Knight Awakened (Circle of Seven #1) by Callahan Coreene

Author:Callahan, Coreene [Callahan, Coreene]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Published: 2012-12-04T06:00:00+00:00

Beauty took so many forms. But it was best, the most potent, with death as a companion. A brother-in-arms so to speak. A dark angel casting shadow on the ground and up into the heavens.

The Carpathian Mountains were like that; splendid yet cruel to the point of evisceration.

Shay felt the twist in his gut even now. The mental disembowelment came with a view. Stretched out for miles in front of him, the peaks and valleys connected ridges and lakes and plateaus alike. The beast of it waited in those hollows, sure with jagged teeth, deep crevices, and slippery slopes. Were he lucky, he might lose his footing and fall into one like Curio had almost done.

His warhorse snorted. The weak sound made Shay squeeze his eyes shut. He couldn’t wait much longer. It was selfish to do so, but—

Shit. He couldn’t bear to kill his horse. Curio was his only friend.

His eyes burned as he swept the landscape, trying to find the courage. Drachaven lay to the east, nestled amid sheer cliffs and solid rock. Ram had chosen his roost well. From what he’d heard from the villagers below, the fortress was carved into the mountainside, right into the belly of the beast. Probably had the temperament and teeth to match.

Shay didn’t care. Death was inevitable. A sure bet that made him twitch with impatience.

It wouldn’t be long now. A week, no more, and he would be crouched in Drachaven’s shadow. Camped like a wraith on Ram’s doorstep.

Rock clicked against stone, scrambling one ahead of the other in a quick tumble down the path he’d just climbed. He glanced over his shoulder. His stomach clenched, fisting up tight. Curio was trying to get up.

With a silent curse, he jumped from his perch onto the path below. The warhorse kicked out with his broken fetlock, rocking his powerful body to shift from his supine position. Curio screamed but tried again. The sound of agony ripped Shay in two. He shouldn’t have waited. It was the height of cruelty to leave a friend to suffer and one the code did not allow.

Screw the code. This was his friend and comrade. And selfish or nay, he’d needed some time to say good-bye, to send his trusted companion off into the ether with more than a slice to the neck.

Rock scale crunched beneath his knees, biting through his leathers as he knelt beside Curio. He put his hand on his shoulder, on the soft pelt he would never touch again. “Stay down, boy. Stay down.”

Shay stroked him gently, murmuring reassurances. Like a good soldier, the warhorse laid his head back down, trusting him to do the right thing. But he never had. Didn’t have the first clue about right and wrong. Or which was which. Halál was responsible for that along with Al Pacii.

The anger inside him burned a hole in his heart. How different his life could have been if only—

Curio shifted, and the bone shard protruding from his slim leg trembled. High-pitched but soft, he whinnied while the wind whispered against the back of Shay’s neck.

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