The Cursed (League of the Black Swan) by Alyssa Day Read Free Book Online Page A

then put the glass down on the floor next to him. She could almost see the color returning to his face and awareness to his eyes.
    “That’s better,” he said. “I think I’m okay now. Let’s get you something for your ankle.”
    She laughed a little bit and shook her head.
    “Come on,” he said, a half grin quirking up one side of his sensual mouth. “You’ve pretty much seen me at my worst. Fair’s fair.”
    “I was feeling a little like Alice after she fell down that rabbit hole,” she admitted. “And then you downed the Drink Me potion . . .”
    She laughed again. She was sitting on the floor, watching an injured wizard drink a magical potion, but for the first time since she’d witnessed the kidnapping, she no longer felt afraid. Something loosened in her chest at the realization, and she caught her breath at the warmth in his eyes. This man—this gorgeous, seductively handsome man—could be a real danger to her self-control.
    “How about we get some rest and find the White Rabbit tomorrow morning?” He stood up in one smooth motion, pulling her up with him. “I really do have something that can help your ankle, too.”
    “I—I don’t want to take any magic potions,” she said quickly. “I don’t mean to offend you, but—”
    “Advil,” he said dryly.
    She nodded and let him help her to one of the tall, leather-padded, wooden-backed stools on the living space side of the kitchen counter. Her ankle was throbbing miserably, and now that she was standing up, she realized that she was exhausted to the point of nausea.
    “This wasn’t how I expected today to go when I woke up this morning,” she offered, by way of apology for jumping to conclusions.
    “Days never go how I expect them to go, so I quit having any expectations at all,” he said, taking a green-and-white pill bottle out of a cupboard and then reaching into the gleaming stainless steel refrigerator for a bottle of water. “Smarter that way. Less prone to disappointment.”
    Rio knew more about disappointment than most, but she said nothing. Her life wasn’t an anecdote to be traded in casual chatter. She downed the pills and drank the water while he retrieved his glass from the floor near the doorway and closed the door.
    Luke put his cup in the sink and looked at her. “Now let’s find . . . Wait.
Child
. You said child. I’m an idiot.”
    “What?”
    “Child. You saw a child being kidnapped. Just today a client hired me to find her missing niece. I’m only now putting it together.” He clenched his hands into fists. “Damn that venom. Rio, what did that girl look like?”
    A deep gong, like that of a very old church bell, sounded before Rio could reply, and she shivered. This gong carried tones of menace rather than reassurance; foreboding wrapped up in a musical tone.
    “Luke? What—”
    “It’s the doorbell. Sort of.” He shoved a hand through his hair and sighed. “And it’s not one I can ignore.”
    He waved a hand and muttered a few words under his breath that Rio didn’t catch, and an unobtrusive door past the edge of the kitchen area glowed silver around the edges of its frame. The door slammed open, and the most beautiful woman Rio had ever seen glided into the room, moving so smoothly that it seemed as if her feet never touched the ground.
    “Hello, Merelith,” Luke said wearily. “I told you I’d call you when I had news.”
    Merelith, who was clearly Fae, glared at Luke, and Rio wondered how he had the strength to keep from falling on the floor under the power of the woman’s gaze. Icy silver hair trailed down from Merelith’s perfect head to the top of her rounded, feminine hips. She had deep red lips and eyes that glittered with an opalescent green fire. She should have been wearing a fairy gown, not simple black pants and a white shirt, Rio thought numbly.
    Merelith had to be High Court Fae, maybe even on the royal council, and suddenly Rio wanted nothing more than to crawl under the