Shadow Blessed (The Shadow Accords Book 1) Read Online Free

safety.
    “Anything?” Jhon’s voice echoed across the emptiness.
    The footsteps stopped. “There’s nothing here.”
    “And not in the side rooms either,” Jhon said.
    “You’ve already checked them?”
    “I don’t need to open doors to know they’re empty.”
    The footsteps thudded against the stone again, this time moving away. “Then we’re leaving. Time to see what else we can learn.”
    “What of the girl?” Jhon asked.
    “I’ll find her soon enough.”
    Carth froze, careful not to move as the footsteps steadily made their way out of the temple. She almost refused to even breathe. Taking anything more than the shallowest of breaths risked exposing her. Her hand cramped from squeezing the knife.
    Nothing more came through the temple.
    Carth allowed herself to take a breath and slowly stand. Clinging to the pillar, she peered around it but saw nothing. As Jhon and Ander had reported, the temple was empty.
    Her footsteps thundered in her ears as she made her way around the edge of the temple. Moving silently and without detection had all been part of the games she’d played with her parents. She’d never mastered it quite like her father. He could slip along behind her, making almost no noise, so silent that she would almost believe that he wasn’t there. Carth had learned to find him by focusing on his breathing, and on the way the wind shifted when he did, touching her skin or pulling on her clothing differently.
    Thinking of him made her throat feel thick again and she swallowed back the lump that formed. He had to be unharmed, didn’t he? She couldn’t believe that he would have been so easily captured, not knowing how well he could hide himself and how well he could keep hidden. So maybe the man she’d seen the A’ras carrying down the street hadn’t been her father. If that was the case, she had to find him.
    There was one place she could look, the place where they had agreed to meet in the event that they became separated. A place like that was necessary with their games, and they had wanted for her to have a place of safety, only she had never had to use it. Either they’d stayed close enough to her, or, as Carth had grown and become more skilled, she hadn’t had the need. Until today.
    Now she would go looking for her father only. Her mother would never join them again.
    As she reached the hall and the transition from the tile to the carpet, Carth thought she saw movement at the edge of her vision. Had Ander or Jhon returned?
    She should have been more careful. The temple was dangerous—she knew that—and she had relaxed her guard when she’d found it empty.
    Carth ran.
    With the first step, she realized that she should have remained still, or moved slowly at least. That had been the lesson her father had taught her. Sudden movement like this would only get her noticed, but her racing heart and fear for her father made her careless.
    Was it her imagination, or did she hear footsteps?
    She couldn’t turn around. Doing so would only slow her. Instead, she gripped the knife tightly as she raced toward the door. Carth slammed her shoulder into it and went flying out of the temple to tumble down the steps outside.
    Rolling to her feet, she hazarded a glance behind her.
    There was movement inside the temple but she didn’t remain long enough for them to catch her. If it wasn’t Ander or Jhon, that meant it was one of the A’ras. Either way, she needed to move on. Her father wasn’t here.
    The empty street practically screamed at her presence as she ran. It wasn’t until she managed to turn down a wider street leading toward the fortress at the heart of the city that people began to fill the streets. A few people glanced at her, but she hurried past, sneaking around them as she raced forward. Only after she made a few more turns did she finally allow herself to relax.
    Carth knew most of the city well. That had been another of her parents’ lessons. They hadn’t been here long, but