Read Online The Darkest Magic (A Book of Spirits and Thieves) by Morgan Rhodes - Free Book Online Page A

marks just make me better. Stronger, smarter. They’re a gift from a god—literally.”
    Adam just stood there, his expression unchanging.
    “You’re not leaving, are you?” Farrell said.
    “Nope.”
    “Tell me.” Farrell leaned casually against the wall and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Have you spoken to your best friends, the Hatchers, recently?”
    Adam winced slightly and then recomposed himself. “If I had, I wouldn’t exactly tell you, would I?”
    “Aw, how cute.” He lowered his voice. “You know what Markus is capable of. What his
magic
is capable of. He can find anyone and anything he wants, in this city or anywhere else. There is no hiding from him. Remember that.”
    Adam shrugged. “If that’s true, why hasn’t he gone after them?”
    “How do you know he hasn’t?”
    Adam screwed up his face in the most sarcastic look possible. “I think the whole world would know it if he tracked them down and got the Codex back.”
    Farrell pressed his lips together in aggravated frustration. “He’s going to get that Codex. He’ll pry it from their hot little hands.”
    “But he already had it, didn’t he? And then he just handed itover to Daniel Hatcher? I don’t know. If I had something that important, I wouldn’t let go of it.”
    “He trusted Daniel.”
    “But that was a mistake, wasn’t it?” Adam blinked, his expression turning from solemn to bold. “Did Markus kill him for helping his daughters escape?”
    “I seem to remember you helping him out with that, but you’re still breathing, aren’t you?”
    “Yeah, but I have you to thank for that. Daniel wasn’t so lucky.”
    Farrell scoffed. “Keep believing that if you want to.” He wasn’t going to admit what he and Adam both knew to be true: that Crys and Becca’s father was dead for betraying Markus.
    And he certainly wasn’t going to admit the part that Adam didn’t know: that it was Farrell who’d killed Daniel Hatcher.
    Connor’s voice chimed in his mind again. “
You should feel no regret
,” it said. Farrell closed his eyes.
“He chose his fate. He knew the punishment for betraying Markus. You chose to do as Markus said because you’re loyal, and you’ve earned your place in the society. Keep it up, and soon you will reap even more benefits.”
    Connor’s voice calmed him, filled him with a coolness that steadied his mind against his brother’s meddling.
    “I need a cigarette,” Farrell said, forcing himself to sound casual. He reached into his jeans pocket to fish out a pack. “Look, Adam. Stay, go. Do whatever you want, I don’t care. But if you follow me outside, I swear to everything you hold dear: I
will
blow smoke in your face.”
    Adam scowled, not taking Farrell’s version of an olive branch. “You haven’t heard a thing I’ve said tonight, have you?”
    This conversation was over. “Goodnight, little brother.”
    Farrell turned and went out the nearest exit to join a handfulof club patrons smoking in a haphazard huddle. He lit his cigarette, then leaned against the cement wall.
    He tried to relax, but the thousand questions zipping through his mind had other plans.
    What
was
Markus waiting for? Why didn’t he just narrow in on the Hatchers, storm in, and take what was his?
    And why the hell would he have handed the Codex over to Daniel as if it were nothing more than a used comic book just because he got a phone call from Jackie Hatcher?
    Why did Farrell’s left forearm still burn like he’d survived a five-alarm fire, even though a whole week had passed since Markus had made the third mark?
    The moment Farrell plunged a knife into Daniel Hatcher’s chest . . . why didn’t he feel any guilt? Why was he not even a little bit sorry, especially since he’d never killed anyone before?
    And why were the girls who came to this club so damned superficial? It was a
birthmark
, not an oozing sore.
    “Don’t!”
    Farrell turned his head toward the voice, thankful to be distracted