding his hand against his ribcage where I’d seen the wound spilling out.  When I looked up into his eyes, his face was streaked with tear stains running through the bloody mess on his face. 
    “I’m sorry Grace.  I’m so sorry.”
    I didn’t have the power in me to answer.  I just laid my head on Ian’s shoulder and cried, tasting the bitterness in mouth. 
    A scream blasted through the hurried air.  My arms flailed, weapons flew up in defense.  The essence of a kamikaze Nym burst through the shocked and disturbed mass of hurt and bleeding.  Still coming towards the ones I love, I refused to lose any more of them to any raging basket case Nym.  So I took action as I jumped up from the ground and swerved around to grab the sword from Pike’s side with the intention of holding it straight out and letting the hellion fall on it.  As if my plan wasn’t fool proof, Pike slammed his body against mine placing himself in front of the madman at the same time Ian sandwiched me in from the back.  Any other time I’d say this situation was highly inappropriate.
    Still advancing towards us, Pike took the sword back from me, yelled something to Ian, and readied for impact.  Several of our guards moved swiftly in our direction aiming for the wayward killer, but all missed.  Pike aimed and all at once there was a crunch, smack, and thud to the ground.
    Pike’s sword didn’t miss the target, but the other hadn’t missed his either.
    Clean through, the sword of the enemy had penetrated the other side of Pike’s rib cage breaking a bone and who knows what else.  The pain of his body crushing into me was nothing compared to the pain he shot through his mind.  He sounded like he was dying.  The next thing I saw was the dead Nym on the ground, and Pike lying beside him.
    Panic overwhelmed me.  “NO!  NO!  NO!  Not him too.”  I fell around my own feet lying across Pike’s chest and screaming to whatever creatures of the air could heal the hurt.  They were all dying around me.  All I could think about was not losing Pike.
    Ian.  I yanked up searching to be sure he was safe still behind me though I could feel his hands wrapped around my waist. 
    “Help them.”  I blacked out at that point and only remember Ian catching my head before it hit the ground.
    The next day I finally emerged from his bed long after dawn knowing the pain had ebbed to a dull ache.  I rolled over to my stomach and put my hands under my chin.  I stared at the mp3 player on the bedside stand and forced a small smile.  I remember waking up again after fainting and being up way too late in search of answers. The day didn't end with any.
    The night was long with talks of war and revenge and secret retaliation.  Pike apologized in the meeting room while wincing and cursing the very wounds that he should have died from, but the healing magic of the Fey astounded me still.  Why couldn’t all the Fey have that magic?
    His wounds healed, Lorah’s did not.
    I tried not to be bitter towards him knowing it wasn’t his