Light the Reign (The Forgotten: Book 3) Read Online Free

He rubbed his hand
over the small of her back, sending shivers down her spine.
    “That went well,” he commented with a hint of
sarcasm as she released him.
    “Heinrich certainly has it out for us,
doesn’t he?”
    Gryffon sighed. “He’s just worried,” he said,
“they all are. These are extremely unpleasant events, and while
we’ve been swept along with them for some time now, we have to
remember not to place blame on those who are hesitant to join the
whirlwind voluntarily.”
    “I suppose…” she answered thoughtfully,
intertwining her fingers through his, “but I don’t have to like
it.”
    He chuckled. “No, me neither.”
     
    *
    Katya took out the Dragonstone – formerly the
Bloodstone that had held Nuko’s essence before the Dena’ina had
cleansed it for her – and peered into it. It was strange, but ever
since Layna and Gryffon had performed the spell to create a dome
around the capital city with it, she had sworn she’d been able to
see a tiny representation of Naoham within its depths. Though she
had healed enough that she would have been fine with it being left
in the palace if the spell required it, she had been happily
surprised that Layna had returned it to her after performing
it.
    She rubbed it in her hands a moment, drawing
strength from the memories and caught Hunter staring at her. She
held up the stone in one hand apologetically before shoving it back
into her pocket. “Sorry, old habits die hard.”
    “No need to apologize,” Hunter shrugged, but
Katya felt the need anyway. She felt as though she was flaunting
another man in front of him. Though Nathair was long dead and
should never have captured her heart in the first place, she still
had loved him. No one could tell her heart what to do.
    She fell silent, watching the parade of
people in front of them. The leader of the Dena’ina tribe walked
ahead, surrounded by ten of his tribesmen. She had been slightly
surprised that he had chosen to approach them. She and Hunter had
been with the Knights stationed in the forest when the Dena’ina had
shown up. She’d known that it was their plan to send a party to
confront the Myaamia, but had not expected that they would have
invited their group of ‘Lost Ones’ to be included in this. Seeing
as how the Knights had been stationed there in order to find
information about the tribes, they saw this as a unique
opportunity.
    Katya was rather unconvinced that the Elders
of the Myaamia tribe would part with any information simply by
asking, but was willing to give it a try. Perhaps having another of
the tribes tell the people of the Myaamia that what their Elders
were doing was wrong would go over better than having a stranger
say so. She wasn’t particularly looking forward to returning to the
place she had twice now escaped, but the Dena’ina leader assured
her that under tribal customs, as his guest, they would be unable
to touch her. But that’s only if they respect that custom ,
Katya thought. So far, she hadn’t been impressed by their moral
standards.
    The section of forest came up on them quickly
and their group tightened unconsciously as they entered the realm
of the Myaamia. A member of the Forest Guard intercepted them and,
surprisingly, escorted them to the city. Katya had more expected a
fight. Perhaps the influence of the Dena’ina would make the
difference, after all. The inner circle of Elders had only spread
the vague rumor that the Dena’ina were on the outs with the other
tribes to the majority of the people, with only a select few having
been told the false story that they had willingly murdered other
tribesmen. As they walked into the clearing that marked the Myaamia
village, with the statue of their founder in the center, they were
greeted by shouting voices.
    “Halt!” commanded Slade, looking back and
forth from Katya and Hunter to the Dena’ina tribesmen. “How dare
you come back here,” he growled to the former, finally deciding to
give them his