Ensnared (Sorcery and Science Book 5) by Ella Summers Read Free Book Online

former bodyguard loved his knives. He wore so many that it was a wonder Jason could smell anything but metal from the man.
    A silver-blonde head crested the hill, partially obscured by Wrest’s massive figure. Isis’s friend, Destiny. Jason’s fingertips buzzed with a hum of erratic energy, the resonance of Prophet. But there was more. He had the odd sense that Destiny was somehow connected to his quest for Terra. He had to speak with her.
    As Jason stepped forward, Wrest’s hand slipped over a massive Everlast Ripper knife strapped to his chest. The ancient Phantom Extractor never did anything halfway—and that included picking out weapons.
    “Wait. I mean you no harm,” Jason said, raising his hands.
    Destiny’s violet eyes studied him for a moment, then she set a hand on Wrest’s emerging blade. He sheathed it but pressed his crossed arms to his chest, causing them to bulge under the pressure. Jason looked up at him. He really was a gigantic mountain of muscle. Not that it mattered. Jason knew he could take him in a fight.
    “Any time, junior,” Wrest said with a wide grin.
    Jason rechecked his mental barriers. Still there. He reenforced them anyway. His drive to find Terra had put cracks in his armor, cracks that an Extractor like Wrest could exploit to lift images from his mind.
    Destiny stepped between them. “Now, now. We’re all friends here.”
    Were they? They’d worked together just last week to expose the Selpe traitor who had plotted to kidnap the half-Elition heirs to the Selpe throne, but from the way Wrest was glaring at Jason, no one would have known it. The other Phantom was apparently under the impression that they’d yet to establish who was the dominant Phantom. That was what was causing the tension. Wrest’s tension. Jason knew who was dominant. He was the Elite Phantom after all.
    “We, too, mean no harm,” Destiny told him. “Silas is just overprotective. It’s his bodyguard instincts kicking in. One can never be too careful with the infamous Jason Chanz.” She smiled. “Ah, forgive me. It seems that even I slip at times. Magus.”
    “You are Isis’s friend, so you may call me Jason.”
    “And you are hers, or is it more than that?” she asked with a curious smile. “In any case, then you may call me Ariella.”
    “Ariella, I would like to speak with you for a moment.” He shot Wrest a hard look. “Alone.”
    “I’ll be fine, Silas,” she assured him, for he had drawn his Bloodfire knife. It was a fast draw, one worthy of a seasoned Phantom. “Let’s take a walk, Jason.”
    He led her up the hill, the path spiraling ever upward until they reached the vista at the top. Jason turned his back to their companions, still visible far below. The clash of the ocean waves would block their words, even from Phantom ears.
    Ariella balanced her toes over the edge of the cliff and smiled as the cold breeze whipped through her hair, swirling it all around her face.
    Jason watched the silver-blonde streamers and asked, “What color was your hair before your Passing?”
    All Elitions went through a Passing around the age of twelve. It was the time their unique abilities fully surfaced and their physical features changed to the telltale Elition look. Mostly, that meant their eyes and hair took on vibrant tones, like the shimmering silver of Ariella’s hair or the violet glow of her eyes. But depending on the Elition adolescent, it could also mean sudden changes in height or muscle mass. Their skin also acquired a certain glow to it.
    “What an odd question, but then they all say you’re a bit mad, don’t they?” She laughed softly. “It was not nearly so silver. Just blonde.”
    “And your eyes?”
    “They were blue.”
    “And how old are you, Ariella?”
    “I should smack you for that one, Jason Chanz, but I’m starting to get the feeling that this is more than idle curiosity. You have a purpose to everything you say, don’t you? I’m seventeen,” she told him.
    His