Free THE SHADOWLORD by Charlotte Boyett-Compo

head, she quivered with acute embarrassment and flinched when his heavy hand fell on her shoulder.
    "You offered me sympathy tonight, and I certainly was not expecting that from you. Now, I am offering you advice." He lightly shook her. "Go home, wench. Stay clear of the Brotherhood. They will chew you up and spit you out. Do you understand?"
    Aradia managed to nod, hearing the thunder of her blood in her ears.
    He squeezed her shoulder before releasing her and turning away. "Good. If I can save you from that life of degradation, it will have been worth every pass of the lash." He opened the door and walked into the pouring rain, then closed the door behind him.
    Letting out a ragged breath, Aradia shuddered and finished relieving herself. She scooted off the wooden seat, wiped herself on the hem of the already-dirty robe after discovering nothing else to use, then blew out the lantern. She opened the door, somewhat comforted by the clean wash of rain striking her face. For a moment, she stood, letting the moisture cool her. The storm was moving off, the thunder sounding more distant, but the rain still came down in driving sheets. Lowering her head, she ran for the inn's door, sidestepping as many puddles as she could see in the abbreviated flash of lightning.
    Phillipa was sitting in front of the fire, huddled in her blanket and staring into the leaping flames, when Aradia tapped at the door and Tianara opened let her in. The younger woman came to the fire pit and sat beside her friend.
    "You were gone a goodly time," Phillipa commented.
    "Can't you sleep?"
    "He is a dangerous man."
    "How do you know that?" Aradia asked in an exasperated tone.
    "I know a dangerous man when I encounter one. And so should you. Was not the Diabolusian as dangerous as they came?"
    "Not to me, he wasn't."
    Phillipa drew in a long breath, then exhaled slowly. "You will do what you will do, won't you, Ardy? No matter the consequences."
    "I'll be careful."
    "Sometimes careful isn't good enough." Phillipa returned to her pallet, leaving Aradia to watch the fire.
    Long into the night, the sad amber eyes of Lord Jaelan Ben-Ashaman lurked in the undulating flames Aradia contemplated. Those eyes bothered her far more than she would have imagined as the storm shook the building with violent claws.

    * * * *
    Jaelan lay awake in the room Jubil had allotted him, three-doors down from the room where the women slept. As they had all evening long, his thoughts returned to the evil that had once lurked in his world.
    "I remember you, Ai-Hawa ," he said aloud, staring at the heavy beam overhead. "I remember you all too well."
    With a curse, he sat up, throwing the covers from his legs. He raked a hand through his hair, gripping the black strands and pulling in his frustration.
    "I have never forgotten you. I remember that day as though it were yesterday."
    The hellish day was burned into his memory as though a branding iron had been applied to his brain, searing the sights and sounds and sensations, the taste of his own blood on his lips, into the recollection that would be there for as long as he drew breath. Nightmares had sprung from that gruesome day and still slipped unbidden into his bed when he least expected them, nightmares that had the power to make him tremble.
    A shudder ran through his tall frame. He felt the familiar ache in his chest, an awareness that often left him moist of eye and barren of hope. For a Shadowlord, it was a dangerous condition that had to be kept hidden at all costs.
    "Aye, I remember you, but you don't remember me, do you, wench?" he whispered, balling his hands into fists and dropping them to his thighs.
    He got up and moved to the window, pushing aside the curtain with the back of his hand. He blinked as lightning flared, driving a wedge of discomfort through his eyes. But he was unconcerned. Storms exhilarated him, thrilled him to the core of his being. Had it been a bit warmer, he would have stripped and stepped out into