Season of Sacrifice (Blood of Azure Book 1) Jonathan Michael (red novels .txt) 📖

reply more insecurely. “I’m here to do his evil bidding. I’m here to seduce you,” I confess. “It’s my role. It’s what the Taoiseach demands of me. I wouldn’t do it, but he demands it of me.” I’ve perfected the watery eyes. I turn my nose down to hide my fabricated sadness. “If I don’t, he’ll…” I trail off.

Stone sits next to me and puts an arm around me. He is naive. At least he’s giving me a challenge. I don’t just have to smile to get an erection. I lean into him and oddly feel comfortable. He squeezes gently. He’s warm. And masculine. I accept the embrace briefly before realizing I’m being sucked into his charm. Who is this boy?

I pull away but not too aggressively to startle him. I look into his eyes. A pure blue, like a crisp evening sky. Honest. Valiant. He stares back. He raises a hand to my face and brushes the bangs away. He smiles.

“You have beautiful eyes.”

I feel more warmth. Am I blushing? He obviously sees I’m a Graft, yet there is no fear. No anger or hate.

“As do you,” I reply. Dammit. Why would I say something so cheeky?

I stop talking and go back to resting my head on his shoulder. Why Stone? Why would Harris want me to seduce him? Harris is no doubt interested in Stone’s potential, just as he is with Jaymes’s, but he already has Stone under his control. There’s a higher purpose. The Taoiseach always has a higher purpose. I needn’t question his command.

After a moment of comfort, I raise my head and kiss him lightly on the chin. He allows it. I kiss him again on his neck. It’s less scratchy to my lips. I place a hand on his thigh and kiss him again. He’s not yielding, but he’s not denying it either. I kiss lower on his neck and let out a heavy breath. I slide my hand across his lap, ensuring I glide it across the necessary regions, and I plant it on his chest, slowly easing him backward onto the bed until we are lying down.

Several blissful moments later, I lay quiet, pondering our sins. Stone, obviously feeling uncomfortable, breaks the silence.

“Sorry. I…I’m weak.”

“You’re a man,” I agree. An impactful man. An impressionable man. A good man. But a man worth following?

“It’s irrational, but I feel a connection to you…”

Me too.

“I can trust you…”

No, you can’t.

“Though, I know it’ll lead to my death.”

True.

This kid thinks he’s love struck by what he found between my legs. I admit, not to him, but I admit there was a connection. It was more than just a casual experience. I know this because I haven’t slit his throat.

“Death finds us all. It’s no reason to close your heart.” A lie. He shouldn’t open his heart to me. I’ll devour it. “You have nothing to fear. We’re all a pawn to a tyrant, Stone,” I whisper.

His head snaps to study me. “It’s pointless, isn’t it? Anyone of relevance knows I’m not Elder Alderock.”

I offer a devious grin in response. “You tried.” I press my hand over his heart. “But this is too strong.” And the strong ones have the biggest weaknesses. Be careful, Stone.

He goes back to staring at the ceiling. I watch him, wondering what’s going on in his head. I try to dig into his sober thoughts, but there’s a wall. Some minds are naturally blank. Others too erratic to step foot in. And some are walled off completely from the outside. An inborn defense to Instincts. Stone is the latter. Irritated, I probe deeper.

“You resurrected that man back in the pub. The man you referred to as Captain. How’d you do that?”

“I did?”

Goddammit, he’s so damn oblivious.

“He’s not the first…” Stone opens up.

For fucks sake, thank you.

“Nobody believes me when I try to discuss it.” He goes quiet.

I clench my jaw and take a slow breath. “As they shouldn’t. Nor should you tell anyone else. This is special, Stone. And anything special is feared.” I roll to my side to face him. “I would know.”

“Yeah…” he agrees but doesn’t say anything more.

Resurrection is unheard of. It’s of fantasies only. Even the Taoiseach himself isn’t capable. What does this mean?

“Does the Taoiseach know? Is this why he’s after you?”

Stone rolls on his side as well, facing me. Close enough to kiss. I stroke my nails along his bare chest. He glances down at mine, then hastily corrects himself.

“I don’t know. He didn’t say.”

Short on words. I appreciate it, but damn, it’s hard to extract information out of him. If only he didn’t have that wall in his head, I would gladly dig to find what I need. He’d sense what I was doing, but he wouldn’t have the slightest notion how terribly I was violating him.

“Resurrection? Impossible. It must be his motive.” A new plaything for Harris. But what if he isn’t aware of Stone’s talent? An asset worth keeping to myself. If I’ve learned anything from Harris, knowledge is of the utmost value, for it can never be taken away. But it is also a curse for that exact reason. Still, I already have this bit of knowledge, so this relationship is certainly worth massaging.

I rub my hand down the bulge of his shoulder and caress his bicep with my thumb. “Do you plan to kill him?”

Stone’s brow curls as he considers my question. “I did. But—”

“There is a room,” I cut him off. “It might help you find the answers you seek. He calls it the athenaeum. It’s a place of his past. I’ve never seen it, but I have heard him mention it. Only once before. And his retraction afterward showed he undoubtedly regretted saying the