Read Online Bitter Demons by Sarra Cannon - Free Book Online Page A

on my knees. “Seriously?”
    She furrowed her eyebrows and looked at me like I was loopy. “Haven’t they told you anything about what it means to be a Prima?”
    “Are you kidding me?” I said. “They didn’t even tell me I was the future Prima until earlier this week. And they’ve known for months.”
    Her eyes grew very wide at that. “Weird,” she said. “I guess you’ve got a special kind of situation going on here in Peachville, what with the whole no reigning Prima for almost twenty years, but I thought they would have told you everything the minute they discovered who you were.”
    She shook her head, as if trying to make sense of it.
    “They should be treating you like royalty,” she said.
    “I wish,” I said. “Instead, they keep saddling me with all these rules.” I shook my head. I didn’t want to talk about my life in Peachville. “Anyway, tell me what you were saying. About seconds never being Prima.”
    “Well, not never,” she said. “Just almost never. Primas don’t die easy, so chances are that once Meredith takes over as Prima, she’ll be in charge for a long time. Long enough to get married and have a daughter of her own. The line would pass down to her daughter automatically.”
    “What if she had a son instead of a daughter?”
    Caroline laughed and shook her head. “Primas only have daughters,” she said. “So Meredith’s daughter would be next in line for the throne, so to speak.”
    “Even if Meredith died before her daughter was eighteen?”
    “Even if she died before her daughter was a year old,” she said. “That’s just the way it works. I would still have more power than an average person, but once Meredith has a daughter, I’m out of the running. It’s the reason why people don’t treat me the same way they do my sister. She’s a lot more important than I am.”
    Having a sister was more complicated than I ever thought it would be. “That’s just some people’s opinions,” I said. “You’re still important.”
    She smiled at me. “You don’t act like a first,” she said. “Maybe growing up away from this whole circus was good for you.”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe. But most of the time, I just feel lost. Like I have no idea what’s going on in this town, and no one will straight up tell me the truth. There are just too many secrets.”
    “The Order does like its secrets,” she said.
    “So what’s your training like?” I asked. “Do you train the same as the rest of the squad? Or do futures learn special skills or spells and stuff?”
    The question had been on my mind for a long time now.
    “Oh, it’s definitely different,” she said. “We train with the rest of the squad during the day. Probably same as you with practice after school. That’s all pretty standard. But we get extra training at night with our mother and her trainers.”
    “Your mother has trainers?”
    “Of course,” she said. “There’s so much amazing magic out there. You wouldn’t believe some of the things I’ve seen my mother do.”
    “Like what?”
    Caroline looked around to make sure no one was listening to us. She leaned closer to me. “Stuff like making a snow storm that covers five counties or levitating high in the air. She’s constantly practicing different forms of magic.”
    “Wow, she can control the weather?” I was amazed. There seemed to be no limit to what was possible with magic.
    “It kind of runs in the family,” she said.
    “Does your mother train you, then?”
    “Sometimes,” she said. “I have my own trainer, too. Laura. Don’t you have a trainer of your own? All the futures are supposed to have one.”
    I shrugged. I was beginning to think nothing worked like it was supposed to in Peachville anymore. They had been without a Prima for so long that they forgot they needed one.
    “Well, what kind of magic can you do?”
    I bit my lip. Should I tell her about the glamour? It was the only real magic I knew how to do