Courting Darkness Read Free Page A

in danger so I can’t keep you safe.”
    Tate’s hands left her ankle to grasp one of hers—pleadingly. Were someone to see them across the street, one might think he was proposing to her. His grip was strong, surprisingly gentle. It seemed crazy, but she’d swear she felt his energy coursing through her veins as he looked up at her, imploring, “Olivia, you have to let him go. If you don’t, I can’t protect you and you will surely die.”
    “This is crazy. How can you expect me to stop loving someone I can’t even remember? And what exactly does that mean? Violating Universal Law?” Her mind was reeling, trying to absorb the information he’d just dumped on her. She was still stuck back in the conversation where her guardian was in love with her. And she loved him, too? Really? Was that why her heart ached so? Why she felt like a part of her was missing?
    “Universal Law demands that at all costs, a human’s free will must be honored—even unto death. You don’t have amnesia, Olivia. Liam stole your memory—”
    “There you are, dear,” an aged voice called from the stairs.
    She swung her head to look over her shoulder. A security officer was escorting the hobbling old woman toward Olivia. The warm hands that held hers disappeared, and when she glanced back, Tate was gone.
     

Chapter Two
     
    “‘Tis for your own good they keep you here, Liam.”
    Liam turned his head, casting a seething glare at his old friend. He then returned to the monotony of watching the Monarch batter its wings against the window pane, trying to escape the glass barrier to the promised paradise on the other side.
    “Does it appease your conscience to say these things, or do you really believe the line of bullshit you’re trying to feed me?”
    He lay upon the cot, elbows bent, fingers locked to support his head. Legs crossed at his booted heels, Liam resumed the immobile position he’d taken two days ago when the High Court imprisoned him for violation of Universal Law. He stood accused of far more than that. If they expected him to repent, they’d be waiting until hell froze over. He couldn’t lie. Even if he could, he would not disgrace Olivia by discussing the intimate details of their relationship.
    Now, he and the court were at a stalemate. He awaited sentencing with nothing but time to ponder the decisions he’d made, actions he’d taken, and compromises he’d indulged in that led him to this point. How ironic that he’d existed before the creation of the earth, and yet every mistake he’d ever made could be condensed into the last three years of his life.
    His first had been falling in love with a mortal. Love…an emotion he proved no more able to govern than the humans. How arrogant he’d been to believe he could control his feelings. Yet, he knew love was so much more than an emotion. It was energy, as alive as the Creator Himself, for it was from Him that all power flowed.
    His second mistake had been giving Olivia Immanuel’s Stone for her eighteenth birthday. What had been a heavenly gift marking her as protected, had turned out to be a source of power sought by an evil Nephilim who should have died back in the Great Flood.
    His third mistake was showing up in Olivia’s dressing room three years after letting her go, minutes before she was to walk down the aisle and give herself to another man. Tossing her over his shoulder, he’d stolen her away. And from that point on, he’d pretty much stopped counting his mistakes.
    As undeserving as that bastard was, Liam knew in his heart that had Mitch been a better man, the outcome would have been no different. Ultimately, Liam hadn’t been able to let her go, and God knows he’d tried. Three years he’d spent in bondage, a slave to his heartache, and now he was in another prison—this one of his own making, as well.
    “They do this because they care, Liam. They know as well as I do that if they let you out, you’re going to fall for her. They want to