Read For the Love of a Goblin Warrior (Shadowlands) for Free Online

make plans, but his mind couldn’t pin down a thought.
    Then he blinked but didn’t wake; instead, he was in the Shadowlands.
    Goblins skulked through his sleep. They fought each other, drawing thick, black blood. Their weapons gleamed as bright as their eyes. He crept closer to see what they were willing to die for. A dark-haired woman was being held by the goblin currently claiming kingship. A spike of gold threaded through his nose; gold rings hung in his ears. He swung his sword with one hand and kept the woman in his grasp with the other. This was the prize they’d brought back from the Fixed Realm on the Wild Ride.
    She saw him and cried out, in one language and then another. Pleading. In his ears the words sounded the same. Help me.
    She didn’t want to be a goblin queen. She fought back, kicking and scratching any goblin who tried to grab her. Even the king of the troop hadn’t been able to hold on to her. But when the other goblins had swarmed around, she’d understood her fate.
    He’d watched. Not because he didn’t care, but because he hadn’t known what to do. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he didn’t know how to help her. Help was a concept that his goblin mind couldn’t grasp.
    Around him, the goblins squabbled and smaller fights broke out over the gathered gold and who would claim the woman. He understood everything, yet no one used the same language. The words off their tongues were languages he’d never heard before living in the Shadowlands, yet everything made sense. He’d never questioned how goblins knew Decangli…somehow he’d forgotten that was what he’d spoken, as if his goblin mind was too concerned with gold and fighting to think beyond and reason like a man. He stood watching and listening and absorbing.
    He recognized the languages the woman used as the two Nadine had used—the one that everyone around him spoke and the other one, the one that was like an echo of Latin too distorted for him to comprehend.
    The woman grabbed a knife from the closest goblin, desperation in her eyes. He knew that look—he’d seen it in his wife’s eyes just before she’d died. Meryn looked away, unable to watch what happened next. Red blood stained the gray dust. But the goblins still fought, blaming the others for the loss of their prize.
    He’d always known he was different from other goblins, that something was wrong with him, but until that moment, he’d been able to deny it and pretend he was the same.
    Now he knew why he was different. He hadn’t yet completely surrendered his human soul.
    He glanced at the woman. She lay unseeing on the gray dust—the curve of her lips and cheek now strangely familiar.

Chapter 4
    Nadine peeked through the window into the room. Meryn was sleeping, but it didn’t appear to be restful; his hands gripped the sheets too tight. What was he dreaming? The same nightmare that had made him call out in her ward? Was it some kind of post-traumatic stress? She bit her lower lip. Something about him wasn’t adding up. He could draw a detailed map of Europe but didn’t seem to recognize Australia. His reactions had all been normal. And if he was from Wales, shouldn’t be able to speak English?
    She lingered, watching him for a little longer. There was always something wrong with the really good-looking ones.
    She shook her head and turned away. Like she could judge.
    In the changing room, Nadine toed off her shoes, stripped off her scrubs, and dropped them on the floor. From her locker she pulled out her running gear, leggings and a long-sleeved T-shirt. After the shift she’d had, she needed to get out and stretch her legs before crashing for a few hours.
    She dressed and tied up her sneakers. As she stood, there was no familiar bounce when her necklace should’ve hit her chest. Nothing. She traced the length of gold chain, but there was nothing hanging from it. Her mother’s cross was gone.
    “Shit.” Panic shot through her system like a drug.
    She