Maiden's Wolf (In Deception's Shadow Book 3) Read Online Free

nod.
    “And you say your
Larnkin showed interest in this one’s mentoring?”
    Those weren’t his
exact words, but by the way his mother’s crest rose slightly, he sensed another
humorous barb at his expense was likely incoming.
    “You most
certainly should tutor this young one, and if something comes of it after a
century or two, all the better.”
    Now his mother
wanted him to take a human mate? A species equally as promiscuous as a lupwyn,
if not more so?
    He was just
drawing breath to say as much when the first agonized scream reached his ears.
    The terrible
sound battered his senses, and then chaos broke loose as the undeniable shapes
of two dozen robed acolytes emerged from the surrounding forest.
    Ambush, he
realized. But before Silverblade had time to draw his sword, a delicately
textured net dropped down upon him.
    Wherever those
delicate threads touched, a hot, fierce burning flared up. The heat and pain
lasted moments and then the heat faded, changing to a numbing cold. His mare
squealed in terror and then collapsed underneath him. Trapped by the net, he
went down with her.
    He had no idea
what was happening. His Larnkin flared in panic, but the strange nets simply
absorbed whatever spell his Larnkin launched at it.
    Worse, his limbs
were growing heavy, the strange, numbing cold somehow draining away his life
energy along with his magic. And even as fine as the netting was, he still
couldn’t break or shred any of the threads. He attempted to call on his lupwyn
form, but even that was beyond him.
    Trapped in a
human body without his natural weapons or his magic, he could only struggle
uselessly and listen to those around him fighting for their lives and losing.
    Somewhere close
by, he heard his mother’s enraged raptor’s scream and a moment later, her fire
magic blasted just over his head. Some of the flames caught a portion of the
net trapping him and burned it to ash. Seeing that, he renewed his struggle to
free himself from the net.
    He’d managed to
free his upper body when an acolyte stepped into his line of sight and leveled
a crossbow at Silverblade’s chest.
     
     
     

Chapter Four
     
     
    Beatrice managed
another quarter candlemark of travel, her alarm and fear growing with each
stride the horse took. Her dark magic seemed not to care and continued to
gather itself.
    Nothing she did
calmed the magic. She didn’t understand what was happening. In the past, that
dark magic only roused when she was in danger. Yet her healing magic told her
there was no living creature close enough to be a threat to her life.
    So why the sudden
stirring of her dark power? It hadn’t bothered to stir awake in years, not since
she’d actively started avoiding acolytes at all costs. She sent her healer’s
magic outward, searching the area in a half day’s ride around her once again
and still she sensed no acolytes near.
    Beyond her
control, her dark magic continued to rise within her. It wasn’t yet visible to
the naked eye, and she didn’t think it was a threat to the gelding she rode,
but she could feel the dark power waking. For the first time in her life, that
power had a consciousness to it—a will.
    Like a beast that
had long been hibernating and had come to awareness at last, it shook itself
fully awake and looked out through her eyes, and then used her own healer’s
magic to scan the area. With that dark power behind it, buoying her healer’s
magic as its fearsome strength, her reach was so much farther.
    It stretched its
waking consciousness back along the trail, hunting for something far from her
present location—all the way back to River’s Divide.
    There was
something there it wanted, something or someone it was interested in.
    Perhaps ‘concerned
for’ was a better term.
    Yes. The
knowledge was suddenly clear in her mind. Just a vague, nagging notion one
moment and then absolute certainty the next. She didn’t have long to worry over
the strangeness of her magic or its willfulness. She