Waking the Queen Read Online Free Page B

been torn open when Astrid stabbed me. He grabbed at the opening and jerked it wider, the fabric ripping in his big hands. His fingers were on my chest, reading the lines of my newly healed wound like Braille.
     “She took it,” he growled, still tracing his fingers over where my heart had been. “When I find her, I’m going to kill her.”
     “You already did,” I blurted, wanting him to stop touching me. His touch was like nothing else, not even his sinful voice was as terribly wonderful as his touch. I’d never understood the big deal about touching, fucking. It was all a mechanical exchange of fluids to me. Until now. I had no control over my body’s reaction. This want . It intrigued me and pissed me off at the same time.
     He drew his gaze back up to my eyes and his fingers stilled, but he didn’t stop touching me and I didn’t want him to stop.
     “Helreggin,” he hissed, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking and it made him angry.
     “Brynn,” I corrected.
     “You really don’t know me?” He inspected my face, obviously for some evidence of a lie.
     “I said as much, didn’t I?”
     He laughed then, the bitter sound reminding me of the edge of that shiny sword Astrid had. “The gods are conspiring against me. I really wanted you to know why I’m punishing you.”
     I flashed back to my negotiation training and knew I had to keep him talking until I could figure a way out of the situation. “So why don’t you tell me? What is it that you think I need to be punished for?”
     He leaned in nearer to me, our faces only inches apart. I could feel his breath on my lips. “Look hard, Darkyrie.”
     “What am I supposed to see?”
     “ My goddamn face .”
     His scars. “And you believe that’s my fault?”
     He grabbed my hair and jerked my head back hard. “Believe?” he snarled. “You invaded my village with your war wolves and executed my mother. You set our hut on fire all in defense of your god.”
     Feeling crept slowly back into my feet, my fingers. His rage had started to crack whatever control he’d held over me.
     “Look at my credentials. My badge. I’m a cop. Detective Brynn Hill. I came here to follow up a lead on Astrid Johanson and the homeless vets she’s been killing. I have never seen you before.” I spoke in a soft, soothing tone and reiterated my previous points gently, but firmly.
     “Your father’s mortal name was Erik Hill—”
     Oh, fucking fantastic. Another whack job obsessed with my father’s macabre fame. Then he said something that shocked me from my inner diatribe, but I was sure I couldn’t have heard him correctly.
     “What?” I demanded.
     “Pay attention, Darkyrie,” he commanded and the way his voice wrapped around me again, I couldn’t have disobeyed if I’d wanted to. “He’s in the lightning.”
      In the lightning.
      I’d believed it for so long, taken comfort in the storm, felt close to my father when the skies opened up with all the fury of hell. The storms in this part of the country were like nowhere else and that’s why I’d stayed in Kansas City. Especially on an April afternoon when the sky would turn curious shades of greens and yellows and tornadoes would spew forth tearing at the ground, the horizon, and anything that stood in their paths. They were especially lovely cloaked in rain and thunder—and the lightning I knew carried my father.
     He couldn’t know. He just couldn’t. Lightning was an easy comparison to make after my father had been electrocuted. Yet even as I had these thoughts, I knew the time for disbelief had passed. I’d experienced things this morning that were outside the realm of human reality, but I’m not human. I never have been. Whoever this man was, he wanted me dead.
     “The light of understanding blooms bright in your eyes, Darkyrie. Do you know who you are?”
     I considered shooting him, but my bullets had been worth exactly shit with Astrid. I had to make him