Free Forged in Fire (The Forged Chronicles Book 3) by Alyssa Rose Ivy

never misguided.”
    “Yet it must be. Choosing you was a colossal mistake. As was choosing that girl. Royal blood or not, she is not strong enough to handle what she must.”
    “Do not speak of Ainsley.” When Gregor talked about me I felt little but annoyance at it, but when he talked about her, my anger grew.
    “I will speak of her whenever I wish. And we need to wake her. We have no time to waste.”
    “You will stay away.”
    “Or what?” He stepped toward me. “What would you do?”
    “Would you like a reminder? The only reason you survived our last confrontation was because of her. She is not standing here to save you.”
    “No because she is thinking about wanting to be in my bed.”
    I did not think. I swung at him and knocked him to the dirt floor. I was blinded by rage as I choked him. This time there was nothing to stop me. But then a thought raced through my brain. I released his neck. Gregor struggled for breaths as I stepped away.
    He had wanted me to attack him, and that had to have been for a reason. Gregor was not suicidal. His motivation was entirely different.

10

Ainsley
    R iding a horse with a man other than James felt wrong. Maybe that was silly. Maybe with everything else going on I shouldn’t have even been thinking about that, but I was. I was missing James more and more, and this kind of missing had nothing to do with my body craving him. I peered out into the dark night. I tried to stay confident, but I was terrified. I was out in the dark with a male creature I knew nothing about.
    “Are you ill?” Elron asked.
    “Maybe.”
    “I can feel your energy fading. It is a slow depletion, but it means something is wrong.” He touched my shoulder gently.
    “You can feel my energy depleting?” That was a new one.
    “Yes. It is a skill of my people.”
    I waited for him to expand on the statement, but he didn’t. “Maybe I need a nap.”
    “I am not speaking of that kind of energy, but yes, sleep is important.”
    “Are we almost there?” I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to arrive at his house, but sitting up on the horse was taking effort. The haze had lessened, but I was exhausted and uncomfortable sitting so close to a man I didn’t know who had already confirmed he wasn’t human. That was strange even in the context of the last few days. Some things took a long time to get used to.
    “Nearly there.”
    “If you live this far away, why were you in the woods where you found me?” I looked into the dark night wishing I could see. It was disconcerting to have absolutely no idea where we were.
    “I told you. I had a vision.” He spoke calmly and succinctly. It was nothing like the panic welling inside me.
    I wanted to scream and flail my hands around. I wanted to make someone understand how out of control my life had become, but I couldn’t. Instead I took a deep breath and asked a question. “A vision of what exactly?”
    He slowed down the horse. Maybe asking him questions was a mistake. “It was of a girl lost and in danger.”
    “So you knew what you were going to find.” I wasn’t surprised to learn that his appearance wasn’t random. Nothing seemed to be random in Energo.
    “I did not know who you were.”
    “But you knew that I was human.”
    “Most other creatures are more adept at protecting themselves.” His voice held no judgement, but that didn’t mean it didn’t annoy me.
    “Gee, thanks.”
    “That was not meant as an insult. Your kind is different. Instead of all members of the species being given power, only the select few are. That is not how it works for my kind.”
    “And what is your kind?” I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to know, but on a logical level I knew I should find out.
    “You will see soon enough.”
    “Is it obvious physically?” That would mean it was different than the wolves. You couldn’t tell while they were in human form.
    “I would think so. That is if your parents read you fairy tales.”
    “Yeah, not too many of