The Paladins Read Online Free

But plans can change. No one knows that better than I do.
    The cell on my bed chirps signaling another text. Speaking of change … Cole and I have been talking on and off all morning. Actually, we’ve been talking ever since he flew home to France eight months ago.
    Cole: I’m in hell here, Raven. Another bizarre nightmare. I miss you. Wish we could meet for coffee.
    Raven: Me, too. I’m sorry, Cole. Hang in there. Life will get better.
    I don’t know if it will or not, but I send him what hope I can. Poor Cole. In light of all he’s been through, it’s not surprising the guy suffers from bad dreams.
    The Artisan curse that left him haunting Maddox mansion drove him to ask me for help. It took months to unravel the mystery that threatened my sanity and my life. With the help of my friends, Jenny, and finally Gideon himself, we went to the mansion’s cellar where we performed the ritual that set Cole free.
    Life altering, supernatural events tend to blow your mind, then bind you irrevocably to the people you went through them with. At least, that’s what happened to me.
    My boyfriend doesn’t like my friendship with Cole, but he tolerates it. In time, I hope he’ll accept that while I’m drawn to Cole, there’s no one else like Gideon Maddox.
    Still, I can’t deny the strain between us, and I know he feels it, too. We came together like two speeding trains, barreling toward each other with opposite goals ending in a fierce and fiery meeting. All the ugly, painful parts of our lives spilled onto the ground for the other to inspect first. How does a new couple rewind to small talk and seemingly unimportant details after that? We’ve both lived crisis to crisis for so long, I’m not sure we know how to live without one.
    Maybe it takes time to adjust. And maybe there’s not enough time in the world to adjust to what we’ve been through. But no, I can’t let myself think that way. We’ll work it out. We have to.
    Edgar meows and bumps my hand with his massive head. I stroke his soft, black fur and peer out the window again. A jet parts the thin clouds overhead. Gideon’s plane will have landed in New York by now. He’s traveled much less lately, and I suspect that’s because of me, but I miss him anyway. I’ve never been the doe-eyed, clingy-type. Then again, I’ve never been crazy in love before, either.
    The wind blows the arms of the oaks outside, and I swear they call my name. I’m mesmerized, can’t stop watching. This fascination with fauna is new. Growing. And honestly, a bit disconcerting.
    I spot Dane in his red T-shirt coming up the sidewalk. His stride is uniquely him, athletic with a little gangsta-strut thrown in that I’d recognize anywhere. Not that anyone could miss the long russet dreads that hang like macramé cords from his head. Just the sight of him cheers me up. I grin as he strolls through the yard and up to my window instead of going to the front door like normal people.
    Two years ago, he was the new kid at school. Quiet, brooding, but one day he complimented my clothes. I said I liked his hair. He told me I could dance—for a white girl. Another smile breaks free at the memory of us debating everything from movies to whether or not rappers are poets. Boom. A friendship was born. Always there for me, Dane protected me those nights when I used to hunt the bars for Ben, and I stitched him up whenever he’d come over after a fight with his dad and needed a place to crash.
    He stops in front of my window and speaks to his shoes. “Hey, little Rae.”
    “Hey, yourself.” He tends to use my nickname when he’s worried—about me, or himself. Based on this afternoon’s activities, I’m betting on the latter.
    “Will you walk in with me?”
    “Chicken?”
    He nods. “I ain’t even gonna lie.”
    I sympathize. When I introduced him to Maggie, lightning struck. His feelings were instant and obvious, at least to me, and he carried that torch in silence for a long time. In