Storm Born Read Online Free Page B

guy.
    “I’ve heard of him,” said Roland.
    “What do you know?”
    “Not a lot. Never met him, never fought him. But he’s strong, I know that much.”
    “This gets better and better.”
    He eyed me carefully. “Are you thinking about doing it?”
    I eyed him back. “Maybe.”
    “That’s a bad idea, Eugenie. A very bad idea.”
    There was a dark tone in his voice that surprised me. I’d never known him to back down from any danger, especially one where an innocent was involved.
    “She’s just a kid, Roland.”
    “I know, and we both know that the gentry get away with taking women every year. Most don’t ever get recovered. The danger’s too high. That’s the way it is.”
    I felt my ire rising. Funny how someone telling you not to do something can talk you into it. “Well, here’s one we can get back. We know where she is.”
    He rubbed his eyes a little, flashing the tattoos that marked his arms. My tattoos depicted goddesses; his were of whirls, crosses, and fish. He had his own set of gods to appeal to—or in this case, God. We all invoked the divine differently.
    “This isn’t a drop-in and drop-out thing,” he warned. “It’ll take you right into the heart of their society. You’ve never been that deep. You don’t know what it’s like.”
    “And you do?” I asked sarcastically. When he didn’t answer, I felt my eyes widen. “When?”
    He waved a hand of dismissal. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is that if you go over in body, you’ll get yourself killed or captured. I won’t let you do that.”
    “You won’t let me? Come on. You can’t send me to my room anymore. Besides, I’ve gone over lots of times before.”
    “In spirit. Your total time over in body’s probably been less than ten minutes.” He shook his head in a wise, condescending way. That irked me. “The young never realize how foolish something is.”
    “And the old never realize when they need to step aside and let the younger and stronger do their jobs.” The words came out before I could stop them, and I immediately felt mean. Roland merely regarded me with a level look.
    “You think you’re stronger than me now?”
    I didn’t even hesitate. “We both know I am.”
    “Yes,” he agreed. “But that doesn’t give you the right to go get yourself killed over a girl you don’t even know.”
    I stared at him in surprise. We weren’t exactly fighting, but this attitude was weird for him. He’d married my mom when I was three and adopted me shortly thereafter. The father-daughter bond burned in both of us, obliterating any longing I might have had for the birth father I’d never known. My mom almost never spoke about him. They’d had some sort of whirlwind romance, I knew, but in the end, he didn’t want to stick it out—not for her, not for me.
    Roland would have done anything for me, kept me away from any harm that he could—except when it came to my job. When he’d realized I could walk worlds and cast out spirits, he’d started training me, and my mother hated him for it. They were the most loving couple I’d ever met, but that choice had nearly broken them apart. They’d stayed together in the end, but she’d never been happy about what I did. Roland, however, saw it as a duty. Destiny, even. I wasn’t like one of those silly people in the movies who could “see dead people” and go crazy from it. I easily could have ignored my abilities. But as far as Roland was concerned, that was a sin. To neglect one’s calling was a waste, especially when it meant others would suffer. So he tried to treat me as objectively as he would any other apprentice, fighting his personal feelings.
    Yet, for some reason now, he wanted to hold me back. Weird. I’d come here for strategy and ended up on the defensive.
    I changed the subject abruptly, telling him about how the keres had known my name. He cut me a look, not wanting to drop the Jasmine topic. My mom’s car pulled in just then, giving me a