Tempting Fate by April White

Author:April White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: vampires, time travel, shapeshifters, freerunning, elizabeth 1
Publisher: April White

The sound of whispered voices dragged me from a dream. Ringo was speaking quietly with Pancho, and I could tell they’d been talking for a while.

“Yer ma hasn’t been back since?”

Pancho’s whisper sounded young and, I thought, male. “The family sends food in once a day, and takes the chamber pot, but I’ve not been out in a fortnight.”

I gasped, and I could feel the fear spike across the room. Definitely a Chihuahua. I felt a little bad for him. “You’re being held down here?”

“They’re hiding the lad from the queen’s men.” Ringo answered.

“Why?” I directed the question at Pancho, but he still wasn’t talking to me.

“’Is family’s hip-deep in ‘igh water with ‘er Majesty. From what I gather, ‘is name’ll get ‘im the Tower on a good day, or the ax on a bad ‘un.”

“How old are you?”

There was silence from the corner. Finally Ringo answered. “’E’s twelve.”

I sucked in a breath. “You haven’t been out of this hole in two weeks? Are they nuts?”

“It is treason to harbor a Wyatt.”

I felt sick. “The Wyatt Rebellion. Thomas is in the Tower right now.”

“How do you know my brother?” Pancho’s voice trembled, but he sounded brave too.

“I don’t.” I was going to fail at this time line protection thing. Badly.

“Your manner of speaking is very strange. You must be from France, or Spain perhaps. A spy.”

Again with the 007 business. “Not a spy. Just passing through.”

Pancho sounded resigned. “It wouldn’t matter. Even death would be better than living like this.”

“Dude, you’re twelve. You don’t get to talk like that.”

“Some lives have been lived through in twelve years.” Ringo, with his own sixteen years, had just told a bigger truth than any philosophy book I’d ever read.

I pulled Ringo close so I could whisper in his ear. “Let’s take him with us.” I sounded like Dorothy asking the Scarecrow if we should take the Cowardly Lion along for an adventure. Too bad there actually was a wicked witch, and his name was Wilder.

Ringo nodded. “It’s a risk, but none should live in the dark like this.”

My voice was as silent as I could make it. “His brother will die in the Tower.”

Ringo was quiet. Then, “Right. Are ye going t’ ask ‘Is Lordship, or just do what you will?”

That startled me. I actually hadn’t been going to ask him.

“We’re in this together. We should all agree.”

“Good. Then I agree.” Archer’s whispered voice came from behind me. I hadn’t realized he was awake and I reached for him. He clasped my hand and brought it to his lips to kiss. “Since you were going to do it anyway.”

Apparently the living lie-detector part of his Seer abilities wasn’t color-blind in the dark.

I spoke in a normal tone, since everyone was awake now. “Okay, Pancho, do you want to come with us?”

“My name is Francis.”

“Great, Francis Wyatt. Too much information.” If we actually had been spies, the kid would have given himself away six ways to Sunday. He must have realized it too, because he was silent.

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.