Read Online Blood Blade Sisters Series by Michelle McLean - Free Book Online Page B

are, you greedy thing.” She stroked the horse’s neck as he gobbled up his treat.
    Leo hadn’t yet come out and Cilla was grateful for a few moments alone. She took a deep breath, trying to ease her anxiety. Maynard swung his huge head, gently bumping her. She smiled and leaned her forehead against him.
    “I don’t think we are going to find him, Maynard,” she said quietly. She’d never speak those words in front of anyone else. But with Maynard she didn’t have to hold anything back. He knew all her secrets.
    The horse blew a burst of air through his nostrils and Cilla patted his neck. “I think if he were still alive, we’d have found him by now. But no one knows anything. None of his friends or associates have seen or heard from him. No one in the surrounding towns has seen him.”
    A crushing sadness filled her, sorrow for the brother-in-law she’d grown to love, despair for her sister and the baby she carried. “I’m not giving up,” she assured Maynard, who knickered in seeming encouragement. “But I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
    The horse bumped his head against her again, nuzzling at her hand. Cilla laughed and pulled another apple out. “Here you go, my love.” She fed the apple to him and then wrapped her arms about his great neck, breathing in deeply, drawing strength from the animal that she sometimes felt was the only one on her side.
    She heard a rustling near the barn doors and Cilla looked up to find Leo watching her. She froze, guilt flowing through her. She hoped he hadn’t heard anything she’d said. He wouldn’t be any happier than Brynne to hear her true thoughts on the matter of his missing brother.
    But he simply stared at her, no condemnation or anger in his eyes.
    Maynard pawed the ground nervously, picking up on Cilla’s unease. She tore her gaze from Leo’s and patted Maynard’s neck before getting him saddled and ready to ride.
    Leo did the same and within minutes they were on their way to find Jake. If he was anywhere to be found.

    Two weeks later, Cilla was more certain than ever that Jake would never be found alive. Leo had grown more and more sullen with each day, seeming to come to the same conclusion, though Cilla never asked him. They’d stopped in every town they’d come across, showed Jake’s portrait to anyone they could make stand still. People had been willing enough to look at the daguerreotype, as most had never seen one before. But no one had recognized Jake.
    Cilla’s last hope had been a small settlement in the mountains north of the ranch they had been referred to, one made up of a ragtag group of people who had been shunned from other communities and had found safety with each other. The group consisted of a few natives from various tribes, a family of runaway slaves who had made it all the way to California, and a trapper who spent most of his time in the mountains but occasionally came down to visit one of the Indian women. Cilla had hoped if Jake had somehow wandered off or been traveling some of the lesser-known paths, one of these people might have seen him.
    But when they got to the settlement, they found it abandoned, the few shelters falling into disrepair. The last shred of hope in Cilla’s heart evaporated as she gazed around the lonely encampment. A shiver ran through her. She wasn’t one to be superstitious, but the abandoned settlement felt blanketed with an ominous atmosphere. Cilla wasn’t sure if something horrible had happened or if the inhabitants had just packed up and moved, but she couldn’t shake the negative energy of the place.
    Maynard shifted uneasily beneath her and she patted his neck and turned to Leo. “It’ll be dark soon. We should make camp, but…”
    Leo nodded and looked around the settlement again. “I don’t want to stay here either. Come on, we can find another spot before it gets too dark.”
    Cilla gave him a grateful smile, though she knew the expression didn’t quite make it to her