SkyFall (Taken on the Wing Book 2) Read Online Free

never speak to me again. ”
    “ Indeed, ” Sky mutters, her voice
betraying both worry and anger. “ In three months, Master Soar,
you will assume the position of apology in my sparring chamber and I assure
you, whichever pieces Cloud has left you with will be mine .”
     

Chapter Three

     
    Cloud ’ s frustrated growl reaches Soar long
before he gets to the covered opening to her den.
    “ No,
no, no, ” she mutters then her voice
fades as he takes a couple of noisy steps to get her attention. Even so upset,
she should know better than to draw attention to herself.
    Soar pushes past the curtain to find her
kneeling amongst her scattered belongings. She spins, mouth half open, and
whitens before returning to packing.
    “ Just when my day couldn ’ t get any worse, ” she jams a handful of underwear into the
bottom of her worn pack with such force her hand bursts through the bottom. “ Do you have to stand so close? ”
    He stands all the way across her small
den, maybe a dozen feet away, and isn ’ t
close at all. Cloud shakes her bag empty before lining the bottom with a shirt,
carefully spreading it so the weight of her clothes will keep it in place over
the hole.
    Then she starts refilling the bag.
    She ’ s not over me, he realizes and all he wants
to do is take back the last hour of her life but he can ’ t. Cloud is his last chance to protect
their home.
    “ Where are you going? ” Soar
asks.
    “ Not a word in three years and he pretends
he cares where I ’ m going, ” she
snaps. “ If it ’ s any of your darn business I ’ m going to spend a raunchy weekend in Memphis with your brother. ”
    Soar modulates his voice so it won ’ t penetrate the curtain to be overheard
in the tunnel but it ’ s hard. The idea she ’ d gloat about being with anyone else
speaks to how angry she still is and if she means to lash back it ’ s working.
    “ Even if I wasn ’ t in Sky ’ s den when she heard where Falcon ’ s knife was you ’ re still the worst liar I ’ ve ever met. ”
    She shrugs as the pile of clothes around
her gets smaller. “ What the heck did you do to
your hair? ”
    Soar ignores the bait since she knows
damn well it ’ s been short for years.
    “ You wouldn ’ t have done it, Cloud. ”
    “ Of course I wouldn ’ t have taken that royal hatchling ’ s stupid knife, ” she says, her voice
matching his tone for privacy.
    “ Then why didn ’ t you tell Sky that? ”
    Cloud turns and looks at him like she ’ s only just noticed him in the door.
    “ I let myself be set-up, Soar. My Master
believes I stole because of my own stupidity. I was inattentive and brought
failure on myself. Double failure, today of all days."
    Beneath her jeans, her tail is already
drawn in and she wrings a shirt she can pull over the light tunic she wears to
travel.
    “ You know who set you up? ”
    “ I am one hundred percent certain. ”
    “ And? ”
    He can ’ t read her expression as she stands and
drops the shirt on her bag. For a moment he thinks she ’ s on to him already. Her anger with
herself has turned into something feral and tenuous that could turn on him just
as well as she could turn it inward. Damn it, even if she hadn ’ t just been expelled for theft, her
humiliation over her failure against Sky is more than enough to upset her.
    He hasn ’ t spoken this much to her in three years
so her confusion about him can only add to her pain.
    “ Falcon, ” she says. “ Royal
jerk's been getting too touchy with the females and after he cornered me to
experience his attentions I accidentally broke two of his fingers the
next time Sky paired us. ”
    “ Damn it, Cloud. You should have gone to
Sky, ” he hopes to sound like he ’ s giving her a lecture although inside he ’ s proud of her. Had Hunter known about
Falcon? Soar ’ s impressed with his kid
brother. He couldn ’ t have picked a better mark
for the theft.
    “ Thinking back? Yeah, but at the time I
felt he ’ d learned