Languish by Alyxandra Harvey Read Free Book Online Page B

trampled.” Her words trembled into a sob. “We buried him in the churchyard up the hill.”
    Lady Jasper opened her mouth to speak but my head startedto burn. My psychical abilities weren’t entirely healed. My hand drifted to my brow. Tabitha looked at me sharply, expectantly. I gave a tiny shake of my head and widened my eyes in Lady Ashburnham’s direction.
    â€œWas he very handsome?” Tabitha pressed.
    â€œYes.” Lady Ashburnham smiled. “He was rather dashing, though I do say it myself. He had a small scar at the side of his mouth and the girls all swooned over it. They still go to his grave to pray for luck with their sweethearts.”
    A scar at the side of his mouth.
    Lady Jasper sent cold creeping over the coin, but Lady Ashburnham didn’t notice. She was too busy wiping her eyes with a lace handkerchief. “I’m sorry, my dears. I don’t know why I told you all of that.”
    I thought of the way the horses had bolted with the carriage; of the icy hooves the day Lord Jasper was nearly thrown, and again just now, by the stables.
    Rob Steele, the former Lord Ashburnham, was back.
    And he was the Lonely Lord.
    I knew why I felt so queer, so full of jagged unused energy. I’d felt like this before: around Rowena, when a spirit came at me from the pond, when the old woman tried to claim Colin for her own.
    It was the cold, desperate feeling of a spirit pushing too close.
    â€œI have to find Colin,” I said abruptly. I remembered the feel of the spirits trying to force us apart. They’d been protecting me. “
Now
. He’s in danger.” I shot a glance at the coin, droppingmy voice. “From Rob.”
    â€œI’ve seen the way Colin looks at you.” Tabitha shook her head. “He’ll find
you
.”
    Tabitha was right.
    Colin found me.
    I went to the cemetery, because I didn’t know where else to go. I had a vague plan to find Rob’s grave and fill it with salt. Colin was already there, waiting for me. He looked angry and arrogant, spoiling for a fight. His sleeves were rolled up to reveal muscled forearms, his hands tucked in his pockets.
    â€œColin,” I said as he stalked toward me. “Are you—.”
    I’d been about to ask him if he was all right.
    But he wasn’t.
    There was no teasing glint to his eyes, only hunger. I lifted my fistful of salt. His fingers closed around my wrist, bending it back until the salt scattered harmlessly down my dress.
    â€œYou have to listen to me,” I said, wincing at the press of his thumb on my skin.
    He tossed his black hair off his face, eyes glinting. His smile was cocky. “Don’t you think we’ve done enough talking?”
    And then he was pressing me against the stone angel and his mouth was on mine and it was difficult to think, to do anything other than feel. Our tongues touched, our hands tangled. He crowded against me or I crowded against him, I couldn’t be sure anymore. The kiss took up everything until we shimmered with it.
    Shimmered.
    I jerked back, breaking the kiss.
    Colin was shimmering. There was an unnatural glow to his skin and the air was frosting. It wasn’t fire between us anymore, but ice.
    And with Lady Jasper’s stone angel digging into my back, I could see why she’d tripped me. She’d been warning me, just like all the others spirits. If I’d looked up, sprawled on her grave, I would have seen the stone inscribed Rob Steele, Beloved Son.
    Colin had been standing right there, right over Rob’s bones after I’d stomped about demanding the spirits wake up.
    It was my fault.
    He smirked, leaning closer, his eyes still on my lips. Colin’s blue irises went black in the twilight shadows. Black as Rob’s eyes had been. I struggled to free myself. His hands tightened, crushed my sleeves between his fingers. “Don’t be like that, love.”
    I yanked sideways, pulling him with me.