Redemption (The Alexa Montgomery Saga) by H.D. Gordon Read Free Book Online Page B

that he had
kissed me. I found that I couldn’t move, could hardly breathe, and though
fallen tears were still wet on my face, no new ones were following their
footsteps. My lips parted, but all that came out was bated breath.
    Tommy tilted his head. I nodded,
not sure at all what I was agreeing to, if anything. And when his mouth met
mine once more my eyes slipped closed again, and a sense of warmth like I had
never known settled over me. My hand reached up slipped around Tommy’s neck on
its own accord, pulling him close to me. My head seemed to be spinning with
unasked questions, like how I had come to be in the position and why I was so
scared it would be taken away. These things didn’t seem to matter, though. All
that mattered right then was that the hurt was less. Still there, maybe always
would be, but less.
    Tommy’s hands remained at his
sides, but his warm, hard body was pressed up against mine closely, sending
heat through the thin fabric of our shirts. Unwanted, ashamedly unwanted,
Daniel popped into my mind like a mangled jack springing out of a buried box.
I’m not sure how he sensed it, as I was sure I had given no outward indications
of my thoughts, but Tommy pulled back from me, his mouth leaving mine slowly,
with what seemed like great effort.
    When I opened my eyes, I saw that
his were still closed, and a look that was almost painful had come over his
handsome face. I sighed heavily, half relieved and half disappointed that he
didn’t seem willing to take this any further.
    Eyes still closed, Tommy
whispered, “Sleep now, weary soul. I’ll catch the dreams for you, I promise.”
    And eventually, I did as I was
told.
    And amazingly, Tommy did as he
had promised.

 
     
    Lines in the sand
    Most of them had never been
directly comforted with it, but they knew it well enough. It was the invisible
line in the sand that separated them; put them on one side, or the other. Some
of them were immune to it, but most were not. Some of them beat their chests at
the idea of war, happily upholding the King’s orders, no matter what they may
be. But for those on the other side of it, on the side that was always
underscored with a silent, beating fear, the fear of what might happen next ,
the story was different entirely.
    For the vast majority ,
those who were not trained fighters, and even some that were, fear had fallen
over them like a storm in the dead of night, darkening the skies of their souls
with a dirty super cell of warring winds. And what choice did they have, but to
follow orders?
    The territory known as Sun City
had been first on the list printed on the Summons. This morning they were all
to gather at the Council Building to “pledge allegiance” to the King. If they
did not, death had been promised to follow. The thing that would save a good
number of them was not their whole-hearted belief in the righteousness of their
King, but rather the magic he had been so long distributing to them through
blood and food to keep them unaware about the things that went on behind the
curtains. Many of them did not have neither the mental power nor a strong
enough desire to peer behind those curtains.
    But some of them did. And they
were herded into Sun City’s Council Building that morning afraid, but so
mercifully unknowing that this was to be their last morning on this earth. It
was better that they didn’t.
    Sun City was the second smallest
of the Five Cities, its residents–not counting the some four thousand of them
hidden in the slave village just beyond the city’s border—totaled only ten
thousand in all. By midday, that number would be sliced down to two-thirds. By
nightfall, just over half of them would remain.
    “Examples must be made,
gentlemen,” King William had told his Warriors the night before. “War lays on
the horizon, and examples must be made.”
    And they would.
    The sun was a blessing that
morning, as it was every morning that it chose to make an appearance. The
people, scared