Read Online Ascendant by Diana Peterfreund - Free Book Online

scarf. “You were up half the night in a tree stand. I know how this works.”
    “How’s Cory?”
    “Physically?” Phil shrugged. “She’ll be fine. No organs were affected, and the doctors stitched her up. Luckily zhi teeth aren’t quite as long as their horns.”
    “How did it know? How did it know it could do more damage with its mouth?”
    Phil shook her head. “I don’t know. And maybe it didn’t. It could have been an accident that it bit instead of gored. Maybe the angle at which it attacked made using its horn impossible, or maybe Cory was able to fend it off. I don’t know. She’s got some pretty nasty bruises all over her chest and legs from its hooves, too, not to mention a sprained ankle. She’s going to have to take it easy for a few weeks, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.”
    I took a deep breath. There
was
something new about this attack, though, and it wasn’t anything a doctor could stitch up. Cory’s hunter abilities had somehow been compromised and were deteriorating fast. A few weeks ago, she hadn’t sensed the kirin approaching our group in the forest, and today, she’d had a clean shot at the male zhi and missed. Afterward, she’d admitted what I’d already suspected: Cory was hunting blind.
    “Can I see her?”
    “Better wait until Neil’s done talking to her.” Phil cast a concerned glance at the door to the ward. “She’s not taking this too well.”
    “Since when has she ever taken things well?” I blurted, then followed up immediately with, “I’m sorry.”
    “Don’t apologize to me,” said Phil. “We both know what she’s like, but we also know why. This means more to her than it does to any other hunter in the Cloisters.”
    Phil was about to say more when the conversation inside the ward suddenly got very loud. The door flew open, revealing Neil in the threshold, still looking back at the bandaged figure on the bed. “I
shall
tell you what to do, Cornelia Bartoli. Like it or not, I am your guardian, and I’ll be hanged before I let you die like your mother.”
    He came out and slammed the door shut behind him, breathing heavily. He ran his fingers through his dark, wavy hair then noticed us. “All right, Astrid?”
    “Hi,” I said. I looked from Neil to Phil. “Should I … ?”
    “I can’t deal with her defiance,” Neil said to Phil. “She refuses to see me as an adult.” He sighed. “In her eyes, I’m not her uncle and guardian telling her these things; I’m her bossy older brother.”
    “You’re her only family,” Phil replied, coming close. “She’ll come around. She always does.”
    Neil didn’t look convinced. “I need a coffee.” He spun and headed off down the corridor to the break room, and Phil followed, leaving me alone. I watched them move down the hall, saw Phil place her hand on the small of his back in comfort.
    I entered the ward. Cory was making a valiant attempt to get out of the hospital bed, flailing around with crutches and wincing every time she had to bend.
    “Careful,” I said. “You’re not going to heal so quick this time.” Her shirt was folded up, and thick bandages wrapped all the way around her waist. There were other bandages on her arms and legs, and several bruises sprouted on the fair skin of her face. Her mop of brown curls lay flat and listless against her head.
    She glared at me, her eyes overflowing with tears. “Did you hear what he said to me?”
    “I think the entire village heard.”
    “How dare he!” she said. “How dare he—” She cut off then turned away, burying her chin into her chest. “I’ve been hunting unicorns for months. I’ve killed kirin, I’ve killed re’em—it would be rather foolish if I were killed by a zhi.
Just like my mother.”
    I nodded, and kept my voice soft. “It was wrong of Neil to say that. He didn’t mean it. He was just so frightened to see you like this. We’re all scared about what this might mean—”
    “Oh, I know what it means!”