Cursed by Ice by Jacquelyn Frank Read Free Book Online Page B

to manipulate me!”
    “They will not be hurt. I promise you that.”
    “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
    “I can say the same to you,” he said. “Rest. Eat something. Try to heal in whatever way you can. I will be back with your sisters before long.”
    She looked away from him. But he could tell she was nervous. Concerned. She was worried about her siblings. Deeply worried. It was a feeling he could easily identify with.
    Garreth turned around and walked out the door, closing and locking it behind him. He paused a moment, his head resting on the solid wood of the door, his eyes closing.
    What was wrong with him? For a moment there—for several moments—he had stared at that lush, violet-lipped mouth and all he could think about was kissing the frustrating wench into silence. But that, he had known, would have been a very bad idea and would have destroyed any chance of gaining her trust. And the very last thing he should be thinking of was kissing a woman who amounted to a prisoner of war. A woman who, in her wrath, could call upon the power of a great beast to protect her.
    He was fascinated by that connection. How had it come to be? Why had it come to be? And could the bond be broken without killing one or both of them? Would she even want such a thing?
    He turned away from the door and strode throughthe keep, the page who had been waiting outside the door for him at his side.
    “Where is my brother?” he asked, his tone brusque.
    “I do not know, Sor Garreth. Although the last I heard of it, he was looking for the treasury.”
    “Leave it to my brother to be practical.” Garreth began to search for Dethan. The keep was convoluted, made of stone and brick, full of twists and turns and far too many dark corners. He finally did catch up to him in the treasury room, which was stone-cold empty.
    “Hmm. Either this is the poorest city in the world,” he said, picking up a stray gold coin from the floor, “or we’ve been robbed.”
    “The bennesah, no doubt. Methinks we’ll have to explain a little more clearly to the bennesah how things work. The city was fighting us and he was making off with the gold.”
    “And other forms of leverage. His offer of the girl and the wyvern came with a small flaw. He controls her by controlling the fate of her sisters.”
    “Hmm. It seems we need to find our host.”
    “Where did you put him?”
    “I didn’t put him anywhere. I thought you …”
    “Mind tricks,” Garreth realized as he swore thoroughly. Somehow they had been tricked into thinking the other was watching over the bennesah.
    “The mage. Let’s find the bennesah and rout out this mage before we end up putting a knife in each other’s backs,” Dethan said, scowling.
    The first thing they did was scour the castle from top to bottom in search of the bennesah and the girls. Once they were certain the trio were not in the keep, they began to make inquiries. It didn’t take long for Dethan’s trusted page, Tonkin, to roust up a servant who actually had a clue as to what was going on. The man shivered inhis slippers as he was dragged before the unhappy brothers.
    “Where is your master?” they asked for what seemed like the hundredth time. They had been interrogating almost everyone in the keep.
    “I do not know, milord,” he said, his eyes shifting to and fro.
    “Brother, methinks we have a bad liar here,” Dethan posited.
    “Methinks you’re correct,” Garreth said.
    Dethan smiled humorlessly. “My patience is at an end,” he growled at the servant. “Where is your master? And while you are at it, where is the mage he uses to confuse us?”
    “Y-you can’t get to the bennesah. The mage will protect him. He is very powerful.”
    “Not powerful enough to save this city, you’ll notice. Why don’t you tell us where they are and let us worry about whether or not we can actually capture the bastard?”
    “If h-he hasn’t left the city already, he is at his manor house in the