Hunters (Spirit Blade Part 1) by M. A. Nilles Read Free Book Online

direct rain water into large troughs and away from the long arcade between the indoor training arena and the stabling area. In the circular area outside that passage with its doors open for morning activity, a crowd of tigers had gathered, most of them the orange of the warriors. Several of the stable hands held saddled and ready horses while other figures in orange and black armor waited astride their mounts.
    "You're traveling with them?"
    Nadia hurried forward, her boots crunching over the grass and her heart anxious to reach the demonlords and escape Kaelen.
    A hand clamped on her arm halted her and pulled her around to face him. In the sunlight, the lines of his face looked deeper than she remembered from eight years ago. He had aged, but he hadn't changed.
    "What are you doing with them?"
    "It's not your concern." She yanked her arm, but his fingers tightened and he loomed closer, his face inches from hers set in a hard line.
    "It is my business, Nadia. You're a demon hunter, an Adept. You serve humans, not demonlords. What happened to you?"
    The instant his fingers loosened, she pulled away. "You did." Free of him and not wanting to argue, she jogged several steps before resuming her fast march to the stables.
    He would never understand. He hadn't understood eight years ago and seeing him last night had only served to bring back memories she had tried to forget, the secret she had buried to save herself from emotional pain that would rip her apart if she let it.
    And she had finally found some peace after resolving her issues with Je'Rol.
    She didn't want anything to do with Kaelen, just like he hadn't wanted anything with her.
    "Nadia. Nadia."
    He followed but she continued to a sorrel mare offered by one of the stable boys and lifted her belongings to the back of the saddle.
    A quick glance across her shoulder as she tied her belongings behind the high cantle made her pause. In white riding pants with a white and black coat belted at his waist, Lord Je'Kaoron passed Kaelen from behind, stopping the man in his tracks at the outer edge of the resting tigers, several of whom stirred. The demonlord's poise and fair appearance made Kaelen look churlish and stocky by comparison.
    Black stripes raced along the white hair tied out of the cleanly-defined features to blend together loosely over the demonlord's shoulders. Upon catching her eyes, he smiled.
    "Nadia," Lord Je'Kaoron greeted her and took the reins of the sleek gray from the stable boy who held her own mount. While his horse chewed on the bit, he led it near to her and said in a low voice, "What do you wish of him?"
    She looked up to where Kaelen still stood at the edge of the stirring tigers. "Nothing." She yanked one of the straps around her blanket roll with more force than intended.
    One white eyebrow lifted on Lord Je'Kaoron's face. He said nothing and led his mount away to where he could step up without the horses biting at each other.
    "This is wrong, Nadia," Kaelen said. "Surrounding yourself with demonlords will not please the others."
    Nadia huffed and finished tying her belongings onto the saddle, yanking the leather straps hard. He was lucky Je'Dron and his clan supporters tolerated such disrespect. "I don't care what the Kodre, Li'Ador, or any others think. I'll be safer with the Je'Gri where we're going," she said over her shoulder to Kaelen.
    "Where's that?"
    She clamped her jaw and with one foot already in the nearest stirrup, swung her other leg over the saddle. "It doesn't concern you." Leather creaked under her weight as she took up her reins from the stable boy.
    Kaelen made his way to the horse's head amid tigers that acted as if he didn't matter. "Then hand me the dagger."
    "No." She looked about and caught Lord Je'Kaoron's questioning expression. How many of the others knew about the dagger? She would bet he had told High Lord Je'Dron, especially in regards to her destroying it since it had killed the high lord's half-blood son.
    She tried to