Lies in Blood Read Free

dead. They didn’t really need a queen to guide them out all this time. They needed a king, but not any king. They needed, we all needed, David.
    He looked my way for a second, a glance that made me curious about which thoughts he could access in my head. So far, according to him, it was only projected thoughts he could hear, but with that look he just gave me, it seemed as if maybe he was hearing more than he let on.
    I smiled to myself, coming up with a clever way to test it, then looked over at Jason and focused only on him.
    Jase?
    He slowly set his eyes on me, his head staying forward.
    I'm going to think something for the purpose of a test. They’re not my real thoughts, okay? I said.
    He turned in his seat, intrigue lighting up his eyes and the sudden smile that slipped across his lips.
    I tried not to smile back, making my jaw tight as I leaned on my hand and, without sending the thought to anyone at all, told myself how lovely Jason looked in that white shirt, with his hair smoothly brushed back, one thick lock falling against his brow, his bright green eyes casting beams of excitement across my heart every time they met mine. But David didn't even flinch. Nothing. There was no way he could hold the anger in if he heard that kind of thought.
    It was confirmed. He couldn’t hear me unless I projected a thought.
    Okay, test done. I smiled at Jase.
    He bowed his head, touching his heart.
     
     
    The midday sun sat over the manor, offering more shadows in the corridors than light. I pushed the library door open and my eyes went straight up to the top of the bookshelves wrapping the windows on either side of the fireplace. They were normally decked out, packed tightly with brown spines and a party of dust motes dancing in the sunlight. But, today, the shelves were mostly empty, the books piled up on tables and chairs, making small cities over the wood floors throughout both levels of the room.
    The new librarian looked up from her pile and bowed her head once before going back to her all-important task of cataloguing and labelling. She hadn’t been made immortal yet, and the sound of her very human heart caught me off guard a little, a part of me wondering then if she was safe in here without a knight on watch. Then again, she was still alive, wasn’t she? No one had eaten her yet. So, I shrugged it off and grabbed the gold railing, my hand sliding over it on the way up the stairs to the second floor. As I reached the top, though, a cold palm cupped my mouth, gagging my scream. The mighty force of my elbow went into the person’s ribs, but he just laughed, dragging me by the waist into a nook between two shelves.
    “ So what was that all about?” he said, releasing me.
    “ Jase!” I slapped his chest lightly, not really able to pull my hand back far enough to do it hard in this tiny space. “You scared me. And what was what all about?”
    “ At breakfast this morning.” He grinned. “That sweet train of thought you went off on.”
    “ Oh. Um.” I poked my head out and checked down both corridors of the balcony, peering into the lower level as well before sliding back into our little niche. “David has a new power.”
    “ Broader mind reading.”
    “ Yeah.”
    He ran his hand through his hair. “I knew it. I just knew it.”
    “ Why do you say that?”
    We walked out of the space and into the openness of the library again. “And you were testing if he could read random thoughts?”
    “ Yeah,” I said with a bit of irritation. “But you didn't answer my question. What do you know about all this?”
    He sat down on the armchair by the shelf, sighing. “He can't read random thoughts. But he can read projected thoughts, and not just your projected thoughts, either.”
    “ Yours too?” My eyes widened.
    “ Yeah.”
    “ Oh my god.” I sat down on the lamp table beside him. “Are you serious? I mean, how do you know?”
    “ I was walking the labyrinth the other day, and our paths crossed. He