Read Online The Reawakened by Jeri Smith-Ready - Free Book Online

him. Did I guess right?”
    Rhia stared at her daughter’s satisfied face as the vision of Nilik’s death flared in her mind. “You have no idea what you’ve done,” she whispered.
    “Yes, I do.” Jula turned back to her paper. “I made Nilik happy. I let him fulfill his destiny.”
    “That’s just it.” Rhia grabbed Jula’s shoulder and made her look up. “You don’t know what that destiny is.”
    Jula shifted out of Rhia’s grip. “And you do?”
    “Yes!”
    The color drained from Jula’s face.
    “I mean, no.” Rhia gritted her teeth. “I don’t know his destiny. I’m just afraid, that’s all.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me you knew?” Jula slid out of her chair and backed away. “Why would you let me send him away to die?” Her voice pitched higher. “How could you be so cruel?”
    “You know I can’t break Crow’s sacred law.”
    “Even to save your own son?”
    “I tried to save him!” She advanced on Jula. “I tried to keep him here. But you had to spite me, didn’t you? You had to prove how clever you are. You don’t care about Nilik’s destiny, you only care about yourself.”
    Jula’s eyes narrowed slowly. “Somebody has to care about me, because you sure don’t.”
    “That’s not true.” Rhia laid a hand on her daughter’s arm as gently as her anger would allow. “I love you.”
    Jula turned away. “I don’t want the love of a freak like you.”
    Rhia’s stomach dropped. She watched her daughter march toward the stairs to make her usual dramatic exit to her room.
    The front door slammed open, and Marek strode in, blocking Jula’s path. “I heard what you said to her.” He jutted his thumb at the open window. “Apologize. Now.”
    Jula backed up and bowed her head. “I’m sorry, Papa.”
    “To her!” Marek roared. “If you ever speak to your mother like that again, don’t bother speaking to me at all.”
    Jula gasped and raised wet eyes to meet his. Her lower lip trembled, and she slowly turned to Rhia. “I’m sorry, Mother. I ruined everything.”
    Marek’s expression and voice softened. “What are you talking about, ruined everything?”
    Jula looked at Rhia, who shook her head.
    “Tell your father what you did.”
    Jula stared at the floor. “I gave Nilik the password so he could join Uncle Lycas.”
    Marek’s face grayed as he looked at Rhia. “How did she know the password? I don’t even know the password.”
    “She guessed.”
    “But—he can’t go to Velekos, right? Because of—”
    “Don’t say it.”
    “Rhia, you’re the one who hates keeping secrets.” He looked at Jula, then back at her. “Nilik will die there, won’t he?”
    Rhia closed her eyes. The word “Yes” wouldn’t come. Every bit of Crow in her kept it in. But her silence seemed to satisfy Marek.
    He strode to the closet and pulled out their traveling packs. “Let’s go get our son.”

06
    Sangian Hills
    N ilik ran through the night.
    His legs raced with unprecedented strength and speed, devouring the dusty miles. His arms pumped to drive him along, and he wished he could run on all four limbs like his Spirit’s real-life counterpart.
    He let his lungs expand, savoring the new Wolverine power. He’d never felt weak or fragile, but compared to now, the man of just ten days ago was little more than a mouse. So what if Raven had passed him by? He wouldn’t trade this feeling for anything.
    Especially now. When his legs began to ache from the hours of running, he only had to think of Lania’s face lit with laughter, or her long red curls blazing in the sunset. And then think of how her killers’ necks would feel, shattered between his hands.
    They’d called her a Wasp, said she’d turned on them in a fury. But Nilik knew from the beauty she molded out of scraps of cloth and clay that Lania was—would have been—a Spider woman, an artist. She’d felt the unmistakable calling since they were children.
    Trees blocked the bright moonlight as he entered a