Read Online Born of Shadows by Sherrilyn Kenyon - Free Book Online Page B

eyes of all.
    You are my delicate rose—the most precious thing I have . She could still hear her father’s last words to her. Delicate rose was what Desideria meant in his language. He’d talked her mother into naming her that even though he’d had to lie about the meaning at her birth in order to get his way. Her mother thought it meant “strong warrior.”
    The name Desideria was his inside joke on her mother’s warring people who’d enslaved him.
    And he’d died under questionable circumstances.
    Now no one was allowed to even speak his name out loud and she’d been forbidden to mourn him.
    To this day, she wanted blood over that too. But right now, as she fought her aunt, she didn’t feel like she was part Gondarion. She felt the heat of her mother’s people and she wanted to hear Kara cry for the insult she’d given Desideria’s beloved father.
    Delving deep to tap every bit of her training, she swung her sword and twisted it, catching Kara’s blade. In one deft move, she disarmed her. Desideria caught the sword with her left hand and angled both of them at Kara’s throat as she circled her.
    There was nothing Kara could do without getting her throat sliced.
    “Yield?”
    Kara narrowed her dark gaze. “Only because this is a training exercise and you’re still to be punished.”
    Of course she was.
    But she’d won the fight and that was the most important thing. “You may punish me, but we both know the truth. I’m no longer your pupil.” Not after she’d defeated her. Now she was a master and deserving of her aunt’s respect.
    Mixed blood or not.
    Kara inclined her head to her and held her hand out for her sword.
    Desideria paused before she handed it over. I’t going to be that simple. Not this time. Making sure to keep her expression blank, she broke the blade in half across her thigh before she handed the hilt back to Kara.
    Kara’s cheeks turned bright pink as her anger no doubt mounted to a murderous level. The sword had been a coming-of-age gift to her from her own mother when she’d advanced from pupil to master. But that was what happened when you lost. The victor chose whether or not to snap the blade or return it intact. Intact was an act of respectful civility. Snapping it was the ultimate act of punishment and a very personal slap. Since her aunt had insulted her father, she would be ruthless in this. Sentimentality be damned.
    My father was a good man . And she’d fight to the death for his honor.
    Sheathing her training sword, Desideria headed for the showers while her aunt went the opposite direction. No doubt planning her demise every step of the way.
    Better yet, my punishment. She sighed in resignation of what would be coming to her all too soon.
    As she reached the door that led to the dressing rooms, she saw her mother step forward from the shadows of the seating area. That made her suck her breath in sharply. Her mother didn’t often attend their training, except to tell them what a massive disappointment they all were and how their skills lagged far behind hers and her sisters’ when they’d been their ages.
    An older version of Desideria with the same dark hair, deep tawny skin and black eyes, Queen Sarra looked more like Desideria’s older sister than her mother. Her body well toned and sleek from her own countless hours of martial practice, her mother could easily pass for a woman in her early thirties.
    Fierce and stern, Sarra had no king to co-rule by her side—the law of their people said that no woman could marry a man who couldn’t defeat her in battle and no man had ever bested her mother.
    No woman either.
    But that didn’t mean her mother lived without companionship. In fact, her mother’s three male consorts stood two feet behind her and each one of them, just like Desideria’s father, had been won through battle. In the case of her father, he’d been a slave who had crash-landed here and been stranded. A border patrol had picked him up and he’d