Anna (Book 2, The Redemption Series) Read Free

person standing in front of me isn't the same young woman who ha s served as one of my ladies in waiting for the past five years.
    “ What are you?” I ask, knowing Eliza's soul isn't present anymore. “Are you like Levi?”
    “ No,” Levi answers for her. “This is a changeling. And I've given her orders to snap your precious little Lucas' neck if you try to come back here and rescue him.”
    I d on't feel surprised by this. In fact, I expected Levi to place someone near the people I care about to hold their safety over my head. It was his modus operandi, and I was becoming used to it by now.
    I look back at Levi.
    “Take me to Malcolm,” I say more stridently.
    Levi rolls his eyes at me. “Oh, very well. As you wish, my little dove.”
    He grabs me roughly by the arm and phases me into the small confines of a prison cell.
    The white walls of the cell are all too familiar to me. I can remember staring at them for hours on end when I was accused of being a traitor to the crown, a crime my father confessed to in order to spare my life. But, these four walls aren't completely white anymore. Patterns of splattered blood cover them in an abstract fashion. To anyone who might not know better, it would almost look like some sort of perverse form of art. Unfortunately, I wasn't naive to the evils of the world. I knew exactly who the blood had come from.
    Malcolm hangs suspended in mid-air in the center of the room by an invisible force field, just as I was earlier. His eyes are closed, and his head hangs so low his chin is resting against his bare chest, but I can see his face clearly enough. His silky black hair is a ragged mess of uneven lengths thanks to Levi's rather childishly given haircut. I stare at Malcolm looking for any evidence of where all the blood on the walls could have come from. I can't see any signs of torture on the front of him, and I know that can only mean one thing.
    I walk around Malcolm , steeling myself for what I might find, but nothing could have prepared me for what I see.
    Levi used his lightning whip like a master flogger, punishing Malcolm for some phantom crime. Yet, the only crime Malcolm committed was kissing me, loving me, giving himself entirely to me.
    I refuse to give into the tears that threaten to reveal the pain I feel as I look at Malcolm. I know Levi is watching me closely, and I won't give him an inch of satisfaction by showing my grief openly. I feel sure he would gain pleasure in my torment and such an emotion is something I will never willing give him. As I study what his lightning whip has done to Malcolm's back, I know for a fact Malcolm can't die, or at least not by Levi's hands.
    His skin ha s been flayed completely away only leaving the remnants of shredded muscles hanging loosely from the completely exposed bones of his spine, ribs and shoulder blades. I literally stand and watch as Malcolm's lungs take in ragged breaths. The small flame of hatred that first ignited the moment Levi phased into Malcolm's workshop now grows to monstrous proportions. It explodes inside my chest like a bomb, all but consuming me.
    I phase over to Levi, my hands burst into blue flames without me even having to think about it. I grab him by the front of the neck with one hand, slinging his body up against the blood stained wall at his back. The look of fear which enters his eyes isn’t enough to soothe my rage. The only thing that will satisfy my anger is his death.
    “ I’m going to kill you for what you did to him!”
    “ You wouldn’t dare,” Levi manages to strangle out. “If you kill me, you kill Lucas and your father. Can you really live with both of their deaths on your conscience? Do you think Malcolm will still love you after you kill his son?”
    “ I’m going to kill you,” I tell him, shoving my face into his to make sure he hears my words clearly. “Then I’m going to end the life of that changeling who killed Eliza before she even has a chance to look in Lucas’s