Read Online Edge of Darkness ~ A Darkness & Light Novel Book Three by K. L. Schwengel - Free Book Online

his teeth.
    "Do you know how I came to find you tonight?" Dain asked. "One of the guards alerted Everyn that the Lord General was walking the gate wall, talking to himself, and highly agitated. They assumed you were drunk. Knowing better, the captain wisely came for me. When I approached, the amount of power you held ready to direct my way would have tested my own. Goddess forbid if you would have unleashed it on any of the men."
    "That wouldn't have happened," Bolin said, voice tight.
    "Not intentionally, but you were seeing something up there no one else saw."
    "So you believe I'm mad, then?"
    Dain straightened in the chair and spoke his next words slowly and with great care. "I believe you are not entirely recovered from recent events."
    "Because it's impossible that Donovan is actually behind this?"
    "I'm not saying that, but do you sense him anywhere nearby? I don't. And one of us certainly would. Especially if he's flinging about the kind of power you're suggesting."
    Bolin blew out a soft snort and looked away. As much as he wished he could, it was hard to argue Dain's point. No use of magic went unnoticed by those who possessed it. Most, however, was so benign as to not warrant even a passing appraisal. Like tossing rocks into a lake. The ripples sent out by a pebble might never reach the shore, and only the most carefully observant might notice the faint echo of them distorting the surface. Those caused by a boulder, however, would break against the shoreline like the crashing surf.
    "I know the fact often eludes you," Dain said, "but you're not invincible. Nor are you immune to the frailties that plague all men. You've suffered a great deal over the past months, and have the grief of an intimate loss heaped on top of it all."
    "So, that's why you insisted on coming then? To act as nursemaid?"
    The Emperor flashed a quick smile. "In part."
    "Nice to know you have such faith in me."
    Dain shoved to his feet with an exasperated growl. He crossed to where Bolin stood and laid a hand on his shoulder. "I attend you as Emperor to honor a woman who gave her life in service to this empire, and as a friend, who is all too aware of how stubborn you are. My faith in you remains as resolute as it ever was."
    Bolin raised a meaningful brow. "Hence the wards?"
    He'd noticed them as soon as the last dregs of confusion slipped away, subtle enough to be missed if he hadn't already been alert to the smallest shift in power around him.
    "They are more for the safety of the men than anything," Dain said.
    "From me?"
    Dain's eyes flashed in anger. "From whatever threat might approach that they are unequipped to defend against. Or would you rather we be caught unaware?"
    "Of course not." Bolin shrugged out from beneath the Emperor's hand. "I'm sorry, Dain, tonight has apparently unsettled me more than I care to admit. I've allowed my grief to get the better of me. A moment of weakness I won't allow to happen again. Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe I'll turn in."
    The guards stationed outside the door saluted as Bolin left Dain's room and made for his own at the end of the hall. He didn't bother with a lamp as he closed his door. Guided only by the glowing embers in the brazier set off to one side of the bed, he shed his gear and stretched out on the mattress, one arm twisted behind his head. He toyed with Ciara's pendant, the gentle pulse of power a comforting warmth beneath his fingers. His eyes grew heavy and he finally stopped fighting their insistence to close.
    In the moment before sleep pulled him resolutely under, a sensation like the light stroke of fingertips caressed his cheek, and a voice whispered beside his ear, "Sleep well. You and I have much to do."
     
     

CHAPTER NINE
     
    Several days after their talk in the gardens, Berk found himself walking the streets of Nisair beside Ciara, pointing out anything he thought she might find of interest. Jorny and Pehl shadowed them, watching the crowds, keeping their eyes on