The Bonds of Blood Read Online Free Page A

from my right came this dull silver light. The fog seemed to be
dispelled by her coming, and the fog shifted away from
her—”
    “Her?” Angelica asked.
    “Yes, she revealed herself to me. She
was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen, but thinking back
now, she didn’t really seem that extraordinary.” He described her
as best as he could remember. “The most hypnotic thing about was
her eyes, and the fact that her hair was as black as any you would
find in all the Shadow Realm.”
    “Are you sure she’s not dalua?” Joya
asked critically set on guard by the mention of her
hair.
    “Are you sure you aren’t?” Jovian
asked.
    “Point taken,” she said.
    “She seemed very magical indeed, and
that is what chased away the creature—”
    “Black Shuck,” Angelica
insisted.
    “Okay, Black Shuck,” Jovian
relented.
    They all sat for some time listening to
Jovian go on and on about the woman, and then he gave a great sigh
as his eyes turned to the window.
    Amber stood, and ruffled his already
messy hair. “Don’t ever do something like that again, because if
the next dalua doesn’t kill you, I just might.”
    “I’ll try to ask permission next
time.”
    “That’s better.” Amber smiled and
stepped away from the bed.
    Joya gave him a quick hug and retreated
to the doorway.
    “Angie, are you coming?” Joya asked,
opening the door.
    “In a minute,” she responded, and the
two oldest sisters left the room.
    “I was very worried, Angie,” Jovian
said.
    “I know,” Angelica said, wiggling his
left foot. “I was very frightened when I saw you on that
litter.”
    He turned his gaze to a pond beyond the
windowpane.
    “What was it like?” Angelica asked.
“The Black Shuck?”
    “It was like the most horrible of dalua
you could ever see; true Chaos through and through. Of course, at
the time I was frightened enough that I didn’t really want to think
about how Chaotic it was. No matter how I tried, though, there was
no doubt that the creature wanted nothing less than my soul.”
Angelica was sure he was not seeing the pond any longer.
    “I can bet it was,” she said, standing.
“Do you want me to keep you company anymore?”
    “Yes, I think that would be nice,” he
said.
    They sat like that for a while in
complete silence, and it wasn’t until Jovian fell asleep that
Angelica took the mug from him and left the room for her own
bed.

    Jovian was not sure what time in the
night he was woken by the dream. In fact, when he woke up to the
eerie light of predawn, Jovian could not exactly recall what the
dream had been which woke him in a cold sweat.
    He was most uncomfortable, but not just
from the dream—and his now damp sheets. His leg throbbed, and his
wrist hurt. Wincing, he reached for the tincture Grace had left
beside the bed and placed a few drops into his mouth.
    It took scant moments for the tincture
to work, and Jovian could not tell exactly when he drifted back off
to sleep, and back into the strange dream. The cryptic nature of
the dream hid any obvious significance … perhaps it was a product
of the belladonna Grace was keeping him on.
    He tried to fight it, but he had never
been one to control his dreams, and so it was that Jovian found
himself drifting back into the macabre vision:
    It is not me, the voice whispered into his
mind . It is only a mask. Do not hesitate
to do that which must be done. Jovian
recognized the voice, but he was not sure from where. He was too
far into sleep to make any sense of the random images flashing
before his eyes, but they disturbed him nonetheless. There was
blood, trees, blackened grass, and five dead women, all more
beautiful than any he had ever seen—including the Aramaiti—all
startling in their innocence. Images flashed before his eyes, all
separate but somehow connected. Red, like blood, blotted out the
images. There was intense pain, both physical and emotional, and a
searing heat. For a moment his breath stopped sharply as he saw
only