First Knight (Knights of Caerleon Book 1) by Ines Johnson

Author:Ines Johnson [Johnson, Ines]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-13T16:00:00+00:00

17

Fire burned in Arthur’s gut, blazing bright and hot as it cauterized his wound. The blue flames scorched the four chambers, incinerating his sense of self-preservation. He reached for it. He needed the heat, wanted to taste the warmth. The sizzle and singe of it made his mouth water, his blood boil. Though the flames surrounded him, the source of the warmth was beyond his reach.

Arthur jerked awake on a strangled moan that died in his dry throat. All was dark and it took his eyes longer than normal to adjust. He knew he wasn’t alone. His gaze raked the room, searching for the cold heat from his dreams.

And there it was. Just there, in the corner where a sliver of light stole through. Cloaked in darkness, she rose and came near to him.

As she moved, the sliver of light began to separate her form from the darkness. Arthur’s breaths caught pace with the pounding of his heart. He was certain the organ would burst out of its ribbed cage. He wanted more than anything to sit up in bed, but his strength failed him.

“Don’t move,” she said. “You’re still not back to yourself.”

Arthur shrank from the voice. It sounded wrong. The tone was too high. The pitch more breezy than smoky.

He collapsed back down upon the mattress only to fall into further discomfort. The pallet caught his body in a puff of softness. Where the hell was he? This was not his firm bed.

But he didn’t bolt up, not when Morgan leaned over him. Instead, he recoiled. She didn’t feel right. She didn’t smell right. And the hair was wrong. A forest of brown surrounded eyes the color of treetops, not a dark curtain of night made for seduction under a deep blue you could only find in the corners of space.

“Please, my lord, I beg you to stay in bed.”

Please? Beg? Morgan would never use such supplicating, solicitous, imploring words. She would give direction after outlining a well-researched procedure.

It wasn’t Morgan. It was Constance Bors. Lady Constance brought a cool cloth to Arthur’s forehead, and he felt instantly chilled.

It took him a few tries to get the words out, and when he did, he sounded like a frog. “Where is she?”

Constance’s smile was sad. “Morgan? You want to know where Morgan is?”

Arthur felt only a second’s worth of shame. He’d never had to deal with rejecting the women he dallied with. They were all human. He’d never went in carnal pursuit of a witch. He owed Constance his compassion.

“My lady, I’m—”

“You don’t have to explain.” She wrung the rag out and placed it again on his forehead. “I always suspected there was something between you two. No one could bicker that much with no shared feelings.”

Arthur frowned. There had never been anything between him and Morgan before. Not on his part.

Had there?

None of that mattered right now. Only one thing did. “Where is she?” he said again.

“Morgan was out in the hall waiting with the rest of the community last I saw her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.