Bound (Bound Trilogy) by Kate Sparkes Read Free Book Online Page A

The sooner I moved past it, the better.
    I looked down at the still form on the floor. “Who are you?”
    A Darmish woman with magic in her—just what I had been searching for. But the magic had hurt her. When I crouched beside her, I felt nothing. Had she not just healed me, I would have thought her just another useless, magic-less body.
    “Protected, then,” I muttered.
    It made sense. Anyone like her living in this country would have to keep that secret well-hidden from the magic hunters, their townsfolk and even their families. But from me? It should have been impossible.
    In any case, she was exactly what I’d been searching for.  If I took her back to Tyrea and handed her over to Severn, my work would be done. Delivering someone like this would win Severn’s favor and once again prove my loyalty. If he trusted me enough to make me his Second, things would change for the better. My work might still occasionally involve manipulating Severn’s enemies, but at least I’d be doing it in Luid instead of in the outer provinces or this gods-forsaken land. Taking this hidden Sorceress to Severn would buy me power and wealth—and anything or anyone those resources could buy.
    And yet, this girl had saved my life at great risk to herself, and I needed to decide what that was worth.
    I stood to open the window, and breathed in the cool night air. My brothers would call me a fool for even considering leaving her here. They’d have taken her in just to prove they didn’t owe anything to anyone. Compassion was weakness, as was gratitude to those below our station, and my family had seen too much weakness in me when I was a child. I’d worked to harden myself to fear and love and everything else that makes one vulnerable, but suddenly found myself struggling again.
    Wealth and power and freedom were within my grasp, and I was considering letting it go so a stranger could live. Idiot.
    I flexed my arm again and felt its weakness. It would be too difficult to take her back in my current state, I decided. I would leave her, at least for now. If she was lucky, I’d find another.
    The stairs creaked outside of the closed door.
    Damn it . I’d forgotten to send my awareness out, lulled by that warm magic into a feeling of safety.I moved silently to the door and leaned against it. A single presence approached, female. Not threatening, but I doubted she’d be pleased to find a naked stranger in the house and the girl lying half-dead on the floor.
    A knock. “Rowan? Are you awake? I’m off to bed, if you need anything.” A soft voice, concerned but not overly so. When no answer came, she turned to leave. As soon as she left the stairwell, I locked the door.
    “Rowan, is it?” I asked. The girl on the floor didn’t answer.
    The wagon ride had been torture. Every bump in the road sent fire burning through my veins, courtesy of the poison in my wounded wing. Still, I had listened, and heard much of her conversation with the hunters. Dorset Langley. I knew that name, though I’d never met the man. His reputation as a magic hunter reached far beyond his country’s borders. And she was to marry his son.
    “Why ever would you do a thing like that?” In their country those who fought against magic were heroes, and she would be marrying into a wealthy and powerful family. But as a magic-user, perhaps even a Sorceress, she was putting her life in danger to do it. So either she valued social status above her own life, or she felt confident enough in her ability to hide the magic that she thought it was worth the risk.
    “Or she doesn’t know what she is.” An interesting idea.
    I sat again and pulled my hands through my tangled hair, then tied the mess behind my neck with one of the strings from the sewing basket. As I ate what was left of the girl’s supper, I glanced around the room to see what I could learn about her.
    Illustrated books about nature lay stacked on one shelf, though I suspected they omitted many of the