Sebastian by Hazel Hunter Read Free Book Online

or far away, depending on what they needed at the time.”
    Nicolette flinched. Bad enough to be placed with one person, what would she have done with a group?
    “What they needed at the time,” she said hollowly. “I didn't need any of that.”  
    Sebastian's expression grew darker still.
    “Nicolette, tell me what happened to you. I'm with the Corps, and you are a witch. You owe me an answer.”  
    Nicolette felt the panic rise up from the base of her throat, and she fought to keep it down.  
    She had gone soft, she could see it now. A year ago, simply running into someone like Sebastian would have sent her scuttling for the next opportunity, the next scam, the next identity. Somehow, he had gotten under her skin, and he had proven to be as dangerous and as terrifying as anything else.
    “I was initiated when I was nineteen,” she said softly. “I was found almost six months after that. I had begun to see these beautiful colors. To see them hovering around the heads of everyone around me, to see how they matched what the person was feeling, even if they didn't show a hint of it on their faces.”
    “You're an aura reader,” Sebastian said with surprise. “That's a rare talent. I'm not sure the Corps has seen someone strong in that skill for decades.”  
    “That's what he told me,” Nicolette said evenly. “He told me that it was the sign of a great witch, someone who could change the course of the world's path.”  
    “What else did he tell you?”
    Nicolette's laugh was short and humorless.
    “He told me I was going to obey him. He told me that from that time moving forward, he was everything to me, my mother, my father, my teacher, my everything. He told me that he was going to protect me. He was going to make sure that the Templars never found me.” Nicolette took a deep breath. “The man who found me put me with this person . He kept me for almost seven months and, in that time, he broke two ribs. To this very day, I still get tingles and numb spots along the leg that he sprained. That's what the Corps did for me, Sebastian, and you're one of them.”  
    “Who did this to you?”  
    Sebastian's voice was flat and dead, and it frightened her even more. There was something incredibly forbidding about him now. There was no hint of the man who had tended so sweetly to her pleasure the night before. This man was a stranger. This man meant her nothing good, and her heart started to beat faster.
    “Does it matter?” she found herself whispering.  
    Sebastian scowled.
    “Of course it does. He should never have laid a hand on you, ever. You have rights, gods, Nicolette, all I want to do is protect you.”
    His voice was raised, and instinctively, Nicolette raised an arm to ward off a blow that she was sure was going to come. It was just too familiar. He was a warlock, he was angry, and she was going to suffer.
    He let go of her so suddenly that she stumbled. She looked at him with wide eyes.
    “You think I'm going to hit you,” he said, his voice laced with shock. “You're afraid that I'm going to hurt you.”  
    Some part of her cried out that she didn't believe that at all, but the rest of her, the parts that had come through fire and terror to emerge as something strong and unbroken, refused to let her say that.
    “Why shouldn't I believe that?”
    The words dropped from her lips like chips of ice, and she saw Sebastian flinch as if they were body blows. The color drained from his face and he shook his head.
    “Nicolette, I would never. I would never, ever hurt you, I…”
    “Then let me go,” she challenged him. “Show me that you're better than Vacek and that you will let me go.”
    He stood as still as a statue. Nicolette slowly let out the breath that she hadn't been aware that she was holding. She took a step back, and then another one.
    “Nicolette…”  
    She waited, but there was nothing else. She turned and walked away.
    She could feel his eyes on her as she crossed the