The Forgotten Read Free

from but I never quite fit in. I’ve always had a hard time dealing with the upper crust. I go between either liking them with a passion as I like you, or, wanting to strangulate them.
    As for the women of the Court, I want to tell them all that they have pea sized brains with an enlarged sense of importance. The way they call me Your Grace, makes my insides clench. I am deeply indebted to the King for bestowing upon me such noble titles. Alas, I’ll always feel like a Knight Mage. Those noble ladies only want me for what surviving the curse has brought me—untold riches and titles.
    They wouldn’t want anything to do with me if I hadn’t been given the title of duke. They wouldn’t want me if I was just Sir Lucan Wylde, and if I wasn’t a Knight Mage, they’d spit on me as soon as looking at me. Besides, none of them can compare to the sort of woman I want. Sure, I used a few of them to sate my carnal needs but I don’t want to keep them in my bed, and Lady Ethelbert is vying for that position.”
    “You want someone like Ava,” Grifon said softly.              
    He winced as Grifon made that one truly accurate, yet simple statement. He didn’t exactly want a woman with Hunter blood in her but yeah, Grifon was right, he did want a woman with a clever brain in her head that didn’t shriek when she saw something distasteful like Ethelbert had done when they’d been touring Albia.
    A blind beggar had crossed their path, when presented with the sight, she’d screamed to high heaven and had hidden behind him. She’d actually been afraid that the piece of filth as she put it, would accost her or infect her with the Andorath Plague.
    He’d ended their relationship that night, and even though he’d liked having the brainless beauty on his arm, he couldn’t put up with her ideas on how the Kingdom should deal with the lower classes.
    He wanted a woman like the image of the woman who had haunted his dreams during his curse. He wanted a woman with elfin ears, a heart-shaped face, eyes a warm green that made his gut twist in a good way whenever he thought of the brilliant hue, and a rosebud mouth that just invited a good kissing.
    “I want a mate who can understand me. I want someone that isn’t as shallow as a mud puddle and who can understand those who have sorrow weighing heavily on their hearts and souls.”
    “Someone who can understand men like us. Men who have fought the darkness and won,” Grifon said.
    “Aye.” Lucan sighed heavily, and gestured to the portrait of Algernon. “Algernon had seen terrible suffering. He’d seen death and those who suffered horrifically before dying. He told me once that sometimes those horrendous images haunted his dreams but when he was awake, he lived for the moment, and reveled in the good that does exist. He told me that no matter how many men I had to kill that I couldn’t lose sight of the genuine goodness that resonated inside of some people. He told me that it was our duty as Knight Mages to defend the meek, and the weak. He said we had a divine right to defend those who could not defend themselves.”
    “He was right,” Grifon said. “When you go back to the village of your birth, if it gets too much and if my father won’t allow me to send anyone else, I will gather the men of our Order together and we will ride to your aid. We became true brothers in arms during those years spent under Lady Red Riding Hood’s dark enchantment, and no matter what I will stand with you when you are in your time of need, as you would stand with me.”
    “When I was accepted into the Royal Order of Saint Alby, I knew my life would never be the same. I knew I had to honour the Order as it had existed for over nine hundred years, and I knew that for as long as I lived, the men and women that were a part of that Order would have my undying allegiance, so I know that if I need help, you and the others will ride to my aid, but thank you for saying it out loud, Grifon.