Hers to Claim by Patricia A. Knight Read Free Book Online

Great Rite drove the woman into a catatonic state for weeks, and when she awoke she had lost her mind completely. Will I go crazy? No, DeHelios won’t risk his healer. Would he? It would only be sex and by the Goddess, she could stand a little of that. I’ll be that much closer to knowing those mysteries . Still, she wished the evening closer at hand so she wouldn’t have so long to dwell on unknown terrors. I wonder if we’ll do this in front of Steffania and Lord Ramsey? Goddess! She’d never considered that possibility. She straightened in the saddle when Steffania reined in her horse and took up a position beside her.
    “ You look a little shaken. Are you going to be okay?”
    Adonia smiled faintly. “Yeah. Better this than dead. ”
    Steffania smiled in return. “Yes. And I’m sure looks are deceiving. I mean , he looks rough, but DeHelios must have some finesse. The diaman crystals absorb energy from your sexual arousal. If he cannot make you feel for him then it’s pointless.”
    “Thanks,” she said dryly. “ If I don’t get aroused sufficiently for Prince DeHelios to complete the rite, we die. No performance anxiety here. Nope. None at all.”
    Steffania burst into laughter. “Oh, Adonia. I’m sorry. But I ’m certain you have nothing to worry about. Verdantian noblemen are formally trained in this sort of thing. They are experts in arousing women.”
    Adonia looked at Steffania sideways. “Ah, what if…what if. ” She let out a gust of air. “Shit. What if he sees me naked and can’t, uh...can’t…” She vaguely gestured toward her groin. “What if his…doesn’t work?”
    Steffania pulled to a stop and aimed an incredulous look at her. “What do you see when you look in the mirror?”
    “I don’t look in a mirror if I can help it,” Adonia muttered.
    Steffania snorted. “Let me assure you that is not going to happen.”
    Adonia kept her mouth shut and her eyes straight ahead. She’d already embarrassed herself enough for one afternoon.
    They worked their way steadily up the mountain trail and an uneasy foreboding built within her as distressing signs of the wraiths’ predation appeared. Game animals, whose contorted bodies displayed the agony of their death, dotted the area they rode through. Even their travel-weary mounts sidestepped and jigged anxiously in reaction to the aftertaste of evil that lingered to taint the very air. When the group stopped at a small lake to water and calm the fear-lathered horses, Adonia fought hard to control her nausea at what she glimpsed by the water’s edge.
    “Oh! Goddess ! A man,” she called. “Just beneath the surface.” Beside her in seconds, Hel and Ramsey dragged the poor soul to the shore. A heavy stone was tied to his neck with a rope. The men undid the water-swollen knots and turned him over.
    “He hasn’t been in the water long . He still has a face,” Ram remarked. “Do you know him?”
    “Yes, he is a shepherd who came to Nyth Uchel from time to time.” Hel’s features were set in a rigidly severe mask.
    “What happened? Who would drown such a defenseless person? He ca nnot have had anything of worth,” Adonia said.
    “He drowned himself,” Hel murmured. “ He must have known the leeches would get him when darkness fell, and rather than suffer the torture of that death, he drowned himself.” Hel sighed heavily. “I don’t have the tools to give him a proper burial, but we can at least cover him with rocks to keep the predators from his body.”
    Adonia wondered what sort of monsters they would face that evening to make death by drowning preferable.
    ~~~
    They had been leading their horses for some time, roaming in seeming circles through an area dotted with trees, tall up-thrusting boulders and thick grass. The late afternoon light began to turn hazy when Hel hollered back, “I’ve found it. We will camp here tonight.”
    Adonia let out a slow breath. The time had arrived. She could blame fatigue for her trembling