Frozen Tides by Morgan Rhodes Page A

her for his own gain had faded in the days since she’d lost him. The scar tissue that wound had left behind had grown thicker, tougher, as protective as a plate of armor.
    No one would ever use her like that again.
    â€œNo,” she replied. “Believe me, I want to live.”
    â€œI’m very glad to hear that.”
    Lucia stared down at her bowl and brought a spoonful of soup to her lips. “This is watery and tasteless.”
    Kyan reached over and took some for himself to sample. “To you, perhaps. But that doesn’t make it less of a miracle.”
    The miracle Lucia wanted to come upon most of all was a witch—the older and more knowledgeable the better. They needed one who knew where to find a very special kind of stone wheel used as a magical porthole leading directly to the Sanctuary, the legendary world of the immortals, where the Watchers had stood guard over the Kindred in their crystal prisons for millennia.
    Lucia had wanted to know why neither she nor Kyan—as powerful as they both were—could sense this magic without outside help. He explained that there was no magic to sense, that such magic had been hidden to protect the Sanctuary from outside threats.
    Therefore, they didn’t need a witch’s
magic
to find these stone wheels, they needed a witch who’d seen one with her own eyes and knew what it was.
    Once they found one, only then could Lucia use her magic to yank Timotheus right out of his safe haven.
    Lucia realized Kyan was watching her and she looked up from her bowl.
    â€œYou still want to help me, don’t you?” he asked, his voice softer now.
    She nodded. “Of course. I hate Watchers as much as you do.”
    â€œI highly doubt that. But I’m sure there’s no love lost between you after all that’s happened.” He sighed. Suddenly, he looked very mortal to Lucia. Very vulnerable, and very tired. “Once Timotheus is dead, perhaps I can finally find peace.”
    â€œAs soon as he’s dead, we’ll find your family, and
then
you can find peace,” she replied. “And anyone who gets in our way will be very, very sorry.”
    â€œMy fierce little sorceress.” He grinned at her. “You remind meso much of Eva. She protected us, too. She was the only one who understood what we wanted—what we needed—more than anything else.”
    â€œTo be free, and to be a real family.”
    â€œYes.”
    It wasn’t common knowledge that the Kindred weren’t just magical forces trapped within crystals. They were elemental
beings
, with hopes and dreams and goals. Yet all who believed in their existence, including Lucia’s adoptive father, King Gaius, thought them to be nothing more than shiny treasures that would bring ultimate power to their possessors.
    Once she and Kyan had summoned Timotheus from the Sanctuary, she would drain the Watcher of his magic until he became mortal.
    And then Lucia would kill him, just as she had Melenia.
    She had taken such pleasure in the death of that beautiful immortal—a woman who’d corrupted Alexius to the point he’d nearly murdered Lucia. She’d used Lucia’s blood to escape her own prison and awaken Kyan, her former lover.
    But the pain in Melenia’s eyes, just before her death, when she’d realized Kyan had never loved her back . . .
    Such sweet, sweet vengeance.
    â€œWhat if we find a witch and she refuses to help us?” Lucia asked. “Will we have to torture her?”
    â€œTorture?” He frowned. “I don’t think that’ll be necessary. Your magic will be sufficient to help get us what we need.”
    She knew her magic was more powerful than a common witch’s, but she’d only started to scratch the surface. She yearned to know more. “What do you mean?”
    â€œEva had a golden dagger, which she would use to carve symbols into people’s flesh—both immortal