Read Online Guardian by Sam Cheever - Free Book Online Page B

power.”
    Dawnia looked ready to eat her teeth. “Queen Tana... A lifted hand is a vote for removing Queen Tana from the throne. Vote now!”
    Several hands around the room, including Dawnia’s flew skyward. Ian’s gaze slid around the room and a couple of them withered and slid back down. The few hands left in the air weren’t nearly enough to pass the effort.
    Ian turned to Dawnia. “Failed. Next issue.”
    Dawnia’s fists clenched more tightly at her sides. Her aura flared until her slender body gave off more light than the single bulb above our heads. But she fought visibly for control and unclenched her hands. She turned to Ian. “There is no point. Tana is the central issue. As long as she’s in power we cannot defeat the gods.”
    I gasped. Holy shit!
    Ian just stared at her.
    Dawnia finally turned away and strode toward the door. “Meeting adjourned.”
    “Halt!”
    Dawnia, amazingly, stopped and turned back to Ian.
    “Sit down, Dawnia, and listen carefully.”
    She sat, though her body was rigid and she looked as if she was only a breath away from jumping up and striding out the door.
    Ian stared hard at her for a moment longer and then turned toward the room. “As I’ve said…on many occasions…” his dark gaze swung back to Dawnia for just a flicker in time, “dethroning Tana would unbalance the gods but not defeat them. They would just hunker down and find a way around the problem. It is too bold a move…too visible. We cannot hope to take the Council if we don’t show some restraint.”
    “Restraint…hada…or cowardice?”
    I turned to the speaker, now on his feet in the middle of the room. It was a tall, golden elf with long blond hair that flowed over bulging biceps covered in Earth tattoos. He was dressed in a shimmering white tunic of a fabric so fine I swore I could see his golden flesh beneath it. The shirt was belted in silver, over cream colored leather tights. I couldn’t see his feet but I knew they’d be encased in soft leather too. No other race could rival the elves for style.
    I sighed and tugged at my voluminous shirt.
    The elf’s skin sparkled liberally with elfin magic, marking him as one of the more powerful of his race.
    Ian had stiffened visibly when the elf addressed him but I saw that he’d regained his composure. “Is it cowardice to create a viable plan of attack against an enemy, Aubrie of the Glan Forest? Is it cowardice to determine the best chances for winning? Or is it cowardice to simply bluster and bully, in hopes that your own personal dreams of power will eventually win the day?”
    Aubrie bristled and his powerful aura flared. The violently hued aura shot away from him, burning all in its path. Those around the angry elf dove to the floor in an effort to avoid being burned by the ring of violent power.
    One man, a human, didn’t move fast enough. He cried out and fell to the ground, twitching and moaning from the effects of Aubrie’s uncontrolled aura. No one went to help him. No one even seemed to notice him. All eyes stayed on the drama playing itself out in that room. Between an elf and a…human?
    Suddenly the incongruity of this made me draw a quick breath. How was it possible that a mere human could control a room full of angry, ambitious creatures from the magical realm? My gaze flew to Ian and, like a flash of magic induced insight, I saw him as he really was.
    Hada.
    I’d heard it but it hadn’t registered.
    Faery dust, faery sword, skin the color of the earth, long time ties to Tana, queen of the faeries. And now this.
    Holy shit!
    Ian wasn’t human, he was faery. How could I not have known?
    As if he’d read my mind his brown eyes swung to me. I knew he couldn’t see me, but I suddenly felt as if he were trying to communicate with me. Then I noticed the tense aspect to his square jaw and the slight sheen across his forehead and I realized he was fighting pain.
    I looked around and realized I’d been stepping away from the bodies in