The wold hissed. Its twisted limbs opened wide, releasing yellow claws.
A light sheen of magic coated Roseas fingers. The magic vibrated in her, straining to break free.
The wold ran at her, its black maw gaping, teeth and claws ready to rend.
Rose flashed. Magic shot from her hand in a glowing whip of white and struck the creature in the chest. The woldas momentum carried it another step, but the icy white flame of the flash burned it, burrowing into its chest, seeking its malice-coated core. Dismembering it wouldnat be enough. She had to kill the curse itself.
Chunks of flesh rained from the wold. Rose advanced, keeping the whip of light fixed on the creature. Her arm throbbed with tension.
The wold fell apart, revealing a small mote of darkness churning with violent red and purple flashes. Rose squeezed her fist. The white whip clutched at the darkness.
She strained, squeezing tighter, her nails biting into her palm. With a sound like a cracked walnut, the mote collapsed in on itself in a shower of white sparks and vanished.
Rose let out a deep breath, stepped over the carrion littering the path, and walked up to the tree. aCome on,a she said, holding out her hands.
Kenny stood frozen. For a moment she thought shead have to go get his mother, but suddenly he let go and Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( slid down the trunk, sc.r.a.ping himself against bark and all but falling into her arms. She had to drop him on his feeta"he was too heavy.
aItas gone,a she said and hugged him. aDead and done.
Understand?a He nodded.
aIt wonat come back. If you ever see another one like that, you run to my house as fast as you can. Iall kill it.
Go home now.a He peeled down the road at a dead run, veering left, toward the Ogletree house.
Rose looked back at the carrion strewn in the dirt. Only a handful of families could claim a magic user strong enough to create a wold, and all of those capable were older people and supposedly knew better. A wold couldnat be stopped. It was the kind of weapon that killed everything it came across. She hadnat seen one for years. The last time one popped up, it took a full-blown posse to hunt it down with gasoline and torches.
Something had to have gone seriously wrong for one of the locals to curse a wold into life. Something dire was happening. Cold dread settled in the base of her neck.
For a moment she considered following Kenny Jo to find out if Leanne knew anything about it, but decided against it. Shortly after high school, Sarah had married well and moved to a nice house in the Broken.
Rumor said, Leanne wasnat welcome at Sarahas new dream home, and it made her only madder at life than she already was. She and Rose hadnat spoken to each other since high school. She seriously doubted Leanne would suddenly open up to her.
Rose started up the road at a brisk pace. The faster she got home, the sooner shead make sure that the boys were safe.
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( Few things happened in East Laporte without Grandma lonoreas knowledge. She would just have to ask her about it.
aMMRE?a lonore glanced at Georgieas face. She never could get him to explain how he knew to call her that. She had never spoken a word of French to either of them. But Georgie started saying it when he was two, with a light Provenal overlay. She had a feeling he didnat know himself why he did it, but every time he said the word, it brought her back to dry, warm hills, where she sat in the sunshine next to her own grandmre , nibbling on fouga.s.se that left a faint orange taste on her tongue and watching the men down in the village play la longue with the grace of ballet dancers.
She smiled at him. aWhat is it?a aCan we go outside?a Two pairs of eyes blinked at her from angelic faces: Georgieas blue and Jackas amber. Hooligans, both of them. aIs it dark?a aWe wonat go past the ward stones.a She rolled her eyes. aOh, and you think I was born yesterday, no?a aPleeease.a Georgieas eyes wouldave done any puppy proud.
Behind him Jack nodded earnestly.
aAll right.a She gave in before her heart melted. Rose would be none too pleased if she found out, but what Rose didnat know, she couldnat fuss about. aI donat trust the two of you. Iam coming out on the porch.a They were out the door before she got up off her chair.
lonore took her teacup to the porch. The old rocking chair creaked under her weight. The boys dashed into the yard.
Beyond the lines of the ward stones, the Wood shivered with life. The sky had darkened to deep soothing Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( purple, and the leaves of the upper branches stood out, nearly black against it, rustling gently in the cool whisper of the night breeze. Here and there the white spires of nightneedle bloomed between the trees.
Their stems, no more than green shoots during the day, released a cascade of delicate, bell-shaped blossoms with the first touch of darkness, sending a mimosa perfume into the night. lonore breathed it in and smiled.
