Reluctant Adept: Book Three of A Clairvoyant's Complicated Life by Katherine Bayless Read Free Book Online Page A

can sidestep to a higher dimension, my little voice added, which is pretty dang otherworldly. And an adept can supposedly open gateways to other worlds. That's what a gateway does—it straddles worlds.
    Not that I'd ever opened a gateway. I'd merely closed one, so that didn't precisely qualify.
    I shook myself.
    This was not the time to let my thoughts ramble on unchecked. None of it mattered. As far as I was concerned, anyone who thought I was the awaited soulmate was a deluded idiot. For all of two seconds, I basked in the superiority of my strenuous belief, until I realized … it wasn't my opinion that mattered.
    If King Faonaín and all his enemies were drinking the oracle's Kool-Aid, then in their minds I was a twofer—an adept and the future ruler's soulmate.
    Christ. I'd be lucky if kidnappers didn't start crawling out from under the goddamned floorboards.
    Hello, Earth to Lire …
    If Blondie thought I was the prophesied, world-straddling mate, I had to get my act together.
    The sidhe chuckled, directing a perfectly arched eyebrow at Kieran. "Yes, I suppose Maeve did cure you of that ambition, didn't she? Ruined your standing as surely as she plies her virgin lovers. And, yet, you continue to play her fool." He scoffed, "Just the mention of Nuala's human kin and you rushed to dance to her tune once again."
    Human kin? Had Kieran's former mate hooked up with a human at some point and conceived a child? That didn't make any sense. Nuala had been dead for almost two thousand years. Any half-human child of hers would be dead by now. Although … if her child had taken a full blooded sidhe for a soulmate, it would have prolonged his or her life.
    Had Maeve sent Kieran here to find Nuala's half-blood child? If so, once he found this person, what had she ordered him to do about it?
    "Then you haven't been paying attention," Kieran replied. "I grew tired of that tune, long ago. You, I believe, cannot say the same, yet here we both stand. Outcast and rogue. Which of us is the more foolish?"
    Rogue? Oh crap. Unless more than one rogue sidhe wandered the Earth, this was Lorcán, Maeve's right hand, the one she'd sent to claim me when Kieran had refused her order to bond with me.
    The golden-haired sidhe laughed, rising smoothly to his feet. "Which of us, indeed. I am not the one seeking to redeem my past through my dead mate's bloodline. But, I digress, where are my manners?"
    He beamed at me. "My dear Miss Devon, I shall take it upon myself to make the introductions since the Deceiver seems disinclined." He bowed. "I am Lorcán."
    I tipped my chin at him, and, although I tried, I don't think I kept the distaste from showing on my face. The fact that he'd referred to Kieran by his rude sobriquet didn't help. "Lorcán. I'd say it's nice to meet you, except we all know you're not here to do anything nice." Even though my knees felt weak, I met his level gaze with one of my own. "Are you?"
    "Now, wherever did you get an idea like that? Perhaps you would do well to consider the source of your assumptions. For example, I for one do not seek to deceive you with glamour." He twirled his hand through the air, gesturing at his face. "What you see is what you get," he said, shooting Kieran a challenging glare, "scars and all."
    "If you're trying to imply that Kieran has seduced me with a glamour, you're wasting your breath," I told him. "Glamours don't work on me. Or didn't your precious princess mention that?"
    He barked out a laugh. "Then why does he wear his mask? It certainly isn't for my benefit. I can see through such magic, as can my associates."
    My stomach fluttered at the increased pressure of Kieran's protective embrace, which told me Lorcán had revealed something Kieran didn't want me to know. The realization might have driven me out of his arms, but Kieran wasn't the only one who'd warned me about Lorcán. Kim and Brassal both distrusted and actively disliked him, but more significantly, Lorcán was aligned with the