Icebound (Legends of the Shifters Book 2) by J.B. North Read Free Book Online

flatly.
    “Yes…
And he wasn't who you thought he was,” I added quickly. “Something was
controlling him, making him do all those awful things.”
    “I’d
hoped so,” he replied. “As soon as you broke the spell, it was obvious that he
didn’t know what was happening…which is why I didn’t toss him off my back when
we were trying to escape.”
    I
looked down as I remembered that day. “Before he died, I tried to save him.
Tried to give him the plant of eternal life, but he wouldn’t take it.”
    He
raised his eyebrows, the first flicker of hope settling over his features. “You
got to the plant?”
    I
nodded. “I did. And some of it got into my system when I accidentally punctured
the stem.”
    He
sat up straighter. “So you’re telling me…you’re immortal.”
    I shook
my head. “I heal quickly and I’m stronger, but…I’m not sure if I’m immortal. I
didn’t consume the whole thing.”
    He
shrugged, and then winced as if he’d hurt something. “Stronger is good. It will
help you with your destiny…whatever that may be.”
    “Can’t
it help me rescue you? I was right there, in the same building, and Rowan
turned me away.”
    “No.
No, if you get caught, it’ll put you and the rest of the world in danger,” he
said.
    I
tilted my head. “The rest of the world?”
    “Don’t
you realize why King Ciaran wants you? He wants your power. To control you and
use you against his enemies.”
    I
went quiet, and eventually, Kurt broke the silence. “If I tell them things
about you Ivy, they'll only kill me sooner. Once they have enough information
about you, I'll be useless and they'll either stop bringing me food or kill me
on the spot.”
    “As
long as I’m alive, they’ll consider you the bait to get to me,” I said softly.
“But you need to tell them something, if only to keep from being tortured.”
    He
didn't reply. “Ivy, there's something that you have to know,” he finally said.
“Mother…is dead.”
    I
knitted my eyebrows. “I know. I just said that a moment ago.”
    He
sighed. “Well…Father isn't dead.”
    “What
do you mean?” I asked. “How is that possible?”
    He
leaned back into the wall, as though bracing himself for the next words. “He's
working for King Ciaran.”
    I
wished my body could feel something. The cold that didn't bite, the tears that
didn't fall, the heartbeat that was absent. But there was nothing.
    Should
I be angry or sad or relieved?
    “How—how
did you come to know this?” I forced out.
    Kurt's
breath puffed out in white fog as he whispered, “He's the painter.”

 
     
     
    -Chapter Six-
     
    Before
I could reply, the sky sucked me up again and plunged me back down into my body
with a jolt that sent my heart hammering as if it had just remembered how to
beat. Kurt’s expression as he said those last few words seemed to linger in the
silhouette of trees overhead. I blinked once in confusion, but it took only a
few seconds to discover why I’d returned to my body.
    “What
' ave we got 'ere? I thought fer certain you were dead.”
    I
jerked my head slightly and caught sight of a man above me. He grinned from ear
to ear beneath a speckled gray beard, his eyes shimmery black pools of
malevolence. In his rough, dirt-stained fingers, he held the phantom stone. I
sat up quickly, leaves falling from my tangled hair, reaching for the sword
that was no longer at my side.
    One
by one, men sauntered out of the shadows and joined their leader, eyeing their newest
find. The leader swung the pendant from side to side.
    “It couldn ’ be black diamond, could it?” he asked with a
twisted smile.
    I
pushed myself to my feet slowly, calmly. “I'm not looking for trouble.”
    “Doesn't
look like it to me,” snickered one of the men behind me. “Laying down on the
ground with your skin glowing like that.”
    I
turned to face the man that had spoken.
    “Got
anything else valuable?” he asked. He stalked around me like a cat, eyeing me
up and