The Brotherhood: Blood by Kody Boye Read Free Book Online

few steps, while the rest fell around Odin as if he were some holy figure being blessed in the light of God Himself.
    Shining in the clearing, as if he had just committed an act so saintly it deserved immediate recognition, Odin simply watched as, slowly, one of the two potato sacks fluttered to the ground and landed at his feet, the tail end burning and its companion all but ash in the wind.
    No, Ectris thought. It can’t—
    It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t. There was no way in Heaven, Hell, the earth or even the cosmos beyond their world that this could be happening to him—that this thing, regardless of its merit or severity, had happened to his son, the child whom he had raised himself. But how, he wondered, if such a thing had not happened, had the dummy exploded, then shot into the air before returning back to the earth?
    Horrified beyond belief and unable to believe his eyes, Ectris pulled his son back and away from the splintered, burning stalk of wood, which lay in the clearing before them in almost two completely different places.
    “Father,” Odin whispered. “I—”
    “Go to your room,” Ectris said, tightening his hands around the boy’s shoulders.
    “But—”
    “I said go, dammit! Go!
    Odin turned and disappeared into the house almost immediately, casting his sword to the ground in the process.
    Ectris closed his eyes, bowed his head, then began to tremble.
    After all these years—in which he had believed his son no different than the other boys and girls—his son had been blessed with the Gift.
    In the aftermath of the terrific explosion, Ectris turned his head up and looked at the remnants of the practice dummy before him.
    His heart began to pound in his chest.
    A brief thought occurred to him when he stepped forward and began to gather sand into his palms.
    How would he raise a child whom could destroy him at any moment?
    With no answers currently set before him, Ectris stepped forward and prepared to extinguish the fire burning in the clearing, all the while wondering just how he would continue throughout everyday life without ever knowing if he would be safe again.
    In but one brief moment, he came to a conclusion.
    His son, as Gifted as he seemed to be, could not use his magic. If he did, he might not only destroy his father, but himself as well.
     
     
     

 
     
    Chapter 1
     
    A god struck his anvil in the sky.
    The horses protested. Some bucked, knocking their masters off their saddles, while others whinnied and screamed. As if being lashed with burning whips and forced to do bidding they did not wish to do, they tossed their heads to and fro and bared their teeth to the world like monsters from an ethereal plane. Most of the men and boys, however, managed to coach their mounts down with kicks and a simple tug of their reins, but some struggled even more, raging and screaming as the storm overhead began to grow even more ferocious.
    Throughout all this activity, in which the world seemed to have been turned upside and they were meant to stand on their own two feet, one young man whispered to his mount in soft, almost inaudible words. He said to be calm and still—that regardless of the situation around them, there was no need to be afraid, for he would let nothing happen to her even if it appeared as though others were being mistreated.
    Be calm, this young man said. There is nothing wrong.
    When the horse finally calmed to the point where she remained placid and nondescript, the young man turned his eyes up and surveyed the caravan before him.
    A pair of red pupils dilated.
    Odin focused on the men and boys currently tending to their mounts before him.
    At his side, his father’s horse snorted and kicked up the mud, feigning disinterest despite the fact that all around them, his equine companions seemed not in the least bit cooperative with their situation or their masters.
    “Stay by me,” Ectris Karussa said, drawing close to Odin’s side while tugging at his horse’s