The Glass Gargoyle (The Lost Ancients Book 1) by Marie Andreas Read Free Book Online Page B

the harpy half-breed and smelled twice as bad.
    “I wasn’t drinking. Some jackass darted me.” I moved my left leg, then emboldened, tried to sit up. It took three tries.
    Glorious laughter trickled out of the prostitute goras’ mouths, but then cut off as they both turned toward the bars.
    The guard who’d first spoken to me in Alric’s place marched forward, then stood at attention as a commander came forth. Thank the goddess, now I could get this mess cleared up and get the hell out of here. This was officially going down as the worst thirty-six hours in my life.
    “Now see here, I don’t know who in the hell told you I was Alric, but there’s a bit of a gender difference.”
    The commander lowered his bushy white brows at me in a look of confusion, or at least as much as he would ever allow to show.
    “Are you one Taryn St. Giles?”
    “Yes, but—”
    He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Then you are in the correct place. You have been brought in for murder. Your trial will be in four weeks.” He glanced around the crowded cell with an evil smirk. “Enjoy your stay.”
    He was turning to leave as his words finally processed in my drug-and-beating-abused brain. “Wait? Murder? Of who?” Unless they had found a way to bring you in for thinking of killing someone, I was safe.
    His turn and pause made it look like I was asking the world of him. “As if you didn’t know. You are being charged with the murder of your landlady, Nirtha, in her own apartment.”
    Nirtha was dead? That wretched excuse for a sentient being was now toes up in the city morgue? I couldn’t help the smile that crept across my lips, nor did I try to fight it too much. But how in the hell could someone blame me for it? The last time I saw her she was fine. The last
    time I fought with her that was.
    I smacked myself in the head. At least my hands now worked. Someone had heard us fighting, bumped the vile thing off, then set me up for the fall. But who would want me out of the way?
    Alric.
    He had wanted me out of the way since the beginning, even said so during his evil lock-me-in-the-room routine. He hadn’t lied about it. He’d found someone to let me out.
    I finished the swearing tirade I’d started back in his room. Damn it. He’d killed Nirtha just to get me out of whatever he was doing. I had almost convinced myself that I could leave him alone. But not now. Actually, I’d had no intention of leaving him alone if I was completely honest with myself. I just hadn’t planned on killing him before now.
    “Who said I did it?” Might as well find out how far this went.
    “She did.” The confusion in my head must have dribbled out to my face because he took a deep breath and clarified. “Nirtha did right before she died. She said ‘it’s all the bitch Taryn’…then she croaked.”
    He didn’t even wait for me to recover before he turned and strode away, his flunky following him.
    “Holy shit, girl, you killed a landlady? Bit tough to pay the rent?” Although with the gora’s accent it came out like ‘sheet’. But the meaning was the same.
    “No, I didn’t. It’s no huge loss, but I certainly wouldn’t waste any weapons on that worthless fuzz ball.”
    The gora shrugged and turned back to her companion. Obviously if I had no good tales to tell I wasn’t worth their effort.
    Crap. No one would know where I was. Covey would go to my place eventually. Once she got done solving her mystery. That wasn’t a cheery thought. There had been times where she didn’t come out of her office for days.
    The faeries wouldn’t notice until they ran out of food, which since I’d just stocked their castle wouldn’t be for weeks.
    My only hope was Harlan. If he popped in to see me when he dropped the faeries off he might pick up on the murder and who they had charged.
    The prison flunky showed up again after I’d been chasing the same thoughts around for a good hour.
    “You have a visitor.” While his words were