Mark of Betrayal Read Online Free Page A

“Ara. Grow up. You know David doesn’t feel that way.”
    “ Yeah. Whatever.” I let out a long breath, feeling queasy again with the way the road tipped downward, taking us on a steep decline to where the trees stopped abruptly at the base, parting only for a wide, multi-coloured brick wall with stones of red, yellow, and pale blues—natural colours, mostly. It looked charming, in a secret garden kind of way, but the spear-tipped iron gates took the fairy-tale out of the scene, screaming graveyard. Back behind me, I could see where the trees thinned out again as the road led away. “They’re not natural are they?”
    “ Huh?” Mike looked sideways at me as we pulled up beside a speaker box in front of the gate.
    “ The trees? They didn’t grow around this wall, did they—someone put them here? I mean, trees don’t just grow in a line like that in the middle of an empty field.”
    “ Oh, uh—yeah. I think so. I don’t really notice things like that, Ara.” He wound his window down and leaned out slightly, then turned back for a second. “Why don’t you ask Morgaine—she knows all about this place?”
    “ Okay.”
    “ George? You there, mate?” Mike asked the box.
    “ Hey—it’s Mikey,” a jolly, old-sounding voice came through the speaker.
    “ Hey, George. You wanna open the gates? I got a future queen in my car.”
    “ No worries, sir. I’ll be down in a jiffy.”
    The sound of the car engine—something usually quite soothing—was only a filler for the intimidating silence that swallowed my ability to breathe. “Where are all the people? I thought they were rallying to meet me.”
    “ They’ll be up at the manor, I’d say.”
    “ How many?” I squirmed in my seat.
    “ Not too many. The Ninth and the First Orders aren’t here. It’s only the Fifth and the Upper House.”
    “ Why?”
    “ Because the other ones are across international waters, Ara, and besides, the knights just gave them back their homes—they’re all refurbishing and setting up their new lives.”
    “ Oh. Cool, so, how many people , er…Lilithians are gonna be there?”
    Mike scratched his head and the gate opened before us. “’Bout a hundred.”
    As we pulled forward, nerves pinched my chest, and Mike dipped his head to the old man by the gate, whose stark white hair looked transparent in the sun, his skinny legs barely holding his bent frame.
    “ Pleasant drive, sir?” the man said.
    “ As always, George,” Mike said, then looked along the sides of the road for a second, frowning. “Where are all the cars? Surely the people haven’t parked up by the fountain?”
    “ No, sir.” George wrapped his fingers over the doorframe, through the open window. “Miss Morgaine called a stop to all visitors ‘til our princess is settled. Just the Upper House up there today.”
    Mike’s jaw went tight and he gave the steering wheel a soft whack with the ball of his palm. “I told her not to do that.”
    “ She felt it best, Sir.”
    He looked at the old man, clearly wanting to shoot the messenger. “All right, thanks, George.”
    “ Be well,” George said and stepped back, saluting Mike as we drove slowly away.
    “ What was that all about?”
    “ Looks like you get your wish.”
    “ Really? No fan club?”
    “ Nope.”
    “ Yay.” I sat taller and looked to the road ahead, closed in by the trees that concealed the brick wall. I half expected to have grey hairs by the time they parted and the manor rose up in front of me again. My eyes widened to allow for the sheer height of it, sitting on a long gravel drive that ended in a turn-circle, wrapping a giant fountain. Along the sides of the road, the trees spread all the way back past grassy lawns, lined with hedge fences. A large section of the manor sat further forward, double white doors at the centre, with stairs leading up to a group of about seven people.
    “ You like it.”
    “ Yeah,” I said as we came closer—close enough to count the walls as