Unlocking Void (Book 3) Read Online Free

velvet coat belted in leather, he had a matching hat that sloped to one side. “I already have an artist set up in your sitting room.”
    ‘What you mean to say is you want a portrait painted now because you do not think I will live to see the next year.’ “I was planning to go to Anatoly this afternoon.”
    “Humor me.”
    “Can I at least be painted reading?”
    “No, but I will have someone hold a book open, so you can read while he sketches.”
    “Very well,” Gabriel sighed. “When will I be permitted to wear hats as ridiculous as yours?”
    “My Head Mage, you could not pull the look off.”
    They made their way to Gabriel’s quarters, finding Secondhand Lael behind his desk in the anteroom as always. The circular chamber was made of dark wood and covered floor to ceiling with books, relics, and portraits of previous Head Mages. In the center sat Lael’s mahogany desk neatly organized. He stood and gave Gabriel a nod.
    “Mage Shayleen made a marvelous discovery,” he said and opened a palm to gesture behind them. A boy-slender girl stepped from a set of books on the wall and gave Gabriel a beaming smile. The Arconian had agreed to accompany Gabriel in order to better learn his language and to study in Madison Library. In the past months, she had blossomed into an astute girl with a knack for speed reading. An Anomaly, a Mage born to a family of non-Mages, she and Gabriel shared a title.
    “I am surprised you are not covered in paper cuts and dust,” Gabriel smiled, extending a hand to kiss hers.
    She tittered. “I found the pattern you have been questing for; the shift-pattern.” She unfurled a rolled scroll. Sketched in precise images was the traveling pattern. Gabriel beamed as he took it up and raced over the pictures.
    “This is brilliant; well done, Shayleen.”
    She grinned and gave him a small curtsey, and Galloway expertly steered him towards the sitting room.
     
     
     
     
    Robyn twirled the ring on her finger as she listened patiently to Ellian her palace keeper, but her thoughts were elsewhere. Gabriel fashioned the ring to spin an interlocking pattern that would summon him were she in danger. She seriously considered using it. It had been days since she spoke with Aisling about the state of her silver mines, and still nothing from Gabriel.
    “I have sent some of the kitchen staff home for the winter, and they will remain until spring when they can sow their fields and….”
    The guard at the door straightened, the first sign someone was in the hallway, and Robyn eagerly—but collectedly—glanced at the door. Gabriel never knocked, so if the door burst open, it was him. He was bound to be skewered by her guards at some point.
    The door flew open, and the guard grabbed his halberd but paused when he saw white. Gabriel strode in, a beaming smile on his perfect face, swathed in white and silver like a skyward star. Robyn rushed to meet him, embracing him tightly and kissing his cheek. “You stayed away too long.”
    “I know,” he agreed and released her. He looked drawn around his eyes, but his smile was genuine.
    “How long can you stay?”
    “Until tomorrow morning, unless I am summoned back.”
    She grabbed his hands, noting the sliver-thin rings he now wore. A few on each hand, each one linked to a ward in Castle Jaden.
    “Greetings, Mistress Ellian, I fear I have interrupted you.”
    Ellian stood, a stout older woman with a perpetually intense gaze. “No interruption, Head Mage. I will leave you two be. Mistress Marya will be so happy to hear you are staying for meals. I will go tell her forthwith.”
    Knowingly, the guard followed and stood outside the door. There was no one safer for his Queen to be with.
    “Are you well? It’s been weeks since I’ve seen you,” Robyn said, adapting her old contractions.
    “It’s a lot of work leading a race of people,” he chuckled and tossed his black waves out of his eyes. “So many meetings with so many people that want so