Awakened Read Free Page B

won’t have the pleasure of meeting Kale after all.
    ***
    The jet bearing Tamsin and Servitto sat on the small private runway. Two guards stood
     at the opening and greeted me with a nod as I climbed aboard. The recycled air smelled
     stale, and the heat that radiated at an abnormally high degree slapped me in the face.
    The jet seated seven passengers: two guards; three high Council members (including
     me): one for our tech, Zed; and one empty. The empty seat glared at me, baying loudly
     at my failure to protect Ella.
    I headed to my seat to await the instruction from Aleixandre through Servitto. Tamsin,
     dressed in her favorite emerald green and cream camo jumper set, sat with her legs
     crossed and hands folded elegantly over her legs on the cushioned chair. Her pale,
     ice blue eyes burned through me and traced a hot path over my skin. Tamsin had once
     been the princess to some royal throne, and she’d never lost the grace and demureness
     instilled in her. In battle, she was someone else completely—vicious and merciless,
     with her skills an added bonus, and her attitude a negative overlooked by most. Her
     smooth, freckled faced was spoiled with lines as she frowned at me, her disapproval
     palpable.
    As I sat in the chair facing her, her frown deepened. She tossed her silver-blond
     hair over her too-pale shoulder and looked to Servitto, as if she needed him to grant
     her permission to chew me out. Servitto, multi-tasking as usual, continued the one-sided
     conversation on his Bluetooth headset, while Zed, our tech boy-wonder, stared at the
     door as if Ella would climb aboard at any moment.
    Tamsin raised one eyebrow. “I saved that seat for her.” She pointed at my seat, her
     voice low and quiet as she crossed one slim leg over the other and leaned back in
     her chair.
    Zed finally moved his gaze from the door to look at me. “She really isn’t coming,
     is she?” He closed the laptop and placed it on the empty chair beside me. Distraught,
     the human member of the Council placed his hands over his face and leaned back, shaking
     his head in disbelief.
    “No, she’s not coming,” I answered, though I knew it was a rhetorical question. I
     needed to say the words aloud. I needed to admit that I had screwed up and that I
     had to pay for it, but I still didn’t want to be taken off of Ella’s case.
    Tamsin reached over and patted Zed on the knee, causing him to blush, and a wide grin
     spread across his face. Taught as a child that royalty was never to touch those below
     her, she didn’t offer her touch often. Zed was the only one she cared enough about
     to console, ever. I trusted her with my life in battle, but only in battle. That was
     as far as the trust extended.
    “There, there now,” she cooed at the teen, her voice soft and sweet while her gaze
     cut me. “Servi and Tam-Tam will fix Jace’s outrageous mistake.” Her saccharine-sweet
     voice echoed in the cabin, and I couldn’t help but sneer. Tamsin had been of no use
     to me in the initial search I’d headed for Ella. Servitto and I had done all of the
     work, and even Zed had surprised me with his computer skills. Tamsin had been too
     concerned with a certain position opening in the Council and had been all too ready
     to give up her position on the team to stay behind in Alaska, which made me wonder
     why she was here now.
    “I see you are still being sent to retrieve. Did the election not go your way?” I
     asked coolly and leaned back in my chair. I had no right to be so damn cocky, but
     of all the guardians in the Council, she was the last one that I would allow to berate
     me.
    She was there to gain back some title long lost to time, forgotten by everyone but
     her and a few of us within the Council. She removed her hand from Zed’s knee and placed
     it coyly into her own. Insults raced through her eyes, anger and the blame that she
     wanted to place on me. It was deserved, but I wouldn’t allow it, not from