Darkness Possessed (Order of the Blade) by Stephanie Rowe Read Free Book Online Page A

back."
    "Really?" That caught Zach's attention for a moment. It was rare for a Calydon to go rogue on his own. Not unheard of, but rare. Not that it excused Rohan's treatment of him. "So you strung him up and cut off his hands? Because that certainly seems like the kind of thing a good leader would do."
    "His hands are not cut off," Rohan snapped. "They have been rendered useless. It was the only choice I had to keep him from trying to kill us, and forcing me to make the choice I don't want to make." The steely edge of Rohan's voice made Zach snarl. His voice was cold, showing no compassion or regret for what he had done to the man who worked for him. The bastard was like pure ice.
    And what did he mean, Trevor's hands weren't cut off? Zach narrowed his eyes, moving closer to the imprisoned warrior. As he neared, he saw a black outline where his hands should be. Another step and he could finally see that his hands were actually still attached to his wrists. They were encased in black webbing that seemed to undulate as it crawled over his flesh. He'd never seen anything like it before. "What the hell is that?"
    "He can't call out his weapon if he can't hold it," Rohan said. "But in a few days, the webbing will become a part of him. It will consume his hands and begin to move down his body. Eventually, it will overtake him completely. At that time, I will either have to let him die, or free him to become a rogue that I will be forced to kill."
    Zach swore under his breath, his skin crawling at the fate of the warrior before him. "Is that what you plan to do with Thano? Because there's no way I'll let you do it."
    "Thano is sufficiently unconscious. As long as he stays that way, I will not have to act." Anger suddenly seemed to course through Rohan, and the already heavy air thickened. "This is not how it should be, Zachary. Our warriors should not be held hostage by an ancient demon curse to go rogue. These are good men, honorable soldiers who do not deserve this fate."
    Zach didn't buy into the outrage. He knew Rohan was a man who would slaughter an innocent to further his own agenda. No one and nothing was allowed to stand in the way of Rohan's mission, which had once been to protect the earth realm from the demon beasts that snuck out of the nether-realm to prey upon the innocent. Who knew what his mission was now, but it certainly wasn't about the wellbeing of the poor bastard who was strung up. Rohan was a man without mercy, every single time.
     "Even if Thano wakes up and attacks everyone," Zach said quietly, venom lacing his voice, "if you so much as breathe on him, I will hunt you down and destroy you and everything that matters to you. And you know I can do it."
    Rohan didn't know that the weapon Zach had bested him with so long ago was no longer accessible to him, and Zach wasn't about to tell him that the kid who had once held back an epic volcano of fire by erecting a fire wall could no longer even toast a damned marshmallow on his palm.
    The cloaked warrior went still, perhaps remembering the time Zach had brought him to his knees so long ago with an array of well-placed fireballs. "I will do whatever is necessary to protect my team," Rohan said. "Your Thano will not be permitted to harm anyone."
    Zach walked up to him, striding evenly across the clearing until he was standing in front of the unconscious warrior that Rohan claimed to be protecting. "What the fuck are you playing at here, Rohan? You bring me in here to show me one of your own warriors who has gone rogue. You can't heal him. All you can do is string him up like a monster, and yet you brought Thano here under the pretense that you could save him from being rogue. You lie. You can't save him, can you?"
    "No. I can't save Trevor from his rogue state." Rohan's voice was bitter, so bitter that it was almost convincing. Almost. "You, however, can save him."
    "Me?" Zach snorted in disgust. "You've got some balls if you think that I'm going to help your man