Night Seeker by Yasmine Galenorn Read Free Book Online Page B

me to give her the go-ahead. I looked around. Kaylin nodded. Peyton and Rhiannon added their approval. My father remained silent. Lannan was out of the room.
    Grieve slowly inclined his head. “I’m willing to chance it if she can find anything. I have to shake these bonds. I’m tired of feeling like my hands are tied.”
    Majority ruled.
    I turned back to Luna. “Go for it. Call her after we finish our meeting.” She nodded, sliding her phone into her pocket. I glanced around. “I guess we’d better haul Lannan’s ass back in here. We need everybody present because I want all the input that I can get. I have an idea, too.”
    Lannan reluctantly joined us, looking bored. He stared at me, ignoring Grieve’s dirty glances. My father just shook his head and rubbed his brow. He gave me a look as if to say,
You caused it, you fix it.
    As we sat around the table, I looked at each one in turn. We all had our strengths, we all had our weaknesses. I wasn’t going to lie: The fact that Lainule was no longer on our team stung. The same with Anadey and Leo. They weren’t exactly enemies, but they had all betrayed us, in one way or another. So much had gone wrong, so fast.
    “I think I know a way we can regain Lainule’s help. It’s dangerous, but in my opinion, it’s the only thing we can do. We need Summer’s help, and I don’t want to be the one dividing my father from the Queen of Rivers and Rushes.” I looked up at him. That little piece of guilt wasn’t going to go away.
    “You are not the dividing line, my daughter. Lainule has her own mind and we’ve argued over many things throughout the years. This is simply one more squabble.” His eyes lit up. “The Queen of Summer has a temper as volatile as fire pouring from the sun. She embodies the flame. It is her nature.”
    “Yeah, but I don’t like being on the wrong end of her torch. And we
need
her. We need her to give up on Geoffrey.”
    Luna cocked her head to the side. “Why is she so desperate that she would be part of his plans?”
    “Cicely knows why.” Wrath gave me a warning look.
    I nodded. “If Myst finds Alissanya—Lainule’s heartstone—she can destroy the Queen of Rivers and Rushes. And with Myst controlling the woodland, she
will
find it. It’s only a matter of time. Lainule is a desperate woman, Summer Queen or not. She was hoping that Geoffrey would help her destroy Myst before that plays out.”
    “What do you need from us?”
    I sucked in a deep breath. “I want your opinion on this. I think, if we can recover Lainule’s heartstone, she will help us. She’s afraid now—if Myst finds it, she will die. If we find it, she will regain her strength.”
    “You have no idea of the ramifications of what you’re proposing.” Wrath stared at me, slowly standing. “And you should not talk of this in public.” He grimaced. I’d never seen him look so irritated.
    I glanced around. “What public? We’re about as far from
public
as we can get in this town.”
    “You know what I mean—you speak in front of yummanii, magic-born, and worst of all—vampire.” He leaned forward and for a moment, I thought he was going to strike me, his expression was stern and terrible and piercing like the eyes of an owl. But all he did was take my chin in hand. “Daughter, even now, you trust too easily.”
    I bit my lip. I hated making him upset. But we had to start trusting somewhere, and as bad as we’d been burned already, we only had our little ragtag group we’d managed to pull together.
    “I know it’s dangerous, but we haven’t got a choice. Either Lainule fades and dies through lack of her heartstone, or we recover it and she lives. She can’t go after it. Her people can’t go after it.
Your
people.”
    “What exactly is a heartstone?” Luna asked, glancing from Wrath to me.
    I plunged ahead. My father was right to be wary, but we were running out of time. “It’s a part of Lainule’s essence, from her heart, encapsulated in a