So peaceful . . .
Unease flared at the base of her neck and rolled down her spine in a viscous wintry rush. She felt the press of someoneas gaze pin her, as if she had a bullas-eye between her shoulder blades. lonore turned, scanning the ward line.
There. A dark spot hovered at the outer edge on her left. It stood on all fours, dense and impenetrable, like a hole cut in the fabric of the night to reveal primordial darkness. She could barely see it in the gloom, its silhouette more of a guess than a certainty.
lonoreas fingers found the small wooden charm hanging from her neck. She gripped it tight and whispered, aSight.a Magic pulsed from her in a flat horizontal fan, pulling the landscape and the creature to her eyes in a rush.
She saw darkness and within it a narrow slit of the eye: pale, weakly luminescent gray without an iris or a pupil. She tried to reach past it and glimpsed a hint of a form, churning with unfamiliar violence. Her senses screamed in alarm. The eye jerked out of sight. She released the charm in time to catch a blur of darkness as the creature vanished into the underbrush without a sound.
The Wood was home to many things, but lonore had never seen one so disturbingly alien. She glanced to Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( the kids on the lawn. Safe behind the protective stones. It will be fine, she told herself. The wards around Roseas house were strong and old. The spells had rooted deep into the soil. Besides, Rose would be coming up the road any minute now, and lonore pitied any beast that tried to stand between her and the boys.
It was probably just some odd creature the Wood had disgorged. The forest stretched west of East Laporte and all the way into the Weird. Perhaps some Weird beast had crossed the boundary into the Edge.
Stranger things had happened. No need to tell Rose about it, lonore decided. The poor child was paranoid enough as it was.
ROSE made the final turn and paused at the edge of the lawn. Grandma lonore sat on the porch, sipping hot tea from a teacup. Some time ago Grandma had decided she was old enough to cultivate a hedge witch look. Her gray hair was teased into a semblance of a crazy matted mess randomly decorated with feathers, twigs, and charms. Her clothes wouldave given any deconstruction-oriented designer a run for his money: they were artfully ripped and layered, until she resembled a half-plucked chicken with bits and tatters of fabric fluttering about her as she moved.
The authenticity of her costume was slightly ruined by the fact that both her rags and her hair were very clean and smelled faintly of lavender, and by a decidedly unwitchy teacup with a fluffy gray kitten on it.
aWere the boys any trouble?a Rose asked, coming to sit next to her.
Grandma rolled her eyes. aPlease. Iam a hundred and seven years old. I think I can handle two hooligans.a The magic kept most Edge families alive and well long past their Broken peers, and Grandma didnat look a Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( day older than fifty-five. It wasnat her age that was the problem, Rose reflected. It was that the moment the boys made their puppy eyes at her, all the rules and discipline flew out the window.
Behind Grandma the boys chased each other on the gra.s.s: Jack, nimble and lightning quick, and Georgie, a pale golden-haired shadow. Paler than usual today. One of them was impersonating InuYasha, the halfdemon boy from the comic book; the other was probably Lord Sesshomaru, InuYashaas older and stronger demon half-brother. But which was which, she couldnat tell from here.
Rose did not regret buying the comics. The boys had latched onto them, and the precious volumes now occupied the treasured spot of honor on the top shelf in their bedroom.
Georgie ran out of breath and sat on the gra.s.s, slumping forward. Rose caught a sigh. He looked about to be sick.
Grandma pursed her lips. aWhat was it this time?a aA baby bird.a Head raised it this morning, before she dropped them off at the school bus stop.
Georgie coughed and bent over on the gra.s.s. Jack stopped in midstride. He looked at Georgie for a long moment, his face blank and lost, then trotted over and sat next to him.
aIf George keeps this up, it will kill him.a Grandma shook her head.
Rose sighed. When Georgie resurrected something, he sacrificed a bit of his vitality to give it life. The stronger his power grew, the weaker his body became, as if his mind was the flame of a candle that burned too bright, destroying the wax too fast. They tried explaining.
They tried talking. They tried threats and Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( punishments and pleading, but nothing helped. Georgie breathed life into things that made him sad with their pa.s.sing and simply didnat know how to let them go.
aWhat a pair.a Grandma sighed. aA cat with a death wish and his brother whoas trying to keep half of the Wood alive.a Her voice broke a bit. aHowas Cletus?a she said, making an obvious effort to sound nonchalant and failing.
aSame,a Rose said.
