Read Online The Heir of Death - The Final Formula 3.5 by Becca Andre - Free Book Online

yourself in his power isn’t the answer.”
    “I’ll walk the veil. Evaluate the situation.”
    Her brow wrinkled and she glanced at Ian.
    “He won’t be able to resist jumping through to her,” Ian said.
    “Then come with me,” James said.
    Ian looked away first. “I cannot.”
    “Why not?”
    “He has other necromancers at his disposal. He’s no doubt already taken Doug, and…”
    “And you’re a coward.” James knew he was snarling again, but he couldn’t help it. “What happened to all your talk of family? Or was that all that it was? Talk.”
    Ian lifted his head, and his bright blue eyes bore into James’s own.
    “You like to play the martyr, but the truth is you screwed your family over the first time around, didn’t you? You sacrificed them all to save yourself, but it didn’t work. Now you’re afraid he’ll lock you up again.”
    Ian’s eyes lightened.
    “Go ahead. Use your magic against the dead man. I may be a soulless animal, but I’m ten times the man you ever were, or ever will be.” He gave in to the fury and slid into his other form. Then he sprang at Ian, pulling the portal open behind him.
    “James!” Addie screamed.
    James wasn’t certain what he would have done, but he couldn’t soul rip Ian in front of her. Ian might be deceiving her, but her heart would never let her see that. James slid between the planes and jumped through Ian. The taste of his powerful soul washed over James, and he sensed regret, fear, and… love.
    James landed on two feet in the land of the dead and released the portal behind him. He rose to his full seven-foot height, and though he knew there was nothing to see, he looked over his shoulder to where Ian should have stood.
    Okay. Perhaps he hadn’t been entirely accurate. Ian regretted his past, and he very much feared a return to his tomb, but he might actually care.
    James huffed out a breath that sounded more like a growl. Screw it. Ian was a problem for another day. He lifted his head and sniffed the air. Right now, he had a soul to track.

Chapter 6
    E lysia threw herself out of Doug’s path, his fingers brushing the sleeve of her robe before she could get out of range. He stopped and regarded her, a slow smile dimpling his cheeks before he started toward her once more, the knife clutched in his hand. She took a hasty step back, and a wrinkle in the area rug tripped her and she fell. Instinctively, she tried to catch herself and cried out when her injured hand slammed against the floor. Pain radiated up her right arm and into her shoulder. Cradling her injured hand against her chest, she scooted backward until one of the chairs stopped her.
    Doug stopped, standing over her. This close, she could see the speckles of blood that adorned the lower section of his brown robes. Her blood. A disconnected part of her mind wondered if that was why Alexander favored robes of dark burgundy: they wouldn’t show the blood.
    Doug smiled again, his faded blue eyes meeting hers. Elysia wondered if Doug was still in there, aware of what was happening. Alexander seemed to enjoy forcing Doug to do this to her.
    “Dunstan said the grim was your lover,” Alexander said with Doug’s voice. “Did he lie or is the grim only your lover when you give him a command?”
    She didn’t answer. Heart thumping in her ears, she lifted her chin and waited for his next move.
    “If he cared about you at all, he would be here. I left the finger where it wouldn’t be missed.”
    Elysia hoped James would see through the deception, but most likely, she suspected that he hadn’t found Alexander’s gift.
    “What will he do if I send him the whole hand, or perhaps an ear?”
    She lifted her left hand to the side of her face before she could stop herself. She didn’t consider herself a vain person, but she didn’t think she could sit by and let him mutilate her. Yet giving him James was out of the question.
    “I force him,” she whispered. “He won’t respond on his own to