The Breaker's Promise (YA Urban Fantasy) (Fixed Points Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

know things like that can’t be conformed until it’s decided by the Council,” Echo interjected. “And that’s part of what they’re doing here, trying to figure out what, if anything, that tattoo on your back means.”
    “And what laws my parents broke in giving it to me,” Owen finished. Though I didn’t turn to him, I heard the flinch in his voice. Though Owen never spoke much about his parents beyond the normal everyday stuff, I knew how much they meant to him. I felt it when I sifted through his memories; the unconditional love for his mother, the deeply ingrained need to please his father. It was as much a part of him as his eyes or his ears. And he could just as easily part with it.
    “As hard as it may be for you to understand, your mother and father’s fates aren’t your concern now,” Echo said.
    A rush of heat pooled in my cheeks. “They’re his parents!” I said indignantly. “Of course they’re his concern.”
    Dahlia walked closer to me, and I caught a whiff of her lilac perfume. It mixed with the orange cleaner scent to form a sickeningly sweet smell. “It can’t be his concern,” Dahlia said flatly. “Like you, he hasn’t that luxury. From the instant you walk through those chamber doors,” Dahlia pointed to the left. “Until the second they are out of sight, the Council will be watching your every move. It would be wise of the both of you to occupy yourselves with appeasing them. Open yourselves up. Let them in. And you,” she leveled a purple painted finger in my face. “You will treat the Council with the respect that a governing body of their importance deserves.”
    “Fine,” I muttered, resigning myself to kiss old dude ass for the foreseeable future, so long as it kept them off my scent. “Wait a sec,” I said, as a thought hit me. “The only chambers to the left are your chambers; the master bedroom,” I said to Dahlia.
    “That’s correct,” Dahlia smirked. “You see what I mean about respect?”
    “Yeah yeah, you’re a regular Miss Manners. But how is the entire Council going to stay in your bedroom?” I thought about the vision of the Council I saw in Owen’s memories; at least a dozen old men and women. “I mean, I get that you’ve got the biggest bed in the school, but-“
    Dahlia rolled her eyes and sighed audibly. “Sometimes I forget how irritatingly new to all of this you are.”
    Echo came forward, his fingers tapping against the fabric his pants. “The Council doesn’t come when it comes.”
    “Well, that makes sense,” I answered.
    “The Council is busy. There is never a time when their presence in the Hourglass isn’t mandatory. As such, when the Council is called to investigate, they do so with the aid of a representative, or a vessel, as they call it,” he explained.
    “They send a lackey?” I asked.
    “Yes and no,” Echo answered, his fingers still tapping. “As I said, they send a representative, but not in the traditional sense; at least, not the traditional human sense. The representative’s brain activity is monitored. Everything they see, hear, even think is recorded and transmitted to the Council in daily intervals.”
    “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” I answered, my eyes narrowing from shock. “And this is coming from the girl who got kidnapped, slapped in a wedding dress, and almost married off to some crazy guy she’d never seen before.”
    “That being said, you should treat the vessel as though it was the Council, as though they were standing in front of you, inspecting everything you do, say, or do not do or say; because, in every way that matters, they are.”
    A jolt of fear, like ice, ran up my spine.
    It’ll be okay, Owen said directly into my head. We can do this.
    “I’m glad you think so.” In my nervousness, I said it out loud.
    “I know so,” Dahlia said, and marched past me. “Now we’ve kept the Council waiting long enough. Follow me.”  Dahlia left the office, turning left