Read Online Aveline by Lizzy Ford - Free Book Online Page A

she lost, the less
magic was inside her. Or so the clairvoyant who had guided
Matilda’s life claimed. Tiana squeezed until no more blood bubbled
then washed her forearm before binding the wound with trembling
fingers.
    Miserable, Tiana returned to her bed and
curled up in a ball.
    The outside world could never be as cruel as
this one. At least, away from the city, she would be free to run
from someone like Matilda instead of cowering, and no one would
accuse her of sorcery when she lost control over her power to lift
inanimate objects. Outside the city, she would not be confined for
all but four days a year, and she could visit her brother whenever
she wished.
    Most of all, she would not feel the way she
did now: ashamed of existing and burdening everyone around her.
    But it was not the pain of her wounds or
self-pity sending hot tears down Tiana’s cheeks. It was the
unspoken words in Matilda’s mind that Tiana had read as Matilda cut
her.
    I hate this cripple.
    Tiana wished she did not possess the ability
to read minds at all, however erratic and inconsistent the skill
was. She did not want to know how much Matilda despised her. She
wanted to be able to believe that maybe, what Matilda did was to
try to help her was out of some shred of human decency, however
small that piece of Matilda was. Why should it matter that Matilda
truly hated her and acted, not out of sympathy, but out of
self-preservation?
    Because I want her to love me.
    The foolish, heartfelt desire embarrassed
Tiana as much as her disfigured body.
    Tiana cried harder than usual. Born into
privilege, enslaved by her deformity, she wished her father had let
her die beside her mother, seventeen years ago.

Chapter Four
     
    A large celebration was in full swing in the
massive pyramid at the south side of the city, attended by swarms
of men and women wearing jewels and silks. Aveline stepped out of
the tunnel leading into the most privileged place in Lost Vegas.
She had seen the pyramid from afar without fully comprehending how
large it truly was. Her mouth fell open, and she stared upwards,
towards the top of the structure, which came to a point some two
hundred feet above.
    Hundreds of lights lined the walls of each
floor. Not torches – but lights that ran off of electricity. She
had heard rumors of the outer city possessing the once rampant
magic of electricity. The lighting was as bright as fire but
colder, cleaner.
    Behind railings on each level, where clumps
of wealthy people gathered to look down upon the events of the
evening, she was able to glimpse doors leading to living
spaces.
    “Each floor houses one to three families,”
her guide told her and pointed towards the individual levels
stair-stepping up the interior of the pyramid. The closer to the
top, the smaller the levels became. “There are thirty floors and
two hundred families living here, with the Hanover’s, who have been
in charge for four hundred and fifty years, at the very top.”
    Three slaves jostled past
her, laden with plates of seasoned meat whose rich scent made her
mouth water. They hurried up the stairs leading to the second floor
and the village at the center of the pyramid. Music filled the main
floor, which still bore the word CASINO in large letters. The crowds
were too thick for her to see what lay beyond the walkways leading
into the first floor space.
    Dazzled by the display of wealth, Aveline
did not know what part of the new world before her was the most
stunning: electricity, glittering gems, brocaded silks and fitted
suits, cloaks lined with valuable furs, towering statues edging the
stairs, or the full scale buildings in the village at the center of
the pyramid. Wealth unlike anything those in the inner city would
ever know was worn as casually as she donned shoes. One silk scarf
or turquoise button would provide her food and shelter for a month.
The four women in veils before her wore enough jewelry to feed the
inner city for a year, if not two.
    Her guide,