Read Online Craft by Lynnie Purcell - Free Book Online Page B

he
asked.
    “The way you and your kin appeared
last night. It was like you weren’t there, and then you were,”
Ellie said.
    “My cousin made light magic as we were
sneaking up on you because he’s scared of the dark, and it gave us
away. We had cloaked ourselves in darkness is all. We parked our
cars away from your house and walked fifteen minutes to keep you
from noticing our approach.”
    “Oh,” Ellie said.
    Ellie finally lowered her hand. She
did not trust him, but his explanation was logical. It put to rest
some of her fear. Their craft was not so foreign after
all.
    “So, how can you make such strong
magic? Aren’t you just a little girl?” he asked returning to his
original question.
    “You’re only a year older or so older
than me, I reckon,” Ellie said.
    “Yeah, but at least I’ve seen town,”
he said.
    Ellie blushed at his words and lifted
her chin haughtily, thinking he was calling her simple.
    “I don’t know what you Coopers call
strong crafting, but with my kin, what I do is nothing special,”
she lied.
    The truth was that she had always had
an affinity for craft. Her momma had always said she was naturally
gifted in that way. Craft was something Ellie had been born knowing
how to do well. Things other Bumbalows saw as a challenge, she
understood instinctively. Learning craft had not been the ordeal it
had been for Careen and Neveah.
    “If that were true, we’d have a lot of
dead Coopers on our hands,” he said.
    “My kin chooses not to kill for no
reason,” she said, her chin still haughtily lifted in the air. “We
only kill if a fight is instigated and there’s no other
choice.”
    The boy’s expression switched to
anger. Ellie took a step back from the radiating power of his
emotion.
    “Tell that to my cousin Sally!” he
said. “She was the one they snuck up on and killed with their
attack in town yesterday.”
    His expression of anger changed with
the words. Ellie could tell he had loved his cousin. He was sad at
her death. He was angry Sally had never gotten the chance to fight
for her life. There was no way he was lying about the attack. The
Bumbalows were not innocent.
    Ellie was horrified at the idea. Her
first instinct told her he was telling the truth. His expression
and anger were sincere enough, but her head was telling her that
Coopers were skilled at lying. She did not want to believe such a
horrible thing about people related to her.
    “They killed somebody yesterday?”
Ellie asked.
    “As if you didn’t know!” he
scoffed.
    Ellie had thought the party had been
for setting a place on fire, ruining Cooper business, or something
that had not resulted in actual casualties. She wanted to believe
the Bumbalows were above such brutal retaliation. Her family had
shared in their own deaths and had been forced to pick up the
pieces of the Coopers’ brutality. Surely they would not return such
pain on the Coopers, no matter how much they hated them.
    Ellie realized her hope had been a
lie. Her gut told her Neveah and the others had gone searching for
a life to end. They had wanted to make sure the Coopers understood
the repercussions of attacking Cousin. Ellie knew in her heart they
killed as often as the Coopers killed. She had always known it,
even if she had trouble admitting it. Now, she could no longer
ignore the truth. Her family killed.
    Ellie could understand the Coopers’
actions better now. It was no wonder they had come to her house.
One of their own had been murdered by her family. Ellie knew her
kin would have had the same reaction if one of her family had been
killed. Neveah would not have rested until she had the heart of a
Cooper as payment for the bloodshed. While Ellie’s family saw
justification in what they had done to Sally, Ellie only saw
murder.
    Ellie sat down again. She felt her
heart sink at the idea of her family killing someone in cold blood.
She could not meet the boy’s eyes. The cost of the knowledge was
heavy.
    “I swear I didn’t