Never Again Read Free

Her long blond hair hung in silky curls that draped her shoulders. One hand reached out for him, while the other stayed behind her back.
    “What are you hiding?” he asked, amused. It was a game they often played. Sometimes, she had a can of whipped cream or a jar of caramel, and other times, she presented him with trinkets she’d found on her shopping excursions.
    “It’s a surprise,” she said coyly.
    “Can’t wait,” he murmured, leaning down to brush his lips across hers. “How’s your family?”
    “Oh, fine,” she said. “They’ve already made arrangements—but they did say thank you for offering them the spare rooms.”
    “Our house is big enough for ten people.”
    She sighed. “You’re not going to talk about having babies again, are you?”
    “No,” said Gray, though he very much wanted to start a family. Kerren said she wanted children, but she always tabled the topic whenever he broached it. Instead of saying anything else, he lowered his head to give her a proper kiss.
    “Gray,” she murmured, stalling his progress.
    He looked up, brows raised. “Hmm?”
    “You would do anything for me, wouldn’t you?”
    “Of course,” he said instantly.
    She stepped out of his embrace, but kept her hand on his forearm. Her eyes gleamed. “I had hoped to keep you,” she said with a regretful smile.
    Before he could respond to such a strange declaration, she placed that pale, perfect hand against his chest and whispered, “Kahl.”
    Pain radiated through him, clogging his throat, throbbing in his eyes, bubbling in his veins. He tried to scream, but no sound could escape through the agony crawling up his windpipe.
    His vision grayed at the edges as he stared down at his wife.
    “You said you’d do anything for me.” The arm she’d had tucked behind her swung up in a wide arc. In her hand, she clasped an obsidian cudgel. The smooth stone smacked him hard in the temple.
    Stars exploded behind his eyes.
    Then the world went black.

     
    Gray awoke to the stench of sulfur, and the chill of stone beneath his bare skin. His wrists and ankles were manacled to the granite. He felt the dark magic pulsing in the metal, and the thick ugliness of it stifling the room. His right side burned, as though acid had been dribbled from his temple to his shoulder.
    He tried to call his magic, but it was useless. The metal dampened his abilities. Besides, not only was there no living thing from which to borrow energy, but also the negative vibrations of this prison suffocated any hint of good.
    Bile rose in his throat.
    “The heart of a Dragon.” Kerren’s voice issued from the darkness, seconds ahead of the woman. As she walked toward him, looking coldly beautiful in that damned silver gown, torches flamed to life. He could see now that he was in a small cavern, the craggy walls a mixture of black and red. The rectangular rock on which he was pinned was the centerpiece. “All that my lord wanted was me—and the heart of a Dragon.”
    “Your lord?” he rasped. Betrayal sat like an anvil on his chest. “What have you done, Kerren?”
    “What I must.” She stopped near the edge of the altar and let her gaze rove his naked body. “Such a shameful waste.” She trailed a hand down his inner thigh, then encircled his hip with a sharp nail.
    He hissed in pain.
    She grinned, and he saw the madness glittering in those chocolate brown eyes, the hint of crazy proffered by that cruel mouth. Oh, Goddess. Not Kerren. Not his wife. “This is a nightmare,” he whispered.
    “Not yet,” she said. “You know, Gray, you were very sweet to be so worried about me.” She patted the wound she’d caused on his hip. “The Rackmores weren’t all that interested in their own history—not until today. All our collective paperwork was tossed into our private archives at the Great Library. Piles and piles of moldering ledgers and diaries and personal letters. When I was seventeen, a small indiscretion of mine angered my father