Tempest’s Legacy by Nicole Peeler Read Free Book Online Page B

so because he’d never really known her at all, and, to top it off, his daughter had been living a secret life for the past year and a half as well.
    It ended up being a pretty textbook definition of betrayal, no matter how it was approached. Not leastbecause there was no doubt in my mind that I was the reason my mother was dead.
    On the long swim back to Rockabill from Eastport, I’d finally consciously made the connection I’d been pushing to the back of my brain. I’d known, the second Anyan had said my mother was killed in a laboratory, who was responsible. It had to be Jarl. And I knew damned well that he’d murdered my mother to get back at me.
    Anger welled up inside me as I touched lightly upon the subject I planned on addressing
after
I apologized. It was time for me to get my own back. Not to mention I had to keep what little family I had left safe from Jarl. If that meant I had to stop being Jane True, sidekick, and become Jane True, superhero, so be it. I hadn’t worked this hard just to lie down and take another beating.
    But first I had to make things right. Finally gathering my courage, I knocked, stiffening my spine as I heard footsteps. I was here to apologize, but after the way I’d behaved the night before I wouldn’t be surprised if Anyan slammed the door in my face before I had the chance.
    To my surprise, however, it was Julian who opened the door.
    My fellow halfling blinked his sea-green eyes at me from behind his glasses as his slender face broke into a huge grin.
    “Jane!” he practically shouted, throwing open his arms.
    I launched myself forward gladly. I’d really liked all of Ryu’s Boston deputies, but Julian was my absolute favorite.
    “What are you
doing
here!” I laughed as Julian set me back down on my feet.
    “I’m here with—” Julian began, right before he was muscled aside.
    “Ryu,” Julian finished, as I came face-to-face with my former lover.
    We blinked at each other until he reached a hand toward me that I stepped back to avoid.
    “Where’s Anyan?” I blurted out. I could not deal with the sith right now, not after the night I’d had.
    Ryu’s face hardened. He didn’t answer me.
    “Where is Anyan?” I repeated, gritting my teeth.
    “Why?”
    “I have to talk to him.”
    “Jane, please,” Ryu replied. “We need to talk.”
    “No,” was my response. “We really don’t. Where’s Anyan?”
    Ryu watched me, his eyes hooded. Finally he jerked his head back.
    “He’s in his workshop. Go talk to him then come back. We’re not finished.”
    I wanted to tell him that we were most certainly finished, in all the ways that mattered, but I knew he wouldn’t let me leave if I did.
And you’ve got bigger fish to fry
, I reminded myself, striding around to the back of Anyan’s wraparound porch, smiling at the mental image of a fuzzy-haired, glowering, iron-eyed fish that consequently popped into my brain.
    I knew Anyan had a workshop behind the cabin, but it had always been padlocked. Or I would have snooped like nobody’s business. I loved the barghest’s art and had always wanted to see his creative space—which was why I’d once brought out my step stool to peer in all the windows. There were curtains involved, unfortunately.
    This time, however, there was no padlock on the door and the workshop stood open. I tiptoed toward the entrance, once again extremely nervous. Peering in, my eyes swept the room until they landed on the big form of the man I’d come to see.
    Anyan sat on a bale of hay, his powerful legs drawn up. Between his knees he cradled a wooden statue. It was a sinuous representation, the curves of which settled into a stylized female form. He was sanding those curves gently, bringing out the hue and grain of the wood he polished.
    I watched him, gathering my nerve. He looked weary, sad, distracted. His big hands moved gently over the figurine, and my tired body rallied itself for an almost painful shudder of lust. I tamped it down,