Winded by Sherri L. King Read Free Book Online Page A

roiling emotions.
    “Not while the sun is up.” His voice was a deep rumble,
music to her ears after the cacophony of the night.
    “But won’t the clouds give them cover?” She looked at him
pointedly. “You seem just fine out here.”
    “They cannot abide any amount of sunlight. The clouds
protect me, not them.”
    The air screamed around them as if in agreement. “What about
when night falls?”
    “If the island remains, they will come,” he said simply.
    “So the wards are broken.”
    “Not all.” He looked at her. “Breaking through this,” he
patted the rich earth beneath the great stone that sheltered them, “was the
first spell undone. I believe the destruction of your house was the second.”
    Vetiver didn’t want to ask, but needed to anyway. “What is
the third?”
    “You.” His eyes glowed in the darkened shadows of the
tempest. “The magic in your blood.”
    “So I’ll just leave.”
    “And in doing so, you will completely unbind the island. The
Daemons have your scent, they will hunger for your strength. They will never
stop hunting you, Vetiver.” His amber eyes regarded her solemnly. “They will
flow out through the portal like an unbreakable tide.”
    “Then I’ll kill ’em,” she said, raising her head proudly.
“You saw what I did to them. What I can do.”
    “And look at what it cost you. You’ve been asleep for hours.
I couldn’t wake you. Neither could your Familiar. You were exhausted, and those
were but a few Daemons you faced. Their true numbers are unimaginable. From all
you’ve said, from what I’ve seen, they have been waiting for generations to
consume a Device witch and all the power she offers. You have proven a feast
worth fighting for. They will not waste this opportunity to pluck you ripe from
the tree.”
    “I’ll kill every last one of them before I let them overrun
my land,” she swore. “Ball will help me. You have no idea how strong we can
be.”
    “You won’t have to be strong. The island will sink and the
portal between worlds will be closed.” Boreas’ preternatural gaze darted out
toward the darkest clouds in the sky then back to her. “My storm will drown it
out.”
    “No, Boreas.” Vetiver shook her head, pursing her lips
against a sharp pang of desperation. “Please. It doesn’t have to be like that.”
    He caught her chin in his hand. “How beautifully you plead.
And how dearly I would love to give you all you wished.” In his eyes there
lurked an apology, but stronger than that was his will to follow through with
what he had started. With what she had started when she’d called him
forth. “But in this I cannot compromise. Now the doorway is opened. Daemons
will come. You know the people of this island. What would they do if they were
exposed to such danger? If they learned that every dark fairy tale was real?
That monsters like Daemons roam the darkness? Normal human beings cannot fathom
such mysteries without being driven to acts of madness, you understand this.”
    Vetiver swallowed. Damn him, he was right. Most people
couldn’t handle living next door to a girl with strange eyes, morbid clothes
and body jewelry. No one she knew would understand or accept the very real
conditions of living amongst supernatural monstrosities that dined on flesh and
supped on blood whenever the sun set below the shoreline.
    There would be chaos in the streets.
    The Unnamed were evil. But human beings were violent. Often
times they could be cruel. Combine all three ingredients and the recipe spelled
apocalypse with a capital please . Life wouldn’t be worth living in a
world like that.
    “What should I do?” she asked, pleading. “This life is all
I’ve ever known. What can I possibly do now?”
    “Accept fate. And move on with me.” He reached for one of
her hands and threaded their fingers together.
    Vetiver caught her breath. His skin was warm. His grip
strong. And he was lovely.
    “You called. I came.” He smiled, as if it were all