SanClare Black (The Prince of Sorrows) by Jenna Waterford Read Free Book Online Page A

flailed and kicked and struggled when the man came at him again, but it was no use. His own screams rang in his ears, and he lost all sense of why he was fighting. He only knew that he must fight.
    But the man was too strong, and he pinned Nylan to the floor and hovered over him, breathing in heavy gasps. Sweat poured down his face, tinged red by the bloody scratches Nylan had inflicted.
    He wiped at his face, his anger pulsing, filling the tiny room, and he growled, “That’s just more you owe me, ye little bastard!” as his hands reached for the drawstring of Nylan’s trousers.
    Nylan stared into the man ’s eyes, horrified by everything he saw there, everything he felt boiling in the man’s mind and heart. Never before had he faced such relentless cruelty, and he lay helpless, too terrified even to cry.
    Something rushed past Nylan, right in front of his eyes, and he suddenly couldn ’t draw breath. The man’s eyes widened then froze as his head fell from his body. As a searing pain sliced all the way through his neck, Nylan opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out. The weight of the man’s body collapsed onto Nylan’s chest and blood poured over everything.
    His eyes met those of the pirate captain who stood over him with a bloodied sword, and the look of disgust on the man ’s scarred face shifted to blank shock.
    Can ’t breathe oh Vail blood everywhere help me Vail please he’s dead Vail help me breathe please BREATHE!
    But there was no way out that he could find. He’d been looking right into the man’s eyes.
    I ’m going to die.
    T rapped in the dizzying downward spiral the man had disappeared into so abruptly, he convulsed from the effort of trying to breathe, trying to scream. The captain shouted orders, looking as panicked as Nylan felt, and the body was lifted off of him.
    It didn ’t help. All he wanted was to breathe again, but it had been too long since his last breath, and the darkness closed in, finally swallowing him whole.
    The next thing he knew, he struggled up from unconsciousness, rolled over the side of the bed, and vomited before nearly blacking out again. His head hurt more than he ever would have thought possible. The usual, constant mutter of voices now sounded like shouts, and his throat ached horribly.
    He didn ’t notice the softness of the bed he lay on nor the improvement in his surroundings, taking it all for granted in the few moments after waking and before he remembered where he was and what had happened to him.
    .: Jary, I feel so sick. And I had such a horrible dream. :.
    “ I thought you wouldn’t wake,” the pirate captain said softly. His hands were gentle as he eased the boy back onto the pillows and wiped his face with a cool cloth. Nylan wanted to fight him off or scream at him, but he found he just didn’t have the strength to do more than glare at the man.
    “ That’s why he told you not to look. Isn’t it?”
    Nylan closed his eyes and let himself wilt into the bed’s soft pillows. He didn’t answer for several moments as his memories reasserted themselves. The feel of the sword slicing through him, the feel of the man’s last, panicked tic of life, suffocating, the head falling, the blood...
    Everywhere ...Vail, it was everywhere.
    H e wanted to scream and not stop until he went mad or until they gave up and let him go.
    Maybe they ’d take me back home. But he knew this thought was silly and impossible even as it ran through his head. Besides that, he couldn’t dissolve into hysterics. A SanClare prince wouldn’t do that.
    At last, he whispered an answer. “If a Sensitive looks into the eyes of someone who is dying, he can become trapped and die, too.”
    “ Why didn’t you die, then?” The man frowned.
    “ I don’t know.”
    “ You must be very strong.”
    Tears stung Nylan ’s eyes. “No,” he breathed. “I’m very unlucky.”
    “ You were unconscious for days. I thought you were dying.”
    Maybe I should have. Holy Vail,