Traitor to the Blood: A Novel of The Noble Dead by Barb Hendee & J.C. Hendee

Author:Barb Hendee & J.C. Hendee [Hendee, Barb]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2009-04-03T22:00:00+00:00

Late into the night, Leesil was still awake. Magiere curled against him, breathing softly, lost in deep sleep. He watched her pale face on the pillow. He wished he could join her in the oblivion of sleep, but he couldn’t.

Nightmares wouldn’t let him.

The name of Hedí Progae opened dark cell doors in his mind that he’d long been able to keep locked. He couldn’t close them again.

Leesil tried to focus on the memory of Magiere’s mouth, her body, both soft and hard, and her hands all over him. But whenever his eyelids drifted shut from fatigue, he saw the back of Baron Progae’s bleeding neck.

Progae’s hazel eyes opened where he lay dead as Leesil pulled the bedcovers back into place. Those eyes rolled to glare at Leesil, and his pale lips parted, speaking with Gavril’s voice.

“Think only of your mother, father . . . of yourself . . . this is how you survive.”

Leesil’s eyes snapped open.

He’d slipped into sleep for an instant, but he couldn’t face it again. Not without smothering away the nightmares, drowning them as dead as his victims. He’d sworn to Magiere never to do that again, but the moment stretched as he watched her beside him. When his eyes drifted closed again, he snapped them open.

He couldn’t stand the faces in his sleep anymore.

Leesil slipped from under the blanket. Magiere rolled, and he froze until she grew still once again. He pulled the blanket and sheepskin cover back in place over her bare body, and walked softly to the door. He stopped for a moment, looking back at Magiere’s sleeping form, then stepped into the hallway and gently shut the door.

The inn was silent. The stairs were empty, even of cats. He crept downstairs, and two steps creaked lightly under his feet. All was quiet in the common room, and he stepped around behind the bar and found the cask of red wine Byrd stored there.

Leesil opened the cask and picked up a tin cup from under the bar. When he poured out half a cup, he stared into the red liquid. His hand shook slightly, and he gripped the cup with both hands.

He could put it down, go back upstairs to Magiere.

He knew this, even as he drew the wine to his lips and swallowed.

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