Read Through the Veil for Free Online

them leave; instead he turned his head and stared at Lee. She sat cross-legged by the body of a young child, holding a limp hand between hers. The tears had finallystarted to fall and her shoulders were wracked with the force of her sobs.
    Even in the middle of the massacre, the sound of her grief tore at him like jagged claws. He wanted to go to her. But standing over Akira’s body, he couldn’t. Rage shook him, ate at him, and the longer he stared at Lee, the hotter his rage burned.
    This could all stop.
    Lee could help them stop it.
    It was within her power. Kalen didn’t know how he knew that, but it was true. Magick wasn’t uncommon in his world. More than half of the women who served under him had magickal abilities. Many of the men had psychic skills of some sort. Save for the med-units, easily half of his forces had either magickal or telepathic skills. But none of them had the kind of potential that he sensed within Lee.
    She moved in the shadows of their world, always at night, fighting the demons while the moon rode in the sky and the demons were at their strongest. She fought them and she won. Somehow, she was their chance out of hell. He knew it in his gut. But none of that would do any of them a damn bit of good until she accepted who she was. If Lee would do that, they just might have a chance. He reached out to her and she ignored him every time. She came and did what she had to, and when it was done, she turned her back on them while Kalen’s people continued to die.
    His heart pounded in his throat and the bitter taste of anger lay heavy on his tongue as he stared at her. “How long will you hide, Lee?”
    She lifted her head, and a breeze blew by, blowing long strands of her silken hair across her face, hiding from him everything but those azure eyes. For long moments, she stared at him, unmoving.
    Kalen moved to her, the thick soles of his combat boots thudding dully on the rubble-strewn ground. It was thick with garbage, dirt, tossed medical supplies . . . and things he’d rather not think about, gobbets of nasty wet things he didn’t want to see. By the carcass of the senior medical officer, he paused and knelt. He felt a knot swell in his throat as he stared down into the man’s wizened old face. “God-speed, Jacob,” he whispered. He blew out a tired breath and ran a hand down his face before snagging a blanket from the rubble. Gently, he covered Jacob’s body before rising and meeting Lee’s gaze over the distance that separated them.
    Purpose filled his eyes, his gut, his steps as he moved to her. He curled his hands into loose fists and wondered if he would be able to control his temper this time. Kalen saw the trepidation enter her eyes, watched as her throat moved, the fragile skin shifting, betraying the nerves he suspected she was suddenly feeling.
    He could see the pain in her gaze, but it came nowhere near the pain he felt. Lee barely knew these people. She hadn’t been there when Akira returned from her medical training and forced her way into Kalen’s unit. She hadn’t been there when Akira helped deliver Jacob’s first granddaughter. She hadn’t been there when Akira sat by Jacob’s side as his wife died.
    No, Lee came and went. She never risked herself for anything longer than a few hours a night. A few nights a week. Weeks would go by when she wasn’t seen at all.
    It cost them lives. People depended on her.
    She had proved time and again she would only come when she couldn’t stay away any longer. Her conscious self didn’t even know what was going on. She hid behind the veil of her memory, safe inside her normal world, where demons didn’t exist, where everything was safeness, security and light.
    Here, in this darker reality, where things existed whether she liked it or not, she could join them, save lives . . . but she refused.
    Closing the distance between them, he loomed over her, staring down into a face he knew almost as well as he knew his own. “When are