Breathe by Penni Russon

Author:Penni Russon [Russon, Penni]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2011-10-12T01:03:34+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

It was early afternoon when Undine woke, starving

and disoriented.

She sat up and pulled on her clothes, and was about to open the door of her room when she heard voices, first Prospero’s, then Lou’s, high-pitched and angry. She stood at the blue wooden door, pressed against it, listening.

“All I meant,” Prospero was saying, his aged voice soothing but firm, “was that you should consider the possible outcome of having Undine make such a promise. You can’t control—”

“But don’t you see?” Lou broke in. “I can.I can control the magic. I’ve always been able to. Except when you seduced me into using it.”

“But you can’t control Undine. Lou, she’s more powerful than either of us, than both of us together. You don’t know what will happen if she’s not encouraged to—”

“I expected this from you! You don’t care about Undine, about your daughter. The magic always comes first.”

Prospero’s voice was subdued. “You know that’s not true, Louise. You know how much I do care about Undine.”

“But it’s too dangerous! It’s too reckless; there’s no place for it in Undine’s life. She needs to learn to suppress it. It’s the only way she’ll ever be happy.”

“Louise. Those months when you were with me. You were happy. After everything your parents put you through . . . it was wrong of them to make you turn away from who you are.”

“Everyone’s wrong, aren’t they, Prospero? Everyone except you. Haven’t you ever wondered if maybe it’s you that’s wrong, your obsession . . .” Lou stopped. When she started again her voice was thick with tears. “Happy? You think I was happy? You could never make me happy, not truly, Prospero. I was . . . drunk. On magic. I wasn’t happy.”

“Louise . . .”

Undine shifted against the wall. This wasn’t what she’d hoped. She didn’t expect Prospero and Lou to fall in love again; the very idea was absurd. In fact she found it impossible to imagine that they had ever been a couple, let alone had a baby together. But she wanted them to like each other enough that she could have a family: a weird, dysfunctional, broken family, but still one that could get together for birthdays and Christmas without...without this.

“Louise,” Undine heard Prospero say, “I made a promise to you. No magic, for me or Undine. All I ask in return is that you think about what I’ve said.”

She heard Prospero leave and Lou sigh. Undine stood conflicted, wondering if she should confront her mother, when Jasper’s high, excited voice suddenly filled the room, accompanied by Lena’s soft contralto. Relieved, Undine waited till she was sure Lou had gone before she let herself out into the flagstone courtyard. Lena was sitting out there, staring at the blue sky, sipping a coffee as thick and black as treacle.

“Hungry?” Lena asked, as if she had been waiting for Undine. “You must be.” Without waiting for an answer, she disappeared into the kitchen and came back minutes later with a bowl of steaming soup and rice, thick with egg, flavored with lemons and garlic.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.