A shadow clouded Grandmaas eyes. She frowned and poured Rose a cup of tea. aThe boys told me about this William. What does he do?a Traitors. aHeas a floorer.a aHe sells flowers?a Grandmaas eyebrows crept up.
aNo. You know how roofers work on roofs? Well, he works on floors.a aAre you sure he isnat a child molester? Because thatas what they do, they sidle up to the woman in the family, woo her, and then next thing you know theyave got their dia"a Rose gave her an indignant stare. aHe isnat a child molester.a aHow do you know?a Rose spread her arms helplessly. aHe has honest eyes?a aIs he handsome?a Rose frowned. aHeas a fine figure of a man. Dark hair, dark eyes. Handsome, I suppose.a aIf he looks that good, why didnat you let him court you?a aIt didnat feel right,a she said shortly.
Grandma looked at her, her blue eyes vivid on her wrinkled tan face, like two violets on a freshly plowed field. aI see.a aI saw a wold today,a Rose said to change the subject.
Grandma raised her eyebrows. aOh? How big?a Rose lifted her hand to show about four feet.
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( aMy. He was a big one.a A flicker of worry mudded the clear blue of Grandmaas eyes.
Rose nodded. aIt chased Kenny Jo up a tree.a aKenny Jo deserves it. Did you kill it?a They shared a small private smile. A couple of weeks after Rose had flashed white, Grandma had made a small wold for her to kill. Practice, she had said. It was more than thata" it was a test. Grandma wanted to see how hot she could flash. Rose had blown the wold to pieces in the first ten seconds. Grandma didnat speak for a full half a day after that. Grandpa had called it a record of some sort and predicted Apocalypse.
Rose nodded. aWho could make a wold?a Grandma set her cup down with a sigh. aThatas a powerful curse. I can. Lee Stearns. Jeremiah Lovedahl.
Adele Moore. Emily Paw. Her aunt, Elsie, could, too, but the poor woman lost her wits, what, two decades ago?a aI heard she has tea parties.a Rose drank her tea.
Grandma nodded. aIave seen her do it. She brings teddy bears to the picnic table and pours them invisible tea out of a plastic tea set. Sometimes the bears even drink it.
There was some real power there, but itas all gone to waste now.a Rose opened her mouth to tell her about a man who liked to jump on moving trucks and stopped. It was just an isolated incident. Nothing would come of it. Why worry her?
aWhoever has done it, Iall find out. And Iam sure Jeremiah and Adele will want to give them a piece of their mind.a Grandma rose. aWell, Iad better be going. Iall make the trip to Adeleas tomorrow and see what she knows. The hooligans finished their homework. Also, Georgie has a note from his teacher, something about stone books.a Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( aStone books?a Rose frowned.
aYes. I think he needs one made of marble.a aMarble composition book,a Rose guessed.
aYes, thatas the one.a Grandma headed for the door and stopped, framed in the doorway. aMaybe you should give this boy a chance. Life doesnat have to end after the Graduation Fair, you know. It goes on.a She left. Rose sighed and poured herself more tea.
Give the boy a chance.
Rose mulled it over. Maybe she should have given William a chance. Most people in her position might have. She hadnat dated in years.
And that was exactly the problem. She hadnat dated in years, and her judgment wasnat sound. A part of her wanted to be pretty and carefree. In her rare moments of desperation, she wanted a man to look at her like she meant the world to him, and failing that, she would settle for someone who thought she was beautiful and told her so. William would probably fit that bill. Part of her pointed out that something was better than nothing. But if she ended up with the wrong something, shead regret it for the rest of her life. Once bitten, twice shy. Living in your dreams meant bitter disappointment when you woke up. Shead learned that lesson well.
The incident with William unsettled her. Head unwittingly pulled all of her old wants and hopes out of the recesses of herself where shead carefully stuffed them, and dragged the entire mess into bright light. Now she had to deal with it, and she resented him for it. Come to think of it, any handsome man who asked her out wouldave set off the same chain reaction. She didnat want to go out with William just because he was in Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( the right place at the right time. And she hated feeling desperate.
