Read Online The Future Falls by Tanya Huff - Free Book Online Page A

tail.”
    â€œAnd wings,” Jack pointed out. “Everyone loves the wings.” He might—or might not—have a list, but he had no shortage of cousins pleading for rides. Although that had an age limit now, too; adults only. It wasn’t as if Jennifer and Wendy had hit the ground. And he’d managed to gather up all the butterflies and change them back. He had a feeling at least some of the requests were for rides of a different sort, but while his cousins were blunt with each other, they weren’t entirely sure of him. “Charlie’s Wild,” he said, not entirely certain why.
    â€œAnd you’re seventeen. Which is why you’re stating the obvious. Charlie’s thirty. Wild doesn’t change that.”
    â€œI’m Wild.”
    â€œI repeat, Wild doesn’t change that. It’s not going to happen.” Antlers arced up from David’s brow.
    â€œJust to be clear, when you say it’s not going to happen, you mean me and Charlie? Happening? Like Allie and Graham happening?”
    â€œAllie and Graham are second circle. You and Charlie are . . .”
    Suddenly finding himself trapped by the weight of David’s regard, Jack stared back as calmly as he could. Within the park, in spite of what their other forms suggested, David was the apex predator. Or at the very least, the greater power—which to the dragon part of him meant the same thing.
    After a long moment, David allowed him to look away. “Yes, like Allie and Graham.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œOh? You hadn’t . . .”
    â€œI thought it was a Wild thing.” It seemed obvious—he didn’t feel that way about anyone else in the family and no one else in the family was Wild. Except Auntie Catherine. Jack hadn’t spent much time with her, but it had been enough that he felt confident in saying she didn’t make him feel like Charlie did. Charlie made him feel like he belonged.
    â€œIt’s that, too. But, mostly, it’s that ritual is calling and you can’t . . .” David actually hesitated. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, his breath pluming like smoke in the cold. “Ritual is calling,” he repeated, “and there’s no one powerful enough to be safe with you.”
    â€œThe way Allie is safe with Graham?”
    â€œYes.”
    That sounded more like a
sure, why not
to Jack. “Except for Charlie.” It always came back to Charlie.
    â€œYes, except for . . . Jack.”
    Steam rose where the damp air touched his skin and, when Jack looked down, he realized he stood in an irregular circle of charred grass about two meters across. The edge of the char stopped at the edge of David’s feet. “Sorry.”
    â€œRitual’s unanswered call makes you restless. That’s all this is.”
    â€œThis?”
    â€œThis,” David repeated solemnly. “What you feel for Charlie.”
    â€œOh.” Was that what they were talking about, what he felt for Charlie? While ritual, or at least what happened during ritual, definitely had something to do with it, Jack admitted, it certainly didn’t explain everything. But it was what David wanted him to think, and it was no skin off his tail if pretending he agreed made David happy. Appeasing the powerful was a basic survival skill. “Okay.”
    They stood together in silence for a moment, more aware of the city around them and the land under them than the rest of the family. Except for maybe Allie, Jack amended silently.
    â€œDon’t you ever want to leave?” he asked at last.
    â€œIt’s not what I am.”
    â€œWho.”
    David snorted, sounding as much stag as man. “That, too.”

    â€œCha Cha!”
    â€œEdward!” Charlie scooped the toddler up out of the crib, balanced him on one hip, then reached for his brother. She never had trouble telling the twins apart when they were