Radiance (Brotherhood of the Blade Trilogy #3) Read Free

don’t understand!”
    “You killed my brother. That’s all I need to understand!”
    Without any more hesitation, I rammed my blade home where I imagined her heart was and then pulled it upward under her ribs, giving it an extra twist for good measure.
    She flinched and her hands tore through the blade that had pinned them to her chest—she pin-wheeled the cut-up hands in the air in a futile protest that was more defensive than offensive. I pushed my blade further, up to the hilt and she fell into the snow without a sound. Her pale face registered shock, pain and horror.
    “ This is from my brother, you vampire bitch from darkest hell,” I said, and spit in her face.
    “ R-R-Rand,” she said weakly, choking out my name. A purplish bubble of blood came out of her mouth.
    “ Got any last words?” I asked.
    “ I have Kristin!” she whispered as her eyes fluttered closed, her mouth fell open and she… died.
     
     
    Chapter Two
     
     
    “No! Noooo! Nooooooo! ” I stood in the snow screaming until blood came out of my throat, and my voice was hoarse.
    Corbin came out from behind a bush, shivering, his feet already turning blue.
    “Be quiet, Rand,” he said, not unkindly. “I want to listen and see if Kristin is here.”
    He approached me and pinched the hollows in the inner corners of my eyes near the tear ducts.
    “Oww!” I yelled. “What are you doing?”
    “ Let me stop this nosebleed or you’ll die.”
    With his other hand, he pressed a point at the back of my skull. “Steady. Just trust me.”
    I bit my lip and quelled my agony so my werewolf nemesis could listen to the forest and also save my dumb ass from bleeding to death. Who knew that Corbin was such a multi-tasker? And friend?
    Corbin closed his eyes for a couple of minutes. I tried to breathe quietly through my mouth and not hurl on him. When he opened his eyes, he said, “She’s not here. I’m so sorry…look, the bleeding stopped. Clean off your face with snow.”
    I bent over and smooshed clean snow over my face. It stung like bees and fell away stained with red. Finally, I stood up. “Ugh, how bad is it?”
    “ Nasty. Your girlfriend will not be happy with your new look.”
    “ Gee, thanks.”
    Corbin looked at Delilah lying motionless in the snow. “Was she an ancient?”
    “Yes, from Biblical times.”
    “ She p-pre-dates me by quite a bit.” His teeth were chattering.
    “ It’s over for Delilah. Next up, Nero.” I finally pulled my blade out of Delilah’s chest, cleaned it off in the snow and slid it back in the scabbard inside my right boot. Corbin gathered up my three silver darts and handed them to me. I stuck them in my left boot in the built-in quiver.
    Corbin gave her body a kick for good measure, though not where she had kicked me.
    “Hey, she’s dead already.”
    “ Just checking,” he said.
    I had my standards and they did not include inflicting violence on the dead…not even on my worst enemy, which she was.
    I turned my eyes to Corbin. Every day, he ran with wolves or skied with Ambra. His corded arms and legs were enviable. I handed him my watch cap and he hung it on his privates.
    I laughed at his gesture and said, “You throw the best snowballs I’ve ever seen.”
    “Ambra taught me. The bad-ass Swiss girl is the local snowball fight queen. When there used to be a lot more of us, we had hellacious snowball fights. Ambra was team captain and she let me play on the girls’ side—Sisterhood of the Scythe versus Brotherhood of the Blade. It was great fun to be on the winning side.”
    “ You’re going to lose your feet,” I said. “We gotta get you back to the castle.”
    “ My balls are going blue, too. I can’t even feel my feet.”
    I shucked my coat and a sweater. “Put on my sweater upside down on your legs and pull it up to your waist. Put my coat on and zip it.”
    “You need those things,” he said.
    “ Shut up and do it. I’ve got on lots of clothes and long underwear, too. And what