Read Online Gideon's Promise (Sons of Judgment Book 2) by Airicka Phoenix, Morgana Phoenix - Free Book Online Page A

couldn’t hear. Soft hands reached for him, grappling at his clothes, tearing the fabric away to get to flesh.
    “No...” His words slurred. “Don’t touch me.”
    Those breathtaking eyes blinked, shock and hurt reflecting in their clear surface for only a split second before they were filled with anger. Then she was gone.
    No! Don’t go...
    Another face replaced hers, this one covered in blood. Yet despite that, he recognized her immediately. Riley.
    “It’s okay,” she was telling him, her voice urgent and full of tears. “Just hold on.” She dragged his head into her lap. “Don’t close your eyes, okay? Hang on. Just...”
    The rest of her words faded to a dull silence and Valkyrie’s tight features shimmered into view.
    “Kyrie...” His name for her decades ago was the last thing he recalled saying before the world closed to black.

    1 697, Hudson Bay, Canada
    “No fooling around,” his father said as he led the way through a corridor of marble toward a set of open doors. “Gideon...”
    Gideon, who had been studying the suits of armor, started. “Why must you always accuse me?”
    His father glanced at him from the corner of his eye. “Because you are the only one who cannot seem to go a few minutes without making a snide remark.”
    “That would be me,” Magnus muttered from their mother’s other side. “But, please, continue chastising Gideon. He certainly deserves it.”
    Gideon shoved him, sending him teetering into Regulus, who glowered and swatted at Gideon, hitting Octavian instead.
    “Boys!” Halting mid stride, their mother and father spun on them. “This is what I am referring to,” their father snapped. “You must control yourselves, for just this one evening. I implore of you!”
    “He started it!” Gideon objected, waving towards Magnus.
    Patience reaching the end of its tether, their father pinched the bridge of his nose and growled deep in his throat. He stood that way for so long that they thought maybe he had fallen asleep. Then he raised his head and pinned them each with solemn gray eyes.
    “I cannot stress enough the importance of this moment,” he began slowly. “We must show the others we are a unit, a force of strength and power. If they see us squabbling like children amongst ourselves, what would they think? That we are not responsible and cannot be trusted. The other Keepers will not take lightly to your shenanigans.” He took a deep breath, calmed himself. “Signing the bound is by far the most imperative event in our history. Together with the other Keepers, we will make our territories safe and maintain order. We must carry ourselves with grace and respect. Understood?”
    It was on the tip of his tongue to promise not to eat his food with his feet, but the seriousness in his father’s eyes stifled the urge.
    He nodded. “Understood.”
    Relief softened the tension in his father’s shoulders. He smiled warmly at them. “I know you will not disappoint me. Come.”
    They walked the rest of the way in silence.
    The room opened to an oval chamber warmed by a roaring hearth and candlelight. In the center, a large, round table housed the heads of all four corners, each seated at the element etched into the wood. Flames for the south. A jagged mountain for the north. Three lines for the east in horizontal waves and two vertical lines for the west. His father led them to the north point and drew out one of the two chairs, the one on his right. His mother smiled lovingly up at him before sliding into it. He took the left. Like the other sons and daughters of the Points, Gideon and his brothers remained standing, a tight group just over their parent’s shoulders.
    Across from them, a beautiful woman with exotic tan skin and a riot of darker curls inclined her head politely. Her long hands were folded neatly over the fire symbol of her element. On her left was a much older man, with hands bigger than Gideon’s whole head. His massive frame barely fit in the