The Keeper's Flame (A Pandoran Novel, #2) Read Online Free Page B

The Keeper's Flame (A Pandoran Novel, #2)
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darling, I’ve missed you.” She pulled back, studying my face with those dark eyes that saw and understood everything.
    I opened my mouth to tell her that I missed her, too, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want her to see me like this, weak and miserable and pathetic. I didn’t want her to see me like this and tell him . Instead, I said, “How have you been?”
    Her smile told me she’d already heard my silent battle. “I’m better now.” Her voice was kind and gentle, always the mother I’d never had. The mother that belonged to him. “But I worry about you.” She squeezed my shoulders.
    “Don’t.” I shrugged off her concern and forced a smile. “I’m fine. Just trying to adjust to this primitive lifestyle without totally going insane.”
    She smiled back but she knew, and then her eyes paused on my cheek and a mix of concern and curiosity passed through her eyes.
    Please don’t say anything…please don’t say anything…
    “Almost six months and Gaia still hasn’t made a princess out of you.” Cicero beamed, gesturing to my attire.
    I arched a brow. “Well, we’ve already got Stefan. I don’t see the point in having two.”
    Cicero’s laugh boomed as he wrapped his arms around me, squeezing all the air out of my lungs.
    “How’d the fabric shopping go?” It was Dad, and his gaze had settled on my cheek.
    Shoot. “Fine,” I said a little too quickly.
    Dad’s face reddened as he opened his mouth to speak, but Sonya cut him off. “We saw Fleck a little bit ago. He seems happy.”
    I looked back into her eyes with a silent “thank you.” She smiled.
    “Where was he?” I asked.
    “His room,” Cicero said. “Awfully cold up there, especially for someone without any meat on their bones. I’m surprised he hasn’t frozen yet.”
    “Stefan said he’d check into moving Fleck,” I said, “at least for the winter. By the way”—I turned to Dad—“anything new?”
    “Actually,” Dad started, his eyes tight, “that’s what I need to talk to you about.”
    “Fleck?” I asked.
    He shook his head, raked a hand through his hair, and paced about the room. Cicero and Sonya stood quietly.
    Dad turned enough for me to see his face. There were only two times in my life when I could recall that expression. The first had been as a child, when I’d fallen off Cadence so hard that I couldn’t move and he thought I’d been paralyzed. The second, when he’d found me in the tunnels after being held prisoner. It wasn’t a good face, and I was glad I hadn’t seen it much, and I wished I wasn’t looking at it right then.
    “What happened?” I asked, scared now.
    He paused at the window, staring outside at nothing. “Have you heard of the dark rider?”
    That.
    I stood perfectly still, feeling Sonya’s gaze upon me, and waited for Dad to continue.
    “Perhaps you haven’t,” he continued, still pacing the room. “Around the time you were born, there was fighting in this world—terrible, gruesome fighting. A large contingent of men banded together and formed something called the shadowguard. The shadowguard spread throughout this world, attempting to break down the barriers between Gaia and Earth by destroying the portals.” Here he paused and flexed his fingers. “They were almost impossible to defeat. The powers they drew on were dark and seemingly infinite, and they were ruthless warriors. Entire towns were burnt to the ground, people were murdered—tortured in ways that still give me nightmares…” Dad stopped, staring at nothing, and then his eyes lifted to mine.
    “But,” he continued, “when their leader disappeared into the Icelands, the shadowguard fell apart and the fighting stopped.”
    “So…what does this have to do with the dark rider?” I asked.
    Dad’s eyes didn’t leave mine. “He was their leader.”
    “But he’s dead.”
    Dad shook his head. “Everyone thought he’d died. No one enters the Icelands and comes out alive—but he’s back.”
    The man in the

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