Rose got up, gathered the cups and the kettle onto a platter, and carried them off to the kitchen. It wasnat always this way, she reflected. No, she was never the most popular girl in school, but she had her share of guys knocking on her door. Back then she dated the kind of boys even a Drayton girl didnat feel right bringing home. Like Brad Dillon. Brad had black hair, hot brown eyes, and carved biceps. And the best a.s.s in the county. But that was before the Graduation Fair.
East Laporte was too small to have its own high school, and most kids went to school in the Broken. There was a tiny church school for people who didnat have the papers or the money to bribe the princ.i.p.al of the Broken high school, but aside from that, you were out of luck. For those who did attend the school in the Broken, high school meant four years of pretending to be a normal Broken person. Four years of having your nose rubbed in how poor you were and in all the things you could never do: college, traveling, having a nice house . . .
Thatas why the Graduation Fair was a huge deal. It happened on the thirtieth of May, once the Broken schools let the kids out for the summer. It was the time for graduating seniors to celebrate their freedom.
Everyone attended. Even the bluebloods from the lands neighboring the Edge came once in a while, cloaked in the powerful magics of the Weird. Food stalls sprang up along the fieldas edge, caravans from the Weird arrived to exchange their goods for the trinkets from the Broken, and bouncy gyms and inflatable water slides were set up for the little kids. Once everyone ate and traded, people gathered at Crowas field to watch Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( the seniors show off their flash. There was nothing simpler and more complicated than a flash: a burst of magic, pure and direct. Like lightning. It showed a personas power. The brighter and more defined was the flash, the stronger was the magic user.
The Edger kids kept to themselves even in the schools of the Broken, and once you hit high school, thatas all anyone would talk about between cla.s.ses and during lunch: who flashed what color the previous year. The best Edgers flashed pastel blue or green. You just hoped you didnat come out there and puffed out dark red, the weakest color, to the jeers of the audience. Only the bluebloods, the aristocrats of the Weird, flashed white, and even among them, not everyone could deliver a controlled whip of power.
Rose rinsed out the cups and put them back into the cabinet.
Middle school had been h.e.l.l for her. Leanne and Sarah, the two queen b.i.t.c.hes, picked on her the entire time, because her mom had slept with Sarahas dad, lured him away from Sarahas mother, and then dumped him. Sarahas parents split, and Rose paid the price. She was the daughter of a wh.o.r.e, and a beggar wh.o.r.e at that, a girl who was ugly, poor, and good at nothing.
She began practicing her flash in sixth grade. She worked at it with a fanatical devotion. She practiced for hours, in private, determined to show them all. When her mom died her junior year of high school, it only spurred Rose on. Flashing became an obsession. She practiced, and practiced, and practiced, until magic flowed from her, pliant and obedient.
When Rose walked onto that field at the Graduation Fair, her head held high, she knew she was ready. She had years of practice behind her. She would finally shove it in their faces. She opened her hands wide and Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( flashed an arch of purest white, as defined as any of the best bluebloods could hope to offer.
In her childish triumphant dreams, Rose had imagined people cheering, pictured herself being hired by a blueblood house, receiving training, going off to adventure in the depths of the Weird. She had done something truly remarkable. Not even a burst of energy, but an arch, crisp and sharp like a blade of a scimitar that played in her hands like a willing pet. Top that, you a.s.sholes.
Morbid silence greeted her. Fear stabbed her chest, and she realized suddenly that she might have made a mistake. And then Dad was there at her side, and he pointed his gun at the audience, and he and Grandfather took her off the field quicker than she could think, packed her into Dadas Jeep, and drove to the house like wolves were snapping at their heels. That night Grandma didnat sleepa"she walked the grounds, reinforcing the ward stones with her blood.
In the morning, four messengers waited by those ward stones. Three had come from the Edger families, and one from a blueblood n.o.ble house. Only the blueblood man was allowed to enter. He sat in their kitchen, an older grizzled warrior with a sword on his waist, and laid it all out. Only bluebloods flashed white. That was an unshakable fact. In two hundred years, no Edger had delivered such a focused and bright flash. Coupled with her motheras reputation, that could mean only one thing: Rose wasnat her fatheras daughter.
At that conclusion, Grandpa had to be taken out of the kitchen to keep from skewering their aguesta with his rapier.
