Prince by Blood and Bone: A Fantasy Romance of the Black Court (Tales of the Black Court) by Jessica Aspen Read Free Book Online Page A

one word lifted her up. “The very same queen who keeps me here year after year after year, thinking she can bend me to her will.” He rose, lurching across the room, the breeze of his passage blowing out most of the candles, until the walls were wrapped in more shadow than light. His cloak billowed out in a black cloud as he leaned behind her chair in the semi-darkness and breathed into her ear, “Now you have another reason to help me. Release me from my curse, Bryanna MacElvy, and I will take on the Black Queen.”
    “You would do this?” she whispered back, unable to summon a louder voice.
    He leaned closer. “The Black Queen owes me a great debt for keeping me here, and I would collect,” he said savagely, his breath hot on her cheek.
    She trembled. At his words, at her fear, or in an odd unexpected brush of arousal at the touch of his emotion on her skin, she didn’t know.
    “If you know of our family and the queen’s vicious quest, you must realize the urgency of finding my sister and mother. They’re all alone, and she hunts for them. If they’re in Underhill, like I am, she will be that much closer.” Bryanna turned her head. He was close, so close she could hear his harsh breathing under the concealing hood. She had a sudden urge to see his eyes as she begged for her freedom. She reached for him. “Please, let me go.”
    “No!” A shaggy, brown paw with talon-like claws came around her, slammed onto the table, and rattled the china. “You must cure me of my curse, or there’s no hope for you. No hope for your mother or your sister or anyone you love.” His claws dug into the wood, gouging deep lines as he dragged his paw back under his cloak.
    Wax dripped from shaking flames as Bryanna shrank back into her chair, every nerve screaming at her to get up and run.
    “I’m sorry,” he said panting out the words. He pulled away, shoulders hunched. She could read the desperation in every cloaked line of his body as he moved further back. “Say you will at least try to help me. I pledge to you, once free, I will take on the Black Queen and do my best to save the remainder of the MacElvys from her destruction.”
    “Will you release me?”
    “If you succeed in helping me lift this curse, I will release you.”
    “Not good enough.” How could she lift a faery queen’s curse? Her Gift was weak. She struggled to cure migraines and soothe fevers. Goddess only knew what his curse was, but she couldn’t cure it, and she refused to be stuck here forever while her family was hunted down one by one. “I’m not that kind of witch. I’m not a conjurer or a spell caster. I’m a healer.” She ducked her chin thinking of all her failures. “And a bad one, at that,” she added.
    His voice dropped low, echoing around the chamber, and something swirled through the air around them, something fae and magical and beyond her ken. “Bryanna MacElvy, I pledge to you that if you try, and are still unable to cure my curse, I will release you.”
    The hairs on Bryanna’s arm rose.
    “Do you accept this bargain?”
    She shouldn’t. There was something she’d forgotten, something important about bargains with the fae, but she was desperate. She would try, and then he would have to let her go.
    “I accept.”
    The air pressure in the room snapped, and a gust of wind blew through the chamber. Bryanna let go of the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.
    “One thing you should know, Bryanna MacElvy,” he said, re-seating himself at the end of the table. “Beezel is the queen’s servant, not mine. He’s her spy. If he finds out your name, you’re as good as dead, and all our opportunities will be wasted.”
    Bryanna gripped the arms of her seat. Where the hell had she landed, and what the hell had she committed to?

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
     
    Kian’s heart slammed in his chest as he led the girl down the twisting, underground corridors of