Nightshade by Jaide Fox Read Free Book Online Page B

piled several feet high along the castle walls and still growing.
     
    Her misery was complete, she thought dolefully.
     
    Restlessness had chaffed at her the moment the snow began to fall and the knowledge sank in to her that she was thoroughly and completely trapped within the castle walls. Truthfully, she rarely went out in any case. And she had already discovered when she had tried excursions outside to take the air that she could not outstrip the gloom that overshadowed her days, but the snow had so curtailed her activities that she had little to occupy her hands and mind.
     
    Grimacing, she acknowledged that that was not completely true. Her mind was fully occupied, but with thoughts of Nightshade, which she would have liked to avoid.
     
    Guilt plagued her, not the remorse she supposed she should have felt, but rather the distress that she was to blame for Nightshade’s hopelessness. She did not know what she might have done differently--save to go to her death willingly--but his despair tore at her.
     
    I have tossed my only hope of redemption from these castle walls to save a pitiful scrap of humanity that means nothing to me.
     
    What hope had William represented, she wondered?
     
    The only answer that presented itself to her was the fact that his death brought an end to his bloodline. William, himself, could not have had a hand in ‘damning’ Nightshade, for he was no sorcerer. But William’s great uncle, Gaelzeroth had reputedly been one of the most powerful in the land. He would certainly have had the power to bespell Nightshade.
     
    How, though, did the two connect?
     
    Unless Nightshade had believed that another powerful sorcerer would arise someday from Gaelzeroth’s line, one who could break the spell?
     
    She thought that must be it, but even if it was, the knowledge was of no use. William was dead--dead because he had tried to kill her and Nightshade had felt compelled to save her and protect her.
     
    The night he had come to her, she had felt that she knew why. She was certain he had taken a fancy to her. She supposed she had thought it was merely lust then, but she had come to believe that it was more than that. He had taught her passion in that one night they had spent together, lavished her with his own passion, but there had been far more to it than animalistic coupling. He had not simply fallen upon her and slaked his needs. He had loved her. He had made her feel beautiful and desirable, yes, but more than that, cherished.
     
    That was what had made filled her with joy, the sense that she had shared herself with someone who cared for her. Perhaps he was skilled enough that he would have made her feel that way anyhow, but the yearning that had begun to eat away at her resolve to forget him was not merely a hunger for an appetite he had spawned.
     
    She missed him. She missed the sense of being cherished and protected that she had felt in his arms as much, or more, than she missed the fire that he had stirred in her senses. And each day, she missed it more.
     
    Her stomach churned at the thought, and she leaned her forehead upon the cool glass of her chamber window, fighting again the urge to call him to her. Every day, it seemed, it became harder to refrain from calling out to him instead of easier.
     
    She had begun to fantasize that she would somehow discover the way to free him from his curse and that he would then be able to come to her openly, take her to wife.
     
    It was absurd. As certain as she was that he had been bespelled by Gaelzeroth, he had lost more than the humanity he had once had. He had lost all that he had had. He might never have been more than a lowly soldier, but even if he had, in truth, been the valiant knight that she believed he was, he was now landless and powerless and the king would not allow her to wed a man with nothing. She was heir to both her father’s holdings and now William’s. The king would want an alliance that would benefit him.
     
    She