Crown of Cinders (Imdalind Series Book 7) Read Online Free Page A

same worries and concerns I could feel in Ilyan echoed inside me.
    “Huh?” All sign of humor was gone from Wyn now. Her face twisted up as she looked between us. “Can we please not use the whole internal mind jabber right now? Your faces are kind of freaking me out.”
    I turned toward her, not wanting to break the news that would affect her more than it had me. Edmund had done the same to her brother, after all.
    Ilyan nodded once before stepping into the center of the small circle, his long braid falling down the center of his back. The long, golden ribbon he wore extended to his toes. My own wound throughout the intricate braid he had given me this morning. I wished the braid I had placed in his hair could match. Thank goodness Ilyan was a patient teacher. I would get there.
    “They have found something near her heart, similar to where Edmund placed his Štít within Cail.” Ilyan’s voice was even and powerful as he addressed the four of us. I could feel his power ripple off him, the energy from him seeping into me.
    “Edmund put a Štít in a child?” Wyn said with a snap, her magic moving amidst the confined space, drowning me. “Again?”
    I gasped at the intensity, at the anger that had weaved its way around it, steeling my magic in preparation for who knew what. I was also aware I couldn’t take her on if it came to that.
    The whole “explode on contact” thing was going to be irritating after a while.
    “No, Wyn, Edmund put a Štít in a weapon.” Ryland’s voice was a death knell as he stared into the darkness of the alley somewhere over my head, his eyes so shaded my heart skipped a beat. A jolt of electricity moved within me as my mind went to the exact same place as his. To the same place that little girl had come from: the hell that Edmund had put inside our minds. “It wasn’t a coincidence,” Ryland continued, his voice pinched as he narrowed his eyes on the alley behind us, as if the overgrown passage between the hospital and outer wall had offended him. “Father sent her here. I’ve seen this before,” His voice was still a hollow shell, although he was in control of himself far more than I had seen him lately when concerning his father.
    “So have I,” Wyn admitted, all signs of the goofball teenager gone now. “It was one of the first things we did before I killed the Drak—put a Štít in one of the younger ones … took control.”
    I shuddered and fought the need to step behind Ilyan. Instead, I straightened my spine and gritted my teeth in anxious worry. It was something unmissed by Ilyan who turned toward me, a small smile playing on his lips while his eyes danced with pride. The same emotion circled into each of us before the concern came back ten-fold.
    “That’s more than a problem, Ilyan.” Risha’s eyes were hard as she came to stand beside Ryland, her shoulder pressing against his in what I was convinced was a comforting move. His eyes calmed at the contact. “That’s a freaking explosion.”
    “She hasn’t exploded yet.” Ilyan sighed, turning to each of us, his eyes hard with the volatile anger that was so normal for him as of late. “Besides, I’m not sure she can.”
    “What do you mean?” Ryland asked, the darkness fading from his eyes.
    “It appears to be a Štít, and it is in the same place as Edmund placed it inside of Cail. It is the right size, but it’s a shell, a hollow void. There is nothing there.”
    Everyone looked at Ilyan in confusion. His jaw was a tight line as his mind moved around mine, a million questions flooding me as he tried to process and understand what that meant.
    “A hollow Štít?” Wyn asked, writhing her hands one over the other, her eyes narrowed in pain. “As in, there is no magic in it? He sure likes to poke holes in things.”
    “Not that we can tell.” It was then that he looked at me, his eyes sad and apologetic, the hidden remainder of his thoughts moving through me.
    “No,” I gasped, understanding what