Jeweled by Anya Bast Read Free Book Online Page A

work with. Nothing to sample and redistribute to positively affect the situation. Just negativity. Only ugliness. The backwash of it stung the rear of her throat and caught behind her teeth. It made her want to spit.
    And then they were there in front of them, the brutes.
    She lifted her chin at the leader, a hulking, sweaty man with blood smeared across his cheek and a mass of messy red hair. Behind her the other group had come to a halt. She didn’t look, but she could feel them, smell them, hear them. Their body heat warmed her.
    No way would she demean herself in their presence. She would not cower, would never beg. She was better than they were. She was—
    The redhead punched her and she fell backward into darkness.

Four

    Evangeline?”
    Anatol cupped Evangeline’s head in his hands and shook her lightly. She’d have a whopper of a headache when she woke. Probably a black eye, too. The men who’d spotted them had taken one look at the haughty expression on her face, had declared her trouble, and knocked her out first thing.
    They were right. Evangeline was trouble. He, of all people, knew that.
    He still wasn’t sure why he’d helped her get out of the palace. He stared down at her closed eyes, the thin veins purple. A bruise had begun to bloom violently on her upper cheek. She looked so fragile, so innocent this way. Vulnerable. Not soft, not weak—but misused. She was a survivor.
    And that was the truth of Evangeline.
    No matter the act she might put on for others, she was injured, defenseless, and broken on the inside.
    Who was he kidding? He knew why he’d helped her. He loved her. He had for a long time. She was hopeless, lost in a tangle of her magick and the cruel environment she’d grown up in. Yet there was vulnerability beneath the mask she wore, and it was that part he was drawn to. Maybe he thought he could help her—fix what was broken.
    He was an idiot.
    She roused, her eyelids fluttering open. She immediately winced, her hand coming up to touch her injured cheek. “That man punched me!”
    “Yes, he did.”
    “Where am I?”
    “Safe.” He paused and looked around at the alley. “In a manner of speaking.”
    She looked around, shakily sitting up. He’d found a space between a couple of buildings, the opening hidden by some large, discarded boxes. Stars shone down from above. Even at night, hours after the initial siege of Belai, the city seemed to seethe with anger. Shouting, screaming, crying, and the sound of things breaking could still be heard in the distance.
    Her lip curling as she took in her surroundings, she noticed what she was dressed in—little more than rags. While she’d been unconscious, he’d snatched more appropriate attire for them and thrown away the costly garments that marked them as fresh from the palace. She probably had never seen herself dressed this way, though if she’d grown up with her birth family in Cherkhasii Province she would’ve worn clothes like this all the time. As a trade-off, she would’ve had love, but Evangeline didn’t know that love was better than nice clothing.
    He’d dressed her, too, though Evangeline wasn’t the type to care if someone she barely knew had seen her naked. It would be low on her list of concerns, but it had affected him. Despite the circumstances, despite the danger, touching the bare body of the woman he’d wanted for so long had made him tremble with need.
    She touched her head again, apparently deciding her head hurt too much to become overly offended by the clothes. “What happened with all those men?”
    He settled down beside her and sighed. “I used magick.” He kept his voice low. “I created an illusion of the Imperial Guard and sent them running. It will be the last time I can do that. You should try to avoid using your magick, too.”
    “Why? It’s our right to use our abilities.” Her voice, as ever, held unbreakable pride.
    “It may be our right, but it will also be our death. They’re rounding