Healing Eden Read Online Free

with goose bumps covering his flesh.
    A flutter brushed across his mind.
    His memories. Someone was trying to read him. An invasion. He forced his eyes open, tried to push away, and froze. His voice cracked. “Galena.”
    Light from the torches behind her flickered off her auburn hair, and her lips curved in a tight, practiced smile. “I know that was painful, but you’ll be fine now.”
    She’d healed him. That was the burn beneath his skin. But guilt shone in her eyes too. Had she read his memories before he shut her out?
    “That’s enough.”
    Reese flinched at the clipped reprimand. He knew that angry tone all too well. The same one Ramsay Shantos had flailed him with all those years ago. He didn’t dare look up. Didn’t trust himself.
    “Get him up and in the cell.” His former strategos, the man who’d trained and then denied Reese entry into the warrior brotherhood, dipped into Reese’s line of sight and pulled Galena away.
    Two guards hustled forward and hoisted Reese up by his armpits and thighs. They lugged him toward a cell, every jerk and bounce lashing fresh torment against his bruised and battered body.
    An icy wave pummeled him, and his stomach lurched. Zeolite. The crystal showed no mercy, crushing his powers as soundly as a boot heel on a bug.
    His guards grunted beneath the impact as well, their dagger sheaths thumping against their belts with each shuffle. They tossed him toward the corner.
    He slammed into a thinly cushioned cot, and his teeth clacked together, rattling as hard as the cell door the guards slammed on their way out.
    Praise the Great One, he ached. Everywhere. He pushed upright, holding his breath until the fresh wave of agony settled.
    A candle burned on the weathered wooden table beside him. Eden didn’t utilize electricity the way humans did, and no sane jailer would risk piping in light from above. Too much opportunity for prisoners to feed on Eden’s energy through the opening and past the Zeolite to feed their powers.
    On the other side of his door, Ramsay’s voice roared, ripping someone a new asshole.
    Reese struggled to his feet, locked his knees and slowed his breath. He knew Ramsay like few others did. It’d take his once friend another thirty seconds tops before he stomped through the cell door and unleashed his venom on the person he was really pissed at.
    Reese.
    He rolled his shoulders and exhaled through the pain. Damn it, if he wouldn’t find his pride and meet Ramsay’s attack upright. His drast was gone, leaving his chest bare. Understandable with the charred mess covering his wound, but least he still had his pants and boots.
    The latch on the door kachunked and the door whooshed open.
    Ramsay prowled inside and shoved the door closed. His jaw looked hard enough to snap. Thank The Great One, zeolite would keep things on an even keel where powers were concerned.
    Reese glanced at the door. “Where’s Galena?”
    “My sister’s not your concern,” Ramsay said, harsh and cold as the dungeon.
    Like histus she wasn’t. For whatever reason, she’d saved him. “Was she hurt?”
    Ramsay crossed his arms and tilted his head. “Why would you care? You tried to kill her.”
    Seventy years and Ramsay’s glare still sliced him.
    “A warrior with something to hide has no place in the brotherhood. This candidate is unworthy to serve.”
    The memory tore through Reese, slicing open old wounds poorly healed. “Why did you let her heal me?”
    Ramsay uncurled his arms and stepped forward, nostrils flared. “Because you’ve got information and I want it.”
    The blood rushed from his head and his knees threatened to give way. Of course, that’s why Galena had saved him. She’d thought of her race. Of her brothers, and saved him for what he knew. Not some spark of mercy or kindness.
    The door flew open and the thick wood cracked against the stone wall. “Ramsay, let him heal.”
    “Not now, Galena.” Ramsay kept his gaze locked on Reese.
    She swayed, her