Rose denied it. It simply wasnat true: not only did she look like a Drayton, but she was born exactly nine Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( months following her parentsa honeymoon. Her mother had lost her virginity on her wedding night. The sleeping around didnat start until Rose was in her teensa"it was the death of her motheras parents that had triggered it.
The man shook his head. It didnat matter, he explained. Even if she was legitimate, no one would believe her. Those of blue blood possessed the potential for great powers. n.o.body in their right mind could ignore the possibility that Rose could be a descendant of a n.o.ble family, a descendant who could in turn pa.s.s that precious blood to her children.
Finally she understood. She had hoped to wow everyone.
Instead she had marked herself to be used as a broodmare.
The blueblood outlined his terms: a large stipend to her family, a comfortable life for her. They werenat offering marriage, like the other three messengers from the Edge. After all, they were an aristocratic house, and having a mongrel in their bloodline would be beneath them. They simply expected her to produce a horde of b.a.s.t.a.r.ds to be used as retainers for their house.
Her father told him to get out.
Itas amazing how stupid you can be when youare young, Rose reflected. Two days later, she had snuck away to see Brad Dillon. He told her, aDonat worry, babe. Itas us against them. We can take them all on.a They made out, and then he wanted to go to a club in the city ato show them alla that she wasnat scared. He asked her to go out and start her truck. Head lost his license for doing ninety in a forty-five zone and then punching a cop, and she had to play the chauffeur.
She never made it to the truck. He came out of the house behind her, brandishing a bat, smiled, and clubbed her over the head.
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( She vividly remembered his smile. It was a smug grin that said, aIam so much smarter than you, b.i.t.c.h.a He didnat hit her quite hard enough. His plan was to knock her out and deliver her to the Simoen family.
The Simoens were always opportunistic, grabbing at every chance to get a bigger piece of the pie. Later she found out that Frank Simoen, the familyas patriarch, promised Brad ten grand to deliver Rose. Ten grand. A fortune for an Edger. Theyad wanted to get her hitched to Rob Simoen, Frankas son, so Robas babies would one day flash white as well.
And Brad had tried. But Rose had jerked back at the last moment, and the bat glanced off, breaking the skin on her forehead. She stood there, her skull humming with pain, blood running into her eyes, sh.e.l.l-shocked.
When Brad Dillon had swung that bat a second time to finish the job, he found out just how hot her flash could be. She didnat want to hurt him, but she did. And as he writhed on the ground at her feet, she cried and cried, because in that moment she realized that her life would never be the same.
What followed was six months of h.e.l.l. The Edge clans went after her with a vengeance, some to get her for themselves, others so they could sell her to the highest bidder. At first she hid, then she fought back. Itas true, she had only one weapon, but against it there was no defense. Sooner or later she was bound to kill someone, and once she had fried a drifter hired to kidnap her, the Edgers realized that she couldnat be controlled and left her alone. Shortly after that, Grandpa died, and then Dad got the idea for his latest brilliant scheme and departed, running away like a thief during the night. All she had left was a note ranting about treasure and how, when he returned, all of them would be rich.
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( Four years had pa.s.sed. All her dreams died a quiet death.
She earned her living like most poor Edgers did: by working a job in the Broken for minimum wage, paid under the table. She cleaned offices and made enough to buy food and clothes and a few items to barter when the caravans from the Weird came looking to trade Pepsi, plastic, and clothes for enchanted goods. It was good honest work. It put food on the table.
And it killed her a little to do it.
She looked outside where the boys sprawled in the gra.s.s looking at the evening sky. At least when her parents had her brothers, they had the presence of mind to have Georgie at a hospital down in town and pay a midwife from the Broken to make sure Jack was legal, too.
Both boys had Broken birth certificates and social security numbers. But she had been born in the Edge.
Her driveras license was a fake, and her parents had to fork out a small fortune to the princ.i.p.al of her high school because her social security number belonged to someone else.
At least the boys were legal. And she wouldnat abandon them the way Dad did. She would starve if she had to, but they would go to a school in the Broken. That was the great thing about the Broken: you could succeed there on brains and drive alone, no magic required.
When the boys grew up, they would have more choices than she did.
Still, she wasnat ready to put her dreams to rest either. One day, shead find a way to live her life to the fullest. She was sure of it. She just had no idea how she would manage it.