Aster Wood series Box Set by J B Cantwell

Author:J B Cantwell [Cantwell, J B]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780990692508
Published: 2019-05-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

After a brief scouring of the house, including a spell Larissa did to hide our presence there, we set out. I wasn’t sure how we would find the precise spot Owyn and I had landed at when we had left the Fire Mountains together. The warmth coming from the chaser, now in my hand, lessened my worry, and I tried to push the concern aside. I would have to trust that the strange little ball would glow hot when the place was near.

But as we skirted the edges of the forest, I suddenly remembered something I had forgotten. I still had no idea why Jade had come to Ossenland before going to Riverstone. Maybe she wanted to see it again. Maybe plot some new, horrible deed for the future. But something about the strange detour didn’t sit right with me.

“We need to do something before we jump,” I said, stopping and turning to Larissa. “I need to find out why Jade came here before returning to Riverstone.”

She stopped, her breath heaving. I guess I had been walking faster than I’d realized.

“What? Now?” she asked. “Why?”

“She must have had a reason not to go straight home. And it must have been a good one. Jade was obsessed with making it back to Riverstone and staying there. Why didn’t she go straight back?”

Larissa looked around nervously, searching for pursuers.

“I don’t know, kid,” she said, exasperated. “Can’t we deal with this later? Seems to me the thing she’s obsessed with now is killin’ you.”

I thought about her words, and something I hadn’t considered before popped into my head.

Jade didn’t want to kill me.

That wasn’t her purpose at all. Maybe, after a while and a lot more effort on his part, the Corentin would be able to force her to do it. But it wasn’t in her nature to kill, especially not me. I remembered the shocked, horrified look on her face when she had struck Owyn down.

But she left you there, hanging on that ledge.

Yes, that was true. But in those moments she was more possessed than I had seen her before or since.

What would happen to her if she murdered me now? Her friend? Her brother?

I shook my head.

“She doesn’t want to kill me,” I said. “He does, but she won’t do it. Not yet. She wants me for something else, but I don’t know what. What I do know is that there was a reason she stopped, and it was a good one. We need to know why.”

Larissa barely looked at me as I spoke, still scanning every inch of ground she could see from our hiding spot in the trees.

“You should go on without me,” she said. She looked up with a familiar, condescending glint in her eye, one that I had seen many times from both her and her brother. She clenched her fists and put them on her hips. “You’ll just mess it up, ya know,” she went on. Acting superior seemed to bolster her courage. “I’ll stay.

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.