Read Online Mind Games by Christine Amsden - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Christine Amsden
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debt, though the magic no longer bound me to him because he disagreed. “Wait. Why? Do you owe someone a debt? My brother?”
“I don’t owe your brother a debt.”
“Someone else?” I asked.
“I saw some of those pamphlets at school today,” Madison said in a pitifully see-through attempt to change the subject. “I wondered if they were what made Elena cry.”
“At an elementary school?” I didn’t want to believe it. “Do they even know what it means?”
“They know the gist of it. Isn’t that enough?”
“I suppose. So, who do you owe?”
Madison blanched, but before she had a chance to answer or flee, someone rang the doorbell.
“I’ll get it,” she said.
“Don’t think this means you’re off the hook. And don’t forget to ask who it is before you open the door.” Opening the door could weaken the threshold, so it was always best to know who waited on the other side.
“Who is it?” Madison asked.
“It’s me,” came an achingly familiar voice. “Evan.”
Madison looked helplessly at me while I shook my head, feeling strangely dizzy. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not when I had just made my first step forward with my life. I couldn’t see him now. I wouldn’t.
“Go away!” I called when Madison didn’t look willing to challenge him. I strode toward the door while she retreated to the kitchen.
“Cassie, please, we need to talk. It’s important.”
The last thing he had said to me was a nonverbal door in my face, and I had every intention of reciprocating. If that’s as much as he cared about me, then that’s as much as I cared about him. Which was not at all. He could disappear from the face of the earth for all I cared. An expanding pressure in my chest tried to disagree, but I held firm.
“We have nothing to say to one another.” I retreated to the kitchen so it would be more difficult to hear him, and easier to steel my resolve. Madison stared at me with wide, frightened eyes, and kept shooting meaningful looks at the front door.
“He has no power over me,” I said, wishing it were true.
“Will those plants you put on the porch keep him out?”
A picture of Evan on the front porch of Belinda Hewitt’s home, turning her plants to dust, flashed through my mind. No, they wouldn’t hold him, but they weren’t our only form of protection. Nicolas stopped by weekly to recharge several powerful runes. That brought forth an image of Nicolas trying to heal Kaitlin, inadvertently hurting her, and Evan stepping in to tell the younger sorcerer to get an apprenticeship. Actually, Nicolas had finally taken the advice, and now spent his days with Clark Eagle, but he was just beginning.
I peered out the front window, and sure enough, Evan had set up a casting circle. He was, at that very moment, deep in concentration, his lips moving slightly in a chant.
Damn him, he was breaking into my house! I didn’t care who he thought he was, or how much he thought he could get away with, he had no right! The nerve of that arrogant, self-centered…
I flung open the front door and, ignoring every lesson I had ever learned about the consequences of disturbing a sorcerer in the middle of casting, I slapped him. Hard. Across the face. It left a satisfying sting in my palm as a red mark appeared on his cheek.
The satisfaction didn’t last long. The next thing I knew, the house jumped. Everything in it, and by everything I am including myself, leaped into the air and froze there for a minute or two, suspended. I might have been watching a freeze-frame from a cheesy fantasy show if it weren’t for the undeniable fact that I, too, hung in midair. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t scream. Only my brain remained active, and it chugged along at a million miles a second, largely wondering if I would survive my ill-considered fit of temper. I didn’t think I would hang in the air forever, it was the coming down part I dreaded. And what might come down on top of
“I don’t owe your brother a debt.”
“Someone else?” I asked.
“I saw some of those pamphlets at school today,” Madison said in a pitifully see-through attempt to change the subject. “I wondered if they were what made Elena cry.”
“At an elementary school?” I didn’t want to believe it. “Do they even know what it means?”
“They know the gist of it. Isn’t that enough?”
“I suppose. So, who do you owe?”
Madison blanched, but before she had a chance to answer or flee, someone rang the doorbell.
“I’ll get it,” she said.
“Don’t think this means you’re off the hook. And don’t forget to ask who it is before you open the door.” Opening the door could weaken the threshold, so it was always best to know who waited on the other side.
“Who is it?” Madison asked.
“It’s me,” came an achingly familiar voice. “Evan.”
Madison looked helplessly at me while I shook my head, feeling strangely dizzy. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not when I had just made my first step forward with my life. I couldn’t see him now. I wouldn’t.
“Go away!” I called when Madison didn’t look willing to challenge him. I strode toward the door while she retreated to the kitchen.
“Cassie, please, we need to talk. It’s important.”
The last thing he had said to me was a nonverbal door in my face, and I had every intention of reciprocating. If that’s as much as he cared about me, then that’s as much as I cared about him. Which was not at all. He could disappear from the face of the earth for all I cared. An expanding pressure in my chest tried to disagree, but I held firm.
“We have nothing to say to one another.” I retreated to the kitchen so it would be more difficult to hear him, and easier to steel my resolve. Madison stared at me with wide, frightened eyes, and kept shooting meaningful looks at the front door.
“He has no power over me,” I said, wishing it were true.
“Will those plants you put on the porch keep him out?”
A picture of Evan on the front porch of Belinda Hewitt’s home, turning her plants to dust, flashed through my mind. No, they wouldn’t hold him, but they weren’t our only form of protection. Nicolas stopped by weekly to recharge several powerful runes. That brought forth an image of Nicolas trying to heal Kaitlin, inadvertently hurting her, and Evan stepping in to tell the younger sorcerer to get an apprenticeship. Actually, Nicolas had finally taken the advice, and now spent his days with Clark Eagle, but he was just beginning.
I peered out the front window, and sure enough, Evan had set up a casting circle. He was, at that very moment, deep in concentration, his lips moving slightly in a chant.
Damn him, he was breaking into my house! I didn’t care who he thought he was, or how much he thought he could get away with, he had no right! The nerve of that arrogant, self-centered…
I flung open the front door and, ignoring every lesson I had ever learned about the consequences of disturbing a sorcerer in the middle of casting, I slapped him. Hard. Across the face. It left a satisfying sting in my palm as a red mark appeared on his cheek.
The satisfaction didn’t last long. The next thing I knew, the house jumped. Everything in it, and by everything I am including myself, leaped into the air and froze there for a minute or two, suspended. I might have been watching a freeze-frame from a cheesy fantasy show if it weren’t for the undeniable fact that I, too, hung in midair. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t scream. Only my brain remained active, and it chugged along at a million miles a second, largely wondering if I would survive my ill-considered fit of temper. I didn’t think I would hang in the air forever, it was the coming down part I dreaded. And what might come down on top of
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