Read Online Dying Wish: A Novel of the Sentinel Wars by Shannon K. Butcher - Free Book Online

he would be if he didn’t live long enough to help her. Tori was obviously the kind of girl who would stab a man in his sleep. The Synestryn had turned her into that, robbing her of the life she could have had.
    He hoped that Andra figured out something soon. Tori was a danger to herself and others, and unless they wanted people to get hurt, they were going to have to lock her up. She’d spent her childhood imprisoned by Synestryn, being tortured and fed their blood. He didn’t think captivity was going to sit well with her.
    Just the thought made him sick.
    She could be his. In a few years. When she was older and had healed.
    He wasn’t sure he had that much time left. His lifemark was dying. The rate at which his leaves were falling had increased recently. There was no way to know how much time he had left, but he was fairly sure it wouldn’t be enough for Tori to truly heal.
    Pain throbbed in Nicholas’s bones. It was worse now than it had been only a few minutes ago. He could barely even feel the knife sticking out of him. Putting one foot in front of another took all his concentration. He wanted to run back to her so she could make the pain stop.
    What if he couldn’t control himself as his pain grew? What if he forced her to make it stop?
    Nicholas had seen what happened to his brothers as they reached the end of their lives. They became darker, angry and desperate. He’d seen good men do bad things. What if he did the same with Tori?
    There was only one thing he could think to do—only one way to keep her safe from himself.
    As soon as Tynan was done healing his stab wound, he was going to bargain with the Sanguinar—give him anything he asked for—to have his memory of the last few minutes removed. If he didn’t know Tori could save him, she’d be safe. It was the only way he could be sure.

Chapter 5
     
    “W here are we really going?” asked Iain once they were in his truck and driving out through Dabyr’s gates.
    The sun was still high in the sky, but Jackie could feel its descent, like sharp fingernails raking over her back. “To see Samson. I want to see him one more time before I cut ties with your world.”
    “So you lied. I figured as much. Not that it matters. They’ll know where we go. Tracking devices in all the vehicles.”
    Of course there were. “Great. Nothing like an electronic leash to make a girl feel free.”
    “I don’t get you. If you’d stayed, you could have had anything you wanted. You would have been safe. After two years of being locked up, I’d think safety would be at the top of your list.”
    How was she going to explain anything to him? He didn’t live in her world—or at least not in the one she wanted to inhabit. “I didn’t feel safe there. I felt caged. Stagnant.”
    He said nothing, his eyes on the road. His hands were fisted around the steering wheel, and she noticed a faint scar on the back of his right hand. It was jagged and pale with age.
    “How’d you get that?” she asked, looking for a way to get the conversation off herself.
    He stared at his hand for an extended moment, as if he had to think about it to remember. “Six against one. Little vicious raptor demons. One of them flew in from overhead and I didn’t see it until it was too late.”
    “What happened?”
    “I killed it before the poison in its talons felled me. By then Liam had made it to my side. Saved my life.”
    He said it so calmly, as if he were talking about what he’d had for dinner last night.
    “When was this?” she asked.
    “A couple hundred years ago. Right after the big attack.”
    “The big attack?”
    “We’d thought the Synestryn were nearly extinct—that we’d wiped them out. We were all feeling pretty proud of ourselves. Overconfident. We spread out and tried to lead normal lives. We let our guard down, which was what they’d been waiting for. They coordinated a massive attack near every homestead and Sentinel compound they could find. All of us rushed to