Sorceress by Gray Claudia

Author:Gray, Claudia [Gray, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-12-20T08:00:00+00:00

9

THE PHONE RANG, WAKING MATEO UP. HE GRABBED FOR his cell phone, only to groggily realize the call was on their landline, the one that was in the phone book but that no one except telemarketers and political robocalls ever used. And nobody ever called before seven a.m.

Except in an emergency.

He dashed into the living room, hoping the phone hadn’t yet woken up his dad. The only other sound was the constant drumming of rain on the windows. “Hello?”

“This is Simon Caldani. Nadia’s father.” He sounded terrible, like he was sick.

Fear seemed to circle Mateo’s heart, and squeeze tightly. “Is Nadia okay?”

“She’s not with you?” Mr. Caldani’s voice cracked. “I was just sure . . . I’d been counting on her being at your place.”

When the father of a teenage girl actually hoped she’d slept over at her boyfriend’s, things were seriously bad. “Is she missing?”

A long pause followed. “Nadia and I—the other night—she told me some things that I—I didn’t react well.” What could he possibly mean?

Then Mateo knew.

He said, “She told you what’s really going on, didn’t she?”

“Mateo, I—I’m not sure what you mean.”

“You know now. You know the truth.”

Footsteps just outside the kitchen made Mateo look up to see his dad in his rumpled pajamas, shuffling toward the coffeemaker. Dad mouthed, What truth? Mateo waved his hand, like, I’ll tell you later, which actually meant he’d come up with the best lie he could on the spot.

Mr. Caldani said, very evenly, “I’m not sure we’re talking about the same thing. But—if we are—then you understand why I was unnerved. I . . . reacted badly. But I never meant to hurt Nadia, or scare her away. She took off, and she hasn’t come back home, and I’m worried sick.”

“That makes two of us.”

Nadia was more than able to take care of herself, at least against any mortal danger. Mateo knew that. But she was up against dangers infinitely worse than any mugger or kidnapper could ever be. Now she was facing them alone.

For her to have told her father about her witchcraft—to have broken the First Law against freely revealing the Craft to a man—Nadia had to have been completely desperate.

Hold on, Mateo thought, resolve hardening within him. I’m going to get you out of this. I’ll save you, Nadia.

If it’s the last thing I do.

Even a Sorceress had to sleep.

Nadia stared at Elizabeth as she dozed in her hammock, long chestnut curls trailing down almost to the floor. Some people looked innocent or vulnerable when they slept; Elizabeth did not. She looked more like an Egyptian from a sarcophagus lid: hard, unmovable, just waiting to rise again, stronger than before.

Still, Elizabeth had cast no special enchantments before going to sleep. Nadia knew she would be protected—but probably the protections were for Elizabeth’s personal safety. She wouldn’t have cast protective spells around her things.

She rose from the floor, walking just like normal so that if Elizabeth woke up, she wouldn’t become suspicious.

Nadia glanced over her shoulder. Elizabeth remained sound asleep.

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.