Forgotten Read Online Free

head and rip everything out,” Kaie muttered. He took in a slow breath. “I must have had a plan. Why aren’t I like them? The other Hollows. How did I intend to get away?”
    “You didn’t tell me anything.”
    “Not much of an answer.”
    “It’s all I have.” He thought she was going to cry, that the tears he saw gathering in the corners of her eyes were going to spill down her pale cheeks. Then, suddenly, she was better. Her face smoothed and she was up on her feet. It wasn’t a graceful stretching out, either. She managed to kick him twice in the process. Somehow, the girl gained four extra limbs while she was in motion. “Want to meet your son?”
    Air rushed out of Kaie’s throat. His child, like the woman said. His son. “My son?”
    Peren offered him a hand. Kaie half expected it to smack him in the eye as she reached toward him. “I have a son?”
    As her fingers wrapped around his again Kaie blinked. She looked older. She was still more sharp angles than not, and every bit as stunning, but she was beautiful now too. Her body was lean muscle and so tan there was no hint of the pale, blotchy skin he was just holding. Her hair was white hot fire, and her hips…Gods, they made him ache. She laughed at him. “Of course you have a son! Yours is the blood of the phoenix, and you must father the dragons!”
    Kaie blinked again, tugging his hand away to rub at his eyes. “What did you say?”
    Peren tilted her head, giving him a confused look. “I said yes. You have a son.” She let go of his hand. “He’s outside, with Vaughan. I needed to make sure… Sometimes, when you’ve come home, you aren’t ok. I had to be sure, before… Do you want to meet him?”
    Finding it indescribably difficult to get the word out, Kaie just nodded.
    A pale, thin man followed Peren in through the hide doorway. One glance was all it took to know it was her brother. The two wore the same angles, though they looked quite different on the boy. Better, maybe. Less awkward. But less interesting, too. And while his eyes were nearly as big and nearly as blue, they lacked the sharpness that was so vital in hers. He was taller than her, taller than Kaie, but his shoulders were slumped. It made him look small. The boy was holding a small basket to his chest. Once inside, Peren took it from him and the boy, after a quick nod of greeting, darted back into the night. She held the basket out to Kaie.
    “He’s so good.” Peren was beaming. “He almost never cries. Except in the middle of the night, when I’m so exhausted I can barely move. But he’s good enough that the Mistress lets me take him with me when I run deliveries over the estate. I haven’t had to leave him with a wet nurse. Not even once.”
    The baby wrapped up in the basket stared out at Kaie with huge, dark blue eyes. Its skin was pale and perfect, and there was a light dusting of strawberry hair just starting to curl around its ears. A chubby fist shot up, waving in the air as tiny fingers worked open and closed. It smiled at him. She slid her hand into his again and squeezed. He needed the anchor.
    “How old?” Kaie was only vaguely aware that he was speaking. He was caught up in studying this strange creature, trying to decide if he felt any connection to it. Hours ago, he was locked in a cell fantasizing about an imaginary girl and bloody deaths for everyone who caged him. Now he was holding the girl’s hand and looking down at his son. It was surreal.
    “Six months. Almost. He was born three days after they took you away last time. It was early. I was hoping he would wait until you came back. If you did. But Vaughan says the stress of everything… And since they kept you away so much longer, I guess it’s all for the best.”
    He wasn’t sure if he was relieved they didn’t steal the memory of the birth from him, or furious that they deprived him of it. Both, maybe. “His name?”
    “He doesn’t have one. Unless you count ‘little guy’ or the