Assassin's Kiss by Sharon Kay Read Free Book Online

Bronwy wouldn’t benefit from arguing. “I need some fresh air. Let me know what you want to do.” She gave her dad a quick hug, said goodbye to Winston, and headed out the door.
    She purposely avoided walking within sight of Scorpio’s cage. She didn’t want to see him, didn’t want him to see her. Not when every step that brought her closer to him also called forth words that pinged insistently around in her mind. Honor, duty, oath. No malice.
    You’re mine.
    Her instincts about people were rarely wrong. It’s just that she’d never had so many differing characteristics bombarding her from one single male. Especially one who had committed murder. And why did she even need to decide anything about him?
    That was her dad’s job.
    Hiking up an inclined path in the trees, her feet crunched over pine needles. The soft rush of water called to her, and in a minute she was at a high spot on the bank of the river. The current whisked around black rocks below that lined the bank. From her spot twenty feet up, she could just make out several peaked roofs of varying heights, on rightful Bronwy land.
    She settled on the soft grass and leaned against a smooth rock. From this position the tree line obscured her old home, but its nearness hummed in the air and in the earth. She closed her eyes, cleared her mind, and simply breathed. In her fingertips she felt her connection to the earth’s metals as it centered her. Knowledge of herself, her skills, and her purpose flowed through her veins. Her people came first, always. She would work to bring down those who overstepped their bounds and infringed on those less powerful.
    And above all, no male would define her as his. She’d never allow it.

C HAPTER 5
     
     
    S CORPIO HAD WATCHED THE PROCEEDINGS of the coven all day. Witches had bustled around, coming and going amongst the buildings and trees, calling out to one another in friendly greetings. If any glanced his way, it was to throw him an angry glare, but none had used any magic.
    Must be waiting for the chief. Scorpio wasn’t complaining.
    Earlier, two of the guards on rotation at his cage had looped magic rope around his hands and taken him to a stream that branched off the main river. One kept a venom-dipped arrow trained on him, the other a blue ball of witchfire, and instructed him to bathe. Scorpio hadn’t minded the icy dip, the weapons, or the rope. The chance to wash a week’s worth of stink off his body and get into clean clothes was welcome.
    After all, he had a mate to snare.
    Inga had stopped by at one point with a bowl of vegetable and meat stew. Lash demons didn’t need to eat every day, but Scorpio hadn’t eaten in days, and the meal was damn good. Good enough to bring Jinx back, looking up at him with pleading eyes.
    “I don’t think so, cat,” Scorpio muttered. “Unless you go fetch your mistress. Then we might have a deal.”
    Tessa’s scent clung to the bars of his cage. The irony wasn’t lost on him that he was caged both by the bars and by her presence. She didn’t know it, couldn’t know it yet, but he wouldn’t leave here without her.
    Honeysuckle scent tortured him all day with arousal and the need to claim. But he wasn’t lost to lust. His tactical core saw her as a complex mission, one that had to be won. No other option except success. But he may as well be facing a sheer rock wall with dragon slime on his hands and no climbing gear.
    Didn’t matter. He’d been through hell and survived. He was up for this challenge. His little witch would come to him.
    As if on cue, light-booted footsteps crossed the ground. Scorpio did his best to bite back a grin and resist asking her if her ears were burning.
    Still in that gray tank top, she’d changed into black cargo pants and wore a backpack. Her dark hair was pulled up into a thick ponytail. Blue eyes met his, glaring.
    “Nice to see you, Tessa.” He savored the way her name rolled off his tongue.
    She ignored him, dropping her gaze to