Tested by the Night by Maxine Mansfield Read Free Book Online Page A

of unspeakable horror, a place filled with evil. It was in Vile where the creatures who had escaped from the Valley of Torment took up residence. It was a place so cold the scorching heat of VoT couldn’t begin to penetrate its barriers. It was a place rumored to be filled with ice dragons and creatures with many heads. And it was a place where it was said the soul could become so alone, so lost, that without a strong reason to hold onto and pull it back from the brink of despair, the soul might never again find its way home. It was a place Talon never wished to visit.
    A cold wind suddenly blew, and chills skittered down his spine like an ominous warning. Something was coming. He could feel it and had for a while now. Something…
    He’d thought it was the situation at Castle Kuropkat with Kitrina and Zander, but that was completely resolved now. Marquart, the troll was dead, the threat was past, and everyone, even the dragons, had moved on. Still, the unmistakable sensation that his life was about to change forever, and possibly not in ways that could all be described as for the good, filled him.
    He didn’t want a change. He liked his life the way it had been. He liked having no real responsibilities other than watching Zander’s back and teaching a class when the mood struck him. But now, it was Mia whose back he’d promised to watch. Mia he’d promised to deceive if need be. The same Mia who’d yelled at him with fire in her eyes and threw objects and didn’t back down even for a minute.
    God Draka, she’d been magnificent, glorious even, and if he wasn’t careful, he could easily lose his heart to the likes of a woman like her. And that was a chance he couldn’t afford to take.
    What had he been thinking when he’d agreed to be joined to her hip for the duration of an entire semester? He wouldn’t be able to get out of her sight long enough to take a piss in peace, let alone begin to build up a guard against the feel of her in his arms, the smell of her, the taste.
    His mouth watered.
    Shaking off his unwanted thoughts, Talon headed back inside the castle and toward the chamber allotted to him. He was tired and needed sleep. After all, he’d spent a good part of the night before pleasuring the princess and most of the day going over strategy with her father.
    His body ached and his mind was weary. But still, his cock hardened and his balls ached at the memory of Mia’s soft sighs and her sensual parted thighs. He did an about face and headed toward her chamber instead of his own. He’d start protecting his heart tomorrow, really he would. And tomorrow he’d decide how best to go about stopping the pretty little princess from getting herself killed, and he’d do it without her knowledge.
    But as far as tonight was concerned, Mia Hammerstrike was probably in a much better mood than she had been earlier, and she was only a couple of floors down and all alone.
    Talon decided, fuck sleep. Sleep was for pussies. There’d be plenty of time for sleep when he was dead.

Chapter Four
    What the VoT was wrong with the wretched man this morning? Mia glanced at Talon for at least the tenth time since the servants had begun loading her trunks upon the royal carriage, and he still hadn’t looked in her direction even once.
    What possible reason did he have for not being happy to see her this morning? If anyone had reason to be irritated, it was her. She hadn’t bothered him, she hadn’t argued with him, she hadn’t asked anything of him. As a matter of fact, she’d spent the entire night in her mother’s chamber to make sure she wouldn’t disturb the blasted man. The last thing she’d wanted was to start their forced time together at odds, and he was ruining it. God Draka, how she despised him.
    He was full of smiles for her parents, though. It was sickening even, how he bowed over her mother’s hand and made a production of leaning in close so as not to miss a single word his queen said. And his laughter, it