The Bonds of Blood by Travis Simmons Read Free Book Online

lost her
breath.”
    “That would explain why she fainted,”
Joya said, relieved. “Jovian, you are doing it wrong.” Joya pushed
him out of the way and slapped her sister with a loud crack across
the cheek.
    As if her lungs were on fire, Amber
gasped, and her vision slowly came spiraling back to her. She was
laying on the floor, her sisters and brother standing over her with
apprehensive stares. “Why are we in Dad’s room? And what are you
all doing around me?” Amber asked, curious as to what all the
excitement was about, and why she seemed to be the center of
it.
    “You don’t remember?” Angelica asked,
helping Amber to stand.
    “Remember what?”
    “Maybe you should lay down,” Joya
soothed, taking her other arm and leading Amber to her
bedroom.
    “But I feel fine!” Amber protested.
“Jovian, what the Otherworld is going on?”
    He shrugged and helped Joya shuffle
Amber into her room as Angelica went in and straightened out the
bedding. “I don’t know, Amber. I was in my room when I heard
something shatter; when I came out I saw you teetering in father’s
doorway, and then you just fainted.”
    Amber looked at him as if he were
making the story up on the spot, but she didn’t protest as Joya
pushed her back onto the bed, and Angelica drew the
curtains.
    “Maybe I do need some rest,” she
conceded, closing her eyes and folding her hands over her stomach.
It felt so good to just relax, her head cradled in the feathered
pillows, surrounded by soft blankets and family, even if they were
fretting over her. She began drifting off when she heard the three
of them prepare to leave. Their movements brought her back to
herself. “You three,” she said in her most stern tone of voice,
“none of this leaves this room, or rather that hall, understand? No
one is to know, and this will not upset tonight’s happenings in
anyway, am I clear?” She sounded so much like Grace at that moment
that none of them could do anything but nod in
agreement.
    “Yes,” they all complied.
    “Good. Wake me when the guests start to
arrive, if I am not awake by then,” and that was the last that was
said between them before sleep claimed Amber.

CHAPTER FIVE

    “W hat are you doing?” Joya asked Angelica and Jovian when they left
Amber’s room.
    “Well, I found something rather
interesting in my book that I wanted to look over,” Angelica
explained, and Jovian perked up at her words. The truth was that
Jovian didn’t have anything planned; he hadn’t received a book, so
he had nothing to occupy him—that wouldn’t make him dirty—in the
hours before the party.
    “I think I will join you,” he said, and
Joya nodded.
    “Let me get my book, and I will join
you as well,” Joya said, heading to her room.
    “Which one?” Jovian asked.
    “The herbal one; the book Grace gave me
I am sure is a math book, plus I can’t read it anyway.”
    Jovian shrugged. “Bring it anyway; at
least it will give me something to flip through.” Joya went off to
her room as Jovian followed Angelica into her brightly lit one.
Only a moment passed before Joya joined them, shoving the red
leather book into Jovian’s hands.
    “Knock yourself out,” she offered,
sitting in a high backed chair close to the bed making the effort
look rather simple in her impossible skirts.
    Jovian sat in a chair at the foot of
the bed and opened the book, peering at the curious letters that
seemed to scratch their way across the page. He smiled at the
geometric figures, and the numbers corresponding to them. “It looks
like math all right,” he laughed.
    Angelica scoffed, “I am sure even Grace
would not give you a math book for your birthday, and even if she
did, why didn’t she give one to the two of us also?” Angelica
reasoned. “Besides, some ancient religions have been known for
their religious markings and sacred geometry; it is not unusual for
there to be books written on it,” she pointed out, and Joya
brightened at that possibility.