Read Online Forgotten Sea by Virginia Kantra - Free Book Online

have a day ago. Or even an hour ago. Maybe the spell she had worked on Justin had made her more sensitive. Or maybe it was his kiss . . .
    “I relieved his pain,” Simon said.
    “You knocked him out.”
    Simon shrugged. “He will be easier to move this way.”
    He was the headmaster. She trusted him. She did.
    She watched as he brought his cupped hands to his mouth and blew softly. Mage fire kindled in his palms, a globe of silver light, cool and unconsuming. He released it to float above his head, tethering the light with a word.
    Simple magic. She could do it herself, most of the time.
    But Simon Axton had other magic, other powers, painstakingly accumulated or recalled over the years of his very long life. He raised his arms in command and Justin’s body levitated, hovering over the cellar threshold.
    In silence, Simon waded into the shadow of the stairwell, nudging Justin ahead of him like a man on a raft. The mage fire followed. Lara watched, anxious and uneasy, as the stone walls swallowed the descending light.
    “Where are you . . . Aren’t you taking him back to the infirmary?”
    “He’ll be safe here.” Simon’s reply was muffled by the ground. “Quiet.”
    Quiet, yeah. Like a grave is quiet.
    She scrambled through the canted door, ducking her head to avoid the rough-timbered ceiling. There was a nasty moment going down the steps when she thought about snakes and spiders and things that lived in holes underground. But then the passage opened into a small room, cool and musty, with shelves along one wall and a couple of bunks on the other.
    Simon was already lowering Justin’s body onto the bottom bunk. But she had time to notice—just before his head hit the pillow—that it was already dented. His shoes were under the bed.
    She sucked in her breath.
    Simon turned at the sound.
    Their eyes met.
    He must have seen her working things out. The bed. The shoes. The heth. The knife. And Justin, sprawled across the threshold to the cellar, half in, half out.
    She wet her lips. “He didn’t walk out of the infirmary.”
    Not on his own. They’d brought him here, Zayin or Simon.
    She saw that now. He must have woken alone, in pain, in the dark. No wonder he’d tried to escape. And she’d dragged him back like a barn cat with a bloody mouse and deposited him at the headmaster’s feet.
    “How,” Simon asked softly, “did you discover he was gone?”
    Her mind stuttered. She raised her chin, forcing herself to hold his gaze. “I couldn’t sleep.” He would know why, he’d found her, he knew everything about her. “So I decided to check on him.”
    “Your sympathy does you credit.” A pause, while they both looked down at the man on the bed. “Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of your judgment.”
    Pain squeezed her head. She could not think. She could not breathe. “He shouldn’t have been left by himself.”
    Simon’s lips thinned. “Apparently not.”
    “I found him,” she said. “I can stay with him. Let me help, we have a connection, I—”
    “Your connection is your problem. You are too close to this matter to see clearly where your responsibility and your loyalty should lie. Perhaps you need to take some time for reflection.”
    “I know you’re disappointed in my performance as Seeker,” she said through stiff lips. “But please, I have the calling. If you give me another chance . . .”
    “Seeking is a gift,” Simon said. “Even if I wanted to, I could not deprive you of your vocation.”
    She exhaled in relief. “Then—”
    “However, I can and will determine your other duties at Rockhaven.”
    Her other duties?
    She worked for him. In his office.
    Adult nephilim remained in the community, under the Rule that governed every aspect of their lives, that brought them closer to their un-Fallen perfection, that unified and defined them. The younger ones lived in the dorms as proctors. A few qualified as teachers at the school. Most graduates, however, went to work in