Ice Baron (Ice Chronicles, Book One (science fiction romance)) Read Online Free

a
flood of memories: Astana’s warm, sparkling walls when crisp, summer sunshine
streamed through the windows; the laughter in Marli’s eyes at Christmas time;
coming home after a two day military survival trip with her father and Elise…
How beautiful Astana had looked then, growing larger and larger as they’d flown
home; a silvery, saucer-shaped city perched on a steel stalk, far above the
earth.
    And now she was leaving her home
and family—perhaps forever. Anya blew a flurry of emotional kisses to her siblings.
A flash of cream on the upper concourse caught her eye.
    Joshua. Her hand froze, lips
puckered, still in the motion of blowing her last kiss. He watched as the
shuttle slid forward, faster, until he was out of sight.
    Anya jerked her chin forward. Her
heart thumped in uncomfortable, erratic beats. So he had seen her off? It meant
nothing, of course. He had probably watched to make sure she had obeyed him.
Well, now his duty was fully discharged, and he could retreat to his office and
toast his success at having won the most important peace negotiation in Donetsk Territory’s history. And he had ensured his title of Baron for life.
    Anya closed her eyes. She didn’t
care.
    She didn’t.
    Time to orchestrate her
disappearance.

 
     
     
     
    CHAPTER TWO
     
     
     
    Joshua slammed back another shot of raw alcohol. He
rarely drank liquor, and this particular brand tasted bitter and foul. The
truth was, he wanted to punish himself. And he wouldn’t mind deadening the pain
roaring through his heart and mind, too. Nothing would ever be the same again.
And damn it, but he would live with it. It was for the best.
    With a curse, he hurled the glass
into the hearth. Flames exploded up into a hot, roiling inferno. Joshua seethed
another curse, this time at himself. “It’s for the best.”
    Why couldn’t he believe it? Why
did fear clench his gut? Why did he feel like he had just made the biggest
mistake of his life?
    “It’s for the best. ” His
jaw hurt. “Damn you, it’s for the best.”
    Was that why he had agreed so
quickly to let Onred have Anya? To get her out of his life and his city, so he
wouldn’t be tortured by his own dishonorable weakness anymore?
    But this didn’t feel better. It
felt like death.
    Ten years ago, it had all started
so differently, and with such promise. When Joshua had learned that Jason Dubrovnyk’s
will had designated him to become protector to Jason’s young brood of five,
along with the help, of course, of their nannies, he had felt honored. It was
nothing short of a miracle, for a man from his background. His new duties
wouldn’t be strenuous; be a strong male influence on the boys. Keep the girls
in line.
    But then proof surfaced that the
baron’s first-in-command had poisoned the baron and his wife. The murderer had
wanted power, but wasn’t willing to trust fate for it.
    Fate. Joshua smiled without humor.
Fate and superstition tangled through the odd laws of the Old Barons in middle Asia, frozen in a perpetual ice age ever since nuclear war had destroyed most of the earth
a millennia ago.
    Although the Old Barons had wanted
to keep power in their families, they had superstitiously chosen to surrender
the ultimate, trump card to fate. They believed power should flow to its
intended recipient—whomever that might be. As a result, the Old Barons’ Law
stipulated that only the oldest child could inherit. If the oldest child died,
or if the girl child married out of the territory, power would go to the late
baron’s first-in-command. Unless, of course, the baron bequeathed power before
his death. A rare occurrence. Jason Dubrovnyk certainly had not done so.
    Shocking to all, after Baron
Dubrovnyk’s first-in-command was executed, Joshua, as second-in-command, was
next in line for power. He had become interim baron; a position which would
last until Anya grew up and married, when her husband would become the next baron.
Joshua had taken the job in stride, and with