Yuletide Enchantment Read Online Free Page A

said, even as he used his magic to clothe his naked body. “I don’t know how you stand her, Uncle.”
    “You are a warrior, not a ruler. I do not expect you to understand my allegiance to our goddess.”
    “Then it is fortunate that you were the eldest and not my father, for I would not want to inherit the throne. I much prefer killing our enemies to negotiating with them.”
    “You never did understand duty,” Daegan said, watching the fading shadow of Isobel vanishing into the twilight.
    “Duty is what brings me here.”
    Daegan glanced at Bran. “What duty is this you speak of?”
    “Carden is missing.”
    “I have heard.” Three weeks and still the raven had not found him. To Daegan’s eyes, Bran was steaming with anger and fear. A weakness, that. It was not like Bran to show vulnerability.
    “You know I must find him.”
    Daegan nodded. “I will help if I can.”
    “I believe Morgan has cursed him.”
    Daegan glanced sharply at Bran. “A dangerous claim against a powerful goddess. What proof have you?”
    “None but my instincts. Carden is innocent. He had no part in my squabble with Morgan, but she has punished him to punish me.”
    “You ask much if you’re asking me to go up against Morgan. I have no allegiance to your half brother, Raven. He is not of my blood.”
    “I know. But as a Sidhe, you have a duty to me, and I to you.”
    “There is nothing to be done now if Morgan has cast her spell.”
    “ ’Tis not only Carden that brings me to you, but something else.”
    “Oh?” he asked, intrigued. Bran thought of nothing but his search for his half brother. To say the hunt for Carden had become an obsession was putting it mildly. “You have not seen to any duty these past weeks other than searching for the Gargoyle. What brings you out of the hunt now?”
    Bran glared at him. “I think you know.”
    “I do not,” Daegan replied.
    “What do you mean by pursuing that mortal?”
    Daegan shrugged his shoulders. His hair, the same inky black as Bran’s, whipped about his face as the wind rose up and howled between the naked branches. “Why should you care what I do?”
    “Because I am next in line of succession, and I do not like what I see.”
    “Then you wish me to leave Annwyn for you to rule more wisely, my nephew?”
    Bran growled. “I have no patience for ruling, or desire for the throne, you know that. I care about finding Carden, nothing else, and your actions are interfering. You are upsetting the order of our entire world. Now tell me, what makes you pursue this woman and not a female of Annwyn?”
    “What drives you to search fruitlessly for your brother?”
    Bran scowled fiercely. “It’s not the same, and you know it.”
    “What is different? We follow where our souls would lead us. I want the woman. I have for many years. I believe she is my destiny. Is it so wrong to want a human?”
    “At the cost of our home, our world? Yes.”
    “You have never loved. You don’t know what it’s like.”
    “And I would never be so stupid as to give my heart to a human. They’re treacherous, conniving creatures. She would betray you and slit your throat without a second thought. She will expose us to her kind.”
    “She won’t.”
    Bran snorted. “You’re blinded by mortal beauty. The feeling will pass. Let it go.”
    “She ran from me,” Daegan murmured, acknowledging the pain he felt in his heart.
    “You frightened her. She saw you as a beast.”
    “In my mind, I was a man.”
    Bran gazed at him, his eerie, mismatched eyes penetrating through the darkness. “You would betray us all, Uncle.”
    Shaking his head, Daegan refused the truth behind Bran’s words. “Follow her as the raven and make sure she arrives safely.”
    “Why? When it would be to all of Annwyn’s benefit if she did not?”
    With a roar, he reached for Bran’s throat and shoved him against a solid oak. “If you do not see to the task, I will, and I might never return. You know what that would