The Ranger: Apollo's Story (Tales of Welkinia Book 2) by J.M. Ivie

Author:J.M. Ivie [Ivie, J.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J.M. Ivie
Published: 2019-04-11T22:00:00+00:00

The damp and cold halls were reminiscent of a nightmare. One which I had escaped long ago. A prison. It weighed on my chest like a depression. Sunken gray-colored stones were all I made out as I woke up. My head pounded, and my every limb was heavy. When I went to move, I realized I was chained securely to a chair. The old iron doors swung open and Jensen’s tall figure entered the room.

“Apollo, I didn’t expect you to return,” Jensen’s voice bled with sarcasm. He didn’t look at me as he took a seat and sharpened the corners of his knife. “Wish to enlighten me to what happened on the mission?”

“There was an accident during the mission…” I muttered. “Barak didn’t make it.”

Jensen raised his brow, finally looking at me. “Oh? Is there evidence of this attack?”

“I was injured. Stabbed several times in the chest, fractured bones, and some broken ones. I would have died if a few travelers hadn’t helped me back to health.”

He huffed out a breath as he scanned me up and down. “Very well. What happened with the Hound?” His voice sounded callused. As of he didn’t care and only wanted the assurance that he was gone.

“The… Anarchists outnumbered us. They had strange weapons… arrows tipped with the juice of an unripe Rebrum berry.”

“Which causes temporary paralysis,” Jensen breathed out. “What happened after that?”

“The mission… it hadn’t gone to plan. I was lucky…” I scowled. I needed to make this look believable. I thought of Zahra, her being taken from me. The pain inside. “Barak… wasn’t.”

Jensen slowly nodded, stood and finally looked at me. “Well, I believe you.” He smiled, walking closer. “But, you have broken one of our laws. Albeit, nearly the only law.”

My eyes snapped up to look at him; my gut wrenched inside me.

“You married a person of interest from your previous mission. Despite wanting to kill you now—” Jensen looked me up and down once again, “you’re a valuable tool.” He held up a folded piece of paper, smiling at me…

That paper.

The forged letter.

“And this was very, very clever. You had me fooled for a very long time. Well, until—”

Heels clicked down the hall. Familiar heels. Madame Beth walked into the room, her eyes pinning me to where I stood.

“Until Beth here cleared things up. I had such a lovely time with her. I learned you proposed marriage to the Countess and Azu said no… you really have a knack for working around the barriers.”

Madame Beth rested one hand on Jensen’s shoulder, grinning at me. She won. Despite it all… she won. I tried to breathe. It was impossible. My lungs pinched and my ears roared as I tried to focus.

“Your punishment will be twenty lashes and a trip to the cistern. Hopefully after a few rounds you will be compliant once more. I don’t doubt a week with the water will do.”

My muscles tensed. Not the cistern… anything but that.

